13 Best Instant Coffee Brands, Ranked

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Instant coffee is perhaps the biggest black sheep in the coffee world. Despite that, this much-bickered-over version of the black gold we know and love is a $15.4 billion industry in the U.S. alone, per Statista. Many of our friends across the globe — including Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Russia, and almost all of Asia, according to The Washington Post — actually tend to reach for the stuff instead of fresh coffee beans.

What is instant coffee and why does it have so many enemies? As explained by Know Your Grinder, instant java powder is, in fact, made with real coffee. It's not imitation. To do it, an extract is made from roasted coffee beans, then it's concentrated and dried with either freeze or spray drying. All the coffee crystals need is hot water or milk to rehydrate into the aromatic beverage we're familiar with.

And yet, there's still the argument that you shouldn't drink instant coffee. While there are strong talking points for that — instant coffee is staler, has a lower caffeine content than regular coffee, and contains a higher concentration of acrylamide (although still not at unsafe levels) — there are several reasons to choose instant coffee. Camping, traveling, or lack of a coffee-making machine, are just a few reasons to reach for instant coffee. We tried some of the most popular brands and ranked them from worst to best — in strictly instant coffee comparisons, not contrasting with fresh coffee, which would be like comparing apples to oranges.

The Nescafé Taster's Choice Hazelnut Instant Coffee is made with artificial hazelnut flavor and what tastes like a full city roast coffee. This coffee is very fragrant and will fill your kitchen with the aroma of hazelnut when it meets hot water. The coffee, by itself, is probably quite good — full city roasts, which are medium-dark roasts, are among subjectively the best roasts of coffee since the acidity is cooked away and the beans are developing a rich, smoky-sweet flavor profile. However, the sweetness of the beans' caramelization clashes with the unnaturally intense hazelnut flavor. Off the bat, the hazelnut is too much and the coffee is drowned.

In the aftertaste, though, the hazelnut mellows out. And the good news is that the affronting hazelnut takes care of most instant coffee flavor unpleasantries, like bitterness and sourness. Although, there is a slight charred/burned taste when you first take a sip that we aren't sure of the possible origins of, especially since instant coffees can't be burned by too-hot water as fresh grounds can be. At around $0.25 per serving (Walmart), this option is definitely affordable, but our recommendation is to opt for the Taster's Choice unflavored and add your favorite hazelnut creamer for a more balanced coffee.

We had no idea what to expect with the in-house Walmart brand of coffee — it's interesting to think of a brand that sells cotton balls and dish soap as also producing coffee, but we have had some decent food products from the in-house brand before. Its granules appear very similar in smell, texture, and consistency to Nescafé Clásico's instant dark roast, but using a teaspoon for 6 ounces — as directed on the packaging — yielded a very weak, semi-transparent coffee. We added another scoop of coffee and were surprised at how the flavor bloomed. The coffee is smooth, slightly sweet, and tastes slightly of caramel, with minimal bitterness and no oiliness.

Make no mistake, no one is trying to argue the Great Value Classic Roast Instant Coffee is passable for fresh coffee or even suitable for daily consumption. But in a pinch, it's great to have a jar stashed in the back of your cupboard for when you run out of fresh beans or — heaven forbid — your coffeemaker goes caput. Plus, the 8-ounce jar is less than $4 at Walmart and is purported to make over 100 cups of coffee (if you don't double the granules used). We'd recommend more portable options for travel, though.

Maxwell House may not be one of the best coffee brands, but it is at least one of the most familiar. The instructions for this brand call for 1 teaspoon per every 6 ounces of water, which yields a rich and embodied cup of coffee. This medium roast is on the brighter side with a touch of acidity and immediate sourness, definitively tasting like a robusta blend that hasn't been artfully roasted. However, the flavor of Maxwell House, while nothing to fall in love with, isn't the trophy-holder for worst instant coffee by any means. It actually brings an unexpected sense of nostalgia, like having breakfast in your old hometown diner.

Maxwell House is an affordable coffee option, at less than $6 for an 8-ounce jar that'll produce at least 50 cups of coffee (via Target). The bulky, large container makes travel or camping with this coffee hugely inconvenient, though. While we wouldn't choose Maxwell House for a cup of coffee to sit down and enjoy, it may work in instant coffee-based recipes like a freddo.

While still nowhere near the playing field of Starbucks or even Juan Valdez, Nescafé Clásico Dark Roast Instant Coffee is a solid mid-level instant coffee. It didn't need double the product as the directions called for like Juan Valdez did, but we were unimpressed by the blandness of this coffee. Dark roasts are known for being vibrant and full-bodied, but Nescafé's instant dark roast has more "last drops of coffee in the hotel lobby carafe" vibes, and adding another teaspoon of grounds seemed to help a little, but the taste was still, at best, mediocre.

You could try to give Nescafé some pizzazz with creamer or sugar, but you likely won't be able to taste the coffee at all if you do (which is exactly what some coffee drinkers want, of course). If coffee just gets you through the morning, this brand might suit your needs fine, but if you want any joy in your Joe, look elsewhere. On the bright side, you'll only be paying about a dime per each cup of boring, per Walmart's prices.

Juan Valdez claims that its freeze-dried coffee granules are the "closest thing" to a cup of freshly-brewed coffee. As soon as the hot water hit the crystals, we smelled trouble — this product's aroma is burnt and stale, identical to that of bottom-tier brands such as Folgers and Maxwell House. The instructions don't indicate how much water to use, so we opted for 8 ounces, which gave us the deep black flavor of properly-concentrated coffee, but after the first sip, we wondered if we'd misread how much coffee to use — because we couldn't taste any at all. The instructions do indeed call for 1 teaspoon of the coffee granules per cup, but the nearly-absent flavor was perplexing, so we added another teaspoon.

Finally, after doubling the product, we were able to get an actual taste of the actual coffee, and were surprised to discover how misleading the initial smell was; this instant coffee is made with a quality Columbian coffee, known for its smooth flavor that, to some, even trumps Arabica beans. Juan Valdez Instant Columbian Coffee is pleasantly balanced between bold and bright — when you double the number of coffee crystals used. The packaging claims to make 64 cups of coffee, but since we think this is only suitable when the coffee is doubled, we consider the number of servings included to be half that — and with that in mind, each cup costs about $0.16, according to Walmart pricing.

Café Bustelo Espresso Instant Coffee is the option for the die-hardest of coffee drinkers. Since it technically is an espresso powder, this brand may be most enjoyable as an affogato, latte, or cappuccino if you're able to steam milk at home, or just with a healthy pour of heavy cream to cut the espresso's very bold edge. You could also cut out the water entirely and use 6 ounces of cream heated over the stove to rehydrate the espresso powder; the dairy sugars will soften the intense coffee. Café Bustelo's instant espresso has the deeply complex flavor of a dark roast, with notes like butter toffee and dark chocolate. The roast's natural caramelization brings the slightest hint of sweetness, but the taste will definitely be too smoky and bitter for many palates if the coffee is consumed on its own.

However, if you can find a way to prepare it that you enjoy, we highly recommend this brand as far as instant coffees go. It tastes beautifully rich and is robust enough to stand up to sweeteners and creamers, and lacks the oily texture and sour taste that plagues many instant coffees. Plus, Café Bustelo is a much cheaper option than daily Starbucks runs at around $0.50 per serving (via Amazon).