Would Sir like salt in his coffee? (Nescafe Cappuccino)

Member Name: cmh4135

Product:	Nescafe Cappuccino
Date:	25/10/07 (175 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's just powder and water to create something that looks right

Disadvantages: Tastes artificial

The arrival of a new baby brings many new experiences and products to try. There’re nappies, bottles, toys and clothes. However, baby products aside, the fact that I’d given up work and was socialising with other new mums meant that I got to try many other things that I would never have tried before. One such thing was Nestle Cappuccino.

Had it not been for these new found friends I would never have dreamt of buying an instant cappuccino mix. I worked for over a decade in the City of London where real Italian (and not-so-Italian) coffee shops abound and the thought of desecrating the institution that is a cappuccino was quite abhorrent to me. I had thoughts of vending machine powdery-ness and artificial tastes. However, it would have been rude to not try, especially as these cappuccinos were viewed as a “treat” by many of the group.

Each cappuccino sounds as easy to make as boiling a kettle. Empty the contents of a sachet into a mug, add 200ml of hot (but not boiling water), stir (according to the box in a side to side rather than a round and round motion), dust with the chocco topping and enjoy.

It’s not quite that easy though. Assuming that you’re not going to be anal enough to actually measure out 200ml of water for each mug then you first have to guestimate how much 200ml of liquid is. Second there’s that powder issue.

If you’ve ever tried to make gravy with a stock cube, flour and using hot water you’ll know what I mean. The minute you add the hot water the powder forms into seemingly impenetrable lumps which, no matter how much you stir and in whatever direction, just don’t seem to want to go away. My solution for this is fairly simple. I mix the powder into a paste with just a little hot water and then top up, stirring continuously.

OK. So you now know how to (and not to) make one of these up, but is it worth the bother – what do they actually taste like?

From the off these are not for coffee connoisseurs. In their original form they’re also not for those who don’t like their coffee sweetened. The underlying coffee flavour is not far from a standard Nescafe coffee. It’s not as smooth as their Gold Blend and certainly not as rich as their more expensive offerings such as Alta Rica or Cap Columbie. However, the true coffee flavour is obscured (but not hidden) by whatever goes into the coffee to make the froth. Now I’ve never been one for whiteners and will always drink my coffee black if the only milk available is a substitute. I’m afraid that these are no different.

The use of whitener makes the drink taste dry on the finish and gives an almost grainy texture to what should be a smooth, indulgent drink.

To its credit a reasonably good crema head is produced with little effort and the mousse does not subside quickly.

The chocco topping is little more than a dusting of cocoa powder. It does have vanilla in it but to be honest, the quantities used are not great and so there’s more of a decorative appeal to the topping than actually adding to the flavour.

The rogue ingredient in your coffee is salt… I ask you?! I can only assume that it forms part of the whitener but whether it’s really necessary who knows. In fact, if you are into nutritional information the side of the box makes for grim reading with the product being high in saturated fat (1 mug provides 16% of the RDA) and sugar (10% RDA).

I have tried similar products. Kenco do a version called Cappio which has a more bitter taste to the coffee and felt far less rounded than the Nestle version. Waitrose own is a first for me with Waitrose – it’s absolutely foul! It doesn’t, however, have salt in it!

The Nescafe Cappuccino is also available in unsweetened, decaf and skinny forms. I’ll not be bothering!

Personally these are not for me although my friends seem to live for Fridays when we meet up and they have one of these. If it were up to me I’d invest in a group milk frother and make something closer to the real thing.

Not recommended.

Summary: A cheats cappuccino just isn't the real thing.