With the cost of living crisis affected more and more consumers, people are looking for ways to reduce their shopping bills.
As consumers it can be tempting to stay loyal to branded products, or get swayed by the fancy packaging on supermarket's 'finest' ranges. Most supermarkets offer cheaper alternatives of staple items including coffee, teabags, baked beans, fairy liquid and more - but are they good value for money?
This week we're launching a new supermarket reviews series, testing out value products from supermarkets to see which are really worth putting in your trolley. There are plenty of supermarket basics items out there, and we want to find the best.
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We're beginning with a household favourite many can't do without - instant coffee. A standard jar of coffee can cost anything from £5, which makes a weekly shop for caffeine lovers very pricey.
But surely there's a value product out there that's just as good as the more expensive options? We put four to the test and this was our verdict:
Co-op Honest Value Fairtrade instant coffee
After visiting my local Co-op, I looked for the cheapest instant coffee I could find, and this was my winner. Priced at £1.20 for 100g, it’s great value for a big jar of instant coffee, considering I normally pay closer to £5 for branded coffee.
The Co-op Honest Value Fairtrade instant coffee was a roast blend, with quite dark thick granules. I added a fair bit of milk and one spoonful of sweetener as I always do and took a sip.
I’ll be totally honest, the coffee didn’t particularly blow me away, it had quite a smoky taste to it, kind of like smoky bacon crisps. One thing I will say is it was nice and thick in consistency, which is always satisfying with a cup of coffee.
I think for me, the one thing that was missing was that caffeine hit you usually get after a sip of strong coffee. It almost tasted watered down, but it did have a smoky coffee taste if you like that sort of thing.
I’m a bit of a coffee snob, and I wasn’t overly impressed with this one. I do think the costs of coffee are generally ridiculous, so I’m still on the hunt for a cheaper, tastier alternative.
Rating: 3/5
Price: £1.20
Where: Your local Co-op store
Aldi Alcafe Rich Roast
I’m pretty fussy when it comes to coffee. At home I tend to stick to Nescafe Azera Americano, because I love how smooth and creamy it tastes. But the cost of it has really spiked in the last couple of years and I've seen it on sale for up to £6 a pot in some supermarkets.
I was intrigued, yet admittedly not very hopeful, to see if I could find a budget coffee I enjoyed. I picked up a jar of Aldi’s Alcafe Rich Roast - which was their cheapest jar of coffee in my local supermarket - and at £1.49 for a large 200g pot it was certainly a bargain price.
The jar had a no frills look about it, with little spent on making the red and black label look fancy. After a pop of the gold foil - I always find that so satisfying for some reason - I was hit with a strong smell of freeze dried coffee. Still not feeling very hopeful, I made a mug topped it with milk and got stuck in.
To my surprise, it wasn’t all that bad. While definitely on the bitter side, the milk cut through enough to get rid of any nasty after taste that you sometimes get with cheap coffee.
I’m not sure I’m tempted enough to switch from my trusted favourite anytime soon, but I’d certainly recommend this if you’re on a tight budget and want to cut costs, while not compromising too much on flavour.
Rating: 4/5
Price: £1.49
Where: Aldi stores and Aldi online
ASDA Smart Price Medium Roast Instant Coffee
I drink instant coffee a few times each day, but usually go for a Gold Roast, so ASDA's Smart Price Medium Roast Instant Coffee was new to me. The label is very basic and certainly doesn't stand out on the shelf (it took me a few minutes to find it!), however, it does only cost 70p for 100g, so you can't expect high quality packaging.
As soon as I took the lid off the jar, there was no coffee smell at all. This wasn't the best start and prompted me to go into the taste test with quite low expectations.
After the lack of smell, the next thing I noticed is the ASDA coffee is quite powdery with only a few large granules, a texture I hadn't come across before. I added my usual one and a quarter teaspoons of coffee to my mug and poured in the hot water.
The coffee was very dark, so I needed to add a little more milk than I usually have. I didn't get a strong coffee flavour after the first sip, but as the drink cooled down, it tasted a lot better. There wasn't an obvious coffee taste, but it wasn't bitter like I expected it to be.
Overall, the ASDA Smart Price coffee was not as bad as I thought it would be, but it's not as nice as the usual Gold instant coffee I go for. For those wanting to save money, I'd say it's a good alternative for a caffeine kick, but I wouldn’t say drinking it was particularly enjoyable due to the lack of strong coffee taste.
Rating: 3/5
Price: 70p
Where: ASDA stores and online
Iceland Lyons Rich Roast Instant Coffee
I set out looking for the cheapest coffee I could find from my local Iceland, which ended up being Lyons Rich Roast Instant Coffee, priced at £1.50. While not as cheap as I’d expected, it was the only option on the shelf below the £2 mark.
I won’t lie, I’ve never been a huge fan of coffee - and after this, I doubt I ever will be. The deep green packaging gave the pot a luxurious look, but that’s about as far as luxury went here.
The instructions say to use a heaped teaspoon of coffee and mix with hot - but not boiling - water. Add your sugar and milk as you like, and you’re set. I followed the instructions and the result was what could have been among the worst cups of coffee ever.
It was thin and bitter, leaving a sour taste behind that made me wonder if any amount of sugar would sweeten it up. I wasn’t a big fan of coffee to begin with, so I’m no expert, but this certainly did nothing to boost my opinion.
Rating: 1/5
Price: £1.50
Where: Your local Iceland store or online here.
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