Life is sweet with Unsweetened (Nescafe Cappucino Unsweetened Taste)

Member Name: lillamarta

Product:	Nescafe Cappucino Unsweetened Taste
Date:	28/03/08 (141 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No added sugar, delicious, frothy, low - caffeine

Disadvantages: Pricier than other brands, contains hydrogenated fat

~ Introduction ~

I am very keen on avoiding refined sugar in my life and try to choose foods that have no added sugar in them. I love cappucino for its added froth and mild taste. An instant variety is all the better as you can enjoy it whenever you want, at home or at work, without having to go to the coffee shop to buy.

~ Why Nescafe? ~

Undoubtedly the most well known brand for instant coffee however I've given the benefit of the doubt and tried Kenco when someone mistakenly bought that at work. It was awful and we could hardly wait to get back to our Nescafe blend. Kenco also has an unsweetened variety of though having had the aforementioned 'incident' I didn't exactly have the urge to try it.

~ The packaging ~

The carton is the easily recognisable trademark brown / red that looks very similar to the sweetened varieties apart from a green label that says: Unsweetened Taste. Having the contrasting label is a great way to tell the product apart and not choosing a sweetened variety by accident which will be identical to this one bar the green label. The product comes in a pack of 5 or 10 sachets.

~ The nutrition ~

The nutritional values are clearly visible on the front of the pack and the consumed calories are translated into in your daily intake in percentage value. To sum up, I find that one mug of this frothy cappucino is low in everything except for saturated fat. In fact all the fat in your cuppa will be saturated fat and will take up 19% of your daily intake of saturated fat. This figure seemed high considering all of that couldn't have come from the milk powder alone, what I discovered is that the rest comes from hydrogenated vegetable oil with the equivalent of half of the saturated fat of the milk powder consumed!

Hydrogenation is a widely used industrial process where unsaturated vegetable fat is turned into saturated fat. Unsaturated fats are of the healhty kind found in plants and are normally liquid at room temperature, while their unhealthy equivalent, saturated fats come from animal sources and are solid at room temperature. So for the sake of solidity, healthy fat is turned into an unhealthy one. For God's sake when does the industry realise there are alternatives and this practice should be stopped?

~ The drink ~

Texture

After emptying a sachet into my mug, I add about 2 inches of water and stir vigorously to emulsify the powder so cloggy bits are left before filling up the mug. Some will eventually, because the mousse is thick and frothy and you can't see they are still there so I advise you to stir continuously until you fill the rest of the mug. I often add a touch of milk on the top and this gives the drink an even sweeter and creamier taste.

The undeflatable froth

The first thing that would spring to mind if I was to describe Nescafe Cappucinos is that the froth just lasts and lasts and lasts. So much so, that when I add some more water when it's starting to become cold (yes I can do this because the texture is thick enough not to become too diluted) it frothes up again just like the first time. Now that's what I call frothy cappucino.

The truth about Unsweetened

Unsweetened doesn't mean there's no sugar in the product. There is 'dried glucose syrup' added so there's a sweet-ish taste. Glucose is one of the two molecules that make up a sugar (sucrose) molecule, the other one is fructose. Because only one type molecule is present instead of two, the sweetness and number of calories are approximately halved. We shouldn't forget that there are also other sugars present, for example lactose that comes from the milk powder. Having a sweet tooth is a result of constantly bombarding your taste buds with sweet foods to the point they become tired of it. If you remove some refined, pure sugar from your diet, you'll appreciate that certain foods (e.g. milk) that have other types of sugars (e.g lactose) also have a sweet taste, though not as sweet as of sucrose.

Taste

I take my cuppa unsweetened and do not add anything afterwards apart from the splash of milk. The small amount of added milk will make it sweet enough me to enjoy the mild, slightly bitter taste of coffee and creamy froth.

~ Serving Tips ~

There's a tube of Chocco Topping 7g inside the packet so you can sprinkle some of that on top of your cuppa. The chocolate topping contains sugar though so you may want to skip this option if dieting.

If you still want to sweeten your 'Unsweetened', try adding honey instead of sugar / sweeteners. Honey brings out the flavour of coffee, unlike sugar, which drowns it.

~ Other varieties ~

Classic: Cappucino / Cafe / Latte
Flavoured: Cappucino Decaff, Cafe Caramel, Irish Cream Latte.
These are all pre-sweetened.

~ Conclusion ~

Nescafe Cappucino Unsweetened Taste delights and disappoint. Having said that, it is still unsweetened though it has the same amount of saturated fat as in the other varieties. A nice, soul-warming, wind-down relaxing, mild, low-caffeine (15%) coffee that won't give you a heartbeat (I can't drink espressos for this reason) and doesn't contain added sugar, it is kind to your heart too!

~ Price / where to buy ~

Supermarkets (Sainsbury's, Tesco) £2.55 / 10 sachets

Thanks for reading.

©powered by lillybee also posted on Ciao

Summary: A tasty and frothy instant cappucino with no added sugar