Decaf, skinny cap to go? (Nescafe Cappuccino)

Member Name: hypno06

Product:	Nescafe Cappuccino
Date:	03/01/09 (117 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: a whole lot cheaper than coffee shop alternatives

Disadvantages: its still not quite Starbucks......

I like coffee, and I drink rather too much of the stuff. Working in a city centre, I find that "café culture" is all around me, and not only are there chains of coffee shops, such as Starbucks and Costa Coffee on every street, and in every department store, but independent coffee carts appear on every corner, releasing the smell of fresh ground coffee as you walk from the bus to the office........oh so tempting.

It is very easy to get into the habit of buying a cappuccino or a latte on your way into work, or at lunchtime, but with each drink costing a minimum of £2, that is £10 a week, if you have just a "one a day" habit, equating to over £500 a year! That is a significant amount of money to be spending just on a skinny latte, or a grande cappuccino - and of course, once you work out what you actually have to earn before tax and National Insurance, etc, it means you are probably working for a whole week or two, just to finance your coffee drinking........

Thankfully the instant coffee manufacturers have addressed this issue, and have their own ranges now of "posh coffee" in sachet form, where you just add water. I have tried a number of these, but the Nescafe Cappuccino sachets are, in my opinion, probably the best around at the moment.

These are sold in boxes containing 10 sachets. You have a choice of ready sweetened (although I still find I have to add sugar or sweetener to them), unsweetened, and decaf. Nescafe also do other "posh coffee" sachets such as latte and mocha, but this review is, in the main, about the cappuccino ones.

The box describes them as "Deliciously creamy tasting froth, with hidden depths of rich, Arabica coffee" - sounds good so far, and definitely worth investigating further.

Making the coffee is quick and easy - simply pour the contents of one sachet into your favourite mug, add 200ml (basically fill the mug up) of hot water - not boiling, but just let it settle for a mo after boiling and this works well for me - and stir. Not just any old stir - Nescafe have a method to make this drink frothy and creamy.......you have to stir back and forth and from side to side.......trust me, it works, and this way of stirring means that you don't end up with lumpy goo at the bottom of your mug (which is a very disappointing end to your drink if it ever happens).

There is a little plastic container of chocolate topping "sprinkles" in each box - plenty of chocolate to sprinkle on top of your new frothy drink to give it the authentic cappuccino finish.

Now, there is no pretending that this is Starbucks finest.......but it is perfectly acceptable as something a little different from your usual instant coffee drink. The froth is, indeed, creamy - a good colour, quite light, and not unattractive (The Tesco own brand version, on the other hand has quite a dark, heavy froth, which looks unattractive before you even get as far as drinking it!). There is a good amount of froth too, so you get to enjoy the feel and the taste of it, before the "real" drink reaches your lips.

The coffee itself, well, it is really just like thick Nescafe coffee - the taste is as you would expect from a company that has been in the business of making coffee drinks for such a long time. Perfectly good enough, without it costing a fortune.

Calorie wise, well - I wouldn't normally be too bothered with the calories in a drink but it does have 74 cals per mug, with 3.8 grammes of saturated fat per mug - now the saturated fat is quite high, and each mug equates to about 2 or 2.5 weightwatchers points, for example, so if you are watching your weight, then to have more than one of these in a day would be prohibitive to your weight loss.....when I first found these, I was happily enjoying 3 mugs of it a day, and then wondering why I couldn't lose weight despite trying to be good with my diet.

Price wise - well these retail full price at about £2.30 a packet - making each mug of coffee 23p - about 10% of the cost of a coffee shop cappuccino. However, you often find that the big supermarket chains have them on offer for "2 boxes for £3" making each mug just 15p - certainly a whole lot more acceptable on the old wallet.

Summary: go and put the kettle on