Coffee in a can? Your kidding me right?! (Nescafe Hot When You Want)

Member Name: GR-Design

Product:	Nescafe Hot When You Want
Date:	22/07/02 (759 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice Coffee, Very Convinient

Disadvantages: Price

Coffee in a self heating can? What will they come up with next?! Something just as good I hope, if not better. I had heard quite a lot about this coffee in a can business by Nescafe and the other day while looking for a jar of coffee, I came across it, so I had to buy it didn't I! Even if it did cost me £1.16! I bought it just for the sake of the self heating can, to try it out, to see if it actually did work! I couldn' believe that all I had to do was push a button and the can would warm up without plugging it in or anything!

So, I got me one. I went to my car and followed the instructions, which is basically, press the button in the middle of the bottom of the can and shake until all the liquid has disappeared from sight and wait 3 minutes. This is what I did and stuck it on the dashboard waiting for it to do its stuff. I was slightly disappointed to start with, it wasn' moving, it wasn't doing anything, but then suddenly I saw a puff of steam and some hissing noises started, and then died very quickly. About 2 minutes into the process I got bored and picked up the can. It was warm! My god, it does actually work, whoever created this was not only a genius, but my best friend!

You see, I do like my coffee, but if I'm out on my own I tend not to sit down on my own drinking a coffee, no matter where I am, I'll do it with someone else, but doing it on my own I feel like every couple and group there is staring at me and sniggering. Maybe they are, or maybe that's just me being silly! Also, I resent having to pay above £1.50 for a coffee on the motorway services for the crap that you get in a small tea cup that they call their large mug. I'd much rather park up and sit in my own space with a nice hot coffee, but don't like coffee out of flasks. So, for me, this was perfect. But now for the tasting...

Ok, so this is where I thought the product would fall flat on it's feet. Everyone likes their coffee tha
t bit different, we like to be able to put in as much sugar as we like according to our taste buds, we like to be able to put that extra little bit of milk in if we like, with this can, you can't do that, add to that the thought of the powdered milk which this supposedly has lurking in it and I was waiting for a bit of a taste bud shock. Surely this couldn't be a nice coffee?

Well, I surprised myself, the coffee was hot, had a good taste to it and didn't taste like it had powdered milk in it. It wasn?t a strong coffee, but it wasn't so weak that you couldn't taste it. In fact, it was just to my liking. It was creamy too, which I wasn't expecting at all and not too hot that you had to wait 5 minutes to drink it. Nescafe really have got quite a good product here, that I'm sure they could do really well on, if it wasn?t for the price you have to pay for it.

So, onto the criticisms! The can looks about the same size as a regular coke can, if not a little bigger, however, you could be fooled into thinking that all of the contents inside is coffee. It's not, just 210ml of coffee sits inside ready to be consumed. That's about 2 thirds of a can of coke. Enough for a cup of coffee for some, but a bit on the small side for myself who likes a good mug. Don't be fooled into thinking that it's all coffee. Once you have drunk the coffee, the can still feels very heavy and if you look inside, there is a bit white thing, which is supposedly the heating mechanism.

The price is also pretty steep for the amount of coffee that your actually getting. This is one product that you can most definitely say without a doubt that you are paying for the packaging, because you are. Your paying for the self heating can, not really the coffee that sits inside. It would cost about 10p for the same amount of coffee if you bought yourself a jar of Nescafe!

So, would I buy it again? Yes I would, but not to just drink, I
would only buy it for certain occasions. Say I was going on a long trip up the motorway, I would get myself a few then, because I know I would pay over the odds for a nasty cup of coffee in the services. Maybe you like picnics, you can take one of these then while your kids drink their coke. It's an excellent little invention for certain occasions, but proves far to costly to drink willy nilly. On a sidenote, the package is recyclable, apparently, but there is quite a lot of rubbish left over afterwards as it's not just a tin can that your throwing away...

The coffee, as far as I'm aware comes in 4 different varieties. Black, black with sugar, with milk and with milk & sugar. However, I have heard a few people saying that the one with sugar is too sweet. This is going to be a common problem. Some people just like a dash of sugar to take the bitterness of the coffee away, others like 2 teaspoons full! Nescafe can't just get it right. The coffee that I had was the one with milk and sugar, and it was quite sweet, I should think about a teaspoon of sugar in a mug kind of sweetness. For those who don?t like to much sugar, I would recommend getting some sachets of sugar and adding it yourself. Keep that little McDonalds stirrer behind and this would stir the sugar into the coffee excellently! I'm full of ideas me!

For around £1.10-1.30 it's not to bad, as long as you only drink it when you need to and not just for the sake of it. A good tasting coffee, if you like Nescafe, in a self heating can. Genius, and a product I will no doubt be trying again!

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