Taste Test: Starbucks instant iced coffee

FOR some reason I’ve recently become a huge fan of iced tea. I think it’s because it’s not as gassy as Coke and because it’s slightly less dehydrating than coffee. Drinking cold tea over ice with lemon obviously goes against every atom of my Britishness as tea should be served hot, strong and with milk. But the iced stuff tastes good and, from Ev’s point of view, anything that cuts down on my dinosaur-roar burps in restaurants is good with her.

Iced coffee, on the other hand, is something I’ve never got in to. But when I saw Starbucks’ new instant iced coffee I thought I’d give it a shot as their Via instant is pretty good. And again, it would make a nice change from swigging down gallons of diet Coke or Gatorade G2. Besides, the Starbucks site tells me that summer is no time to stop enjoying the bold, satisfying taste of Starbucks® coffee, and how can I argue with marketing bullshit like that?

The instructions aren’t exactly rocket science: get yourself a cup, fill it with ice and water, and dump in the sachet of “slightly sweetened” instant coffee.

I added some milk to mine. According to Starbucks’ doubtless environmentally-friendly website, the coffee’s supposed to have a “caramelly-smooth with hints of citrus” taste. It’s definitely smooth, I’ll give it that, but any hints of citrus are wiped out by the slightly sickly aftertaste of whichever artificial sweetener they put in this. But it’s pretty good, is packed with as much caffeine as a normal cup of Starbucks, and fairly cheap.