Three freeze-dried instant coffees worth the jar

The best instant coffee for most people in the UK is Nescafé Gold Blend: it is freeze-dried, the drying method that keeps more of the coffee's aroma, and it still costs less per cup than most of the instant we track. For a stronger, robusta-led mug buy Percol Espresso Noir Intense, and for a single origin with a named Peruvian co-operative behind it buy Cafédirect Machu Picchu.

What is the best instant coffee in the UK?

Nescafé Gold Blend, for most people. It is freeze-dried, it did well in Which?'s January 2026 blind test, and at 6p a cup on a 2g serving when we last checked it costs less than the median of just under 11p across the 45 instant coffees we track. Which? put 12 gold-roast instants in front of 68 regular coffee drinkers without brand names, and Gold Blend scored 69%, 'missing out on being a Best Buy by just a single percentage point'.

All three picks are freeze-dried, and every comparison here is with other instant coffee. Set against fresh ground coffee, instant loses, and that tells you nothing about which jar to buy. The useful comparison is jar against jar, and the drying method is where jars differ most.

Nescafé Gold Blend: best overall

Nescafé state that Gold is freeze-dried, 'apart from NESCAFÉ GOLD Espresso and NESCAFÉ GOLD Smooth which are spray dried'. The ingredients on the 190g jar read 'soluble coffee, roast and ground coffee (3%)', and Nescafé rate it 7 on their own intensity scale. Which?'s tasters approved its appearance, aroma and flavour, and split on strength and bitterness, which is what you would expect from a middle-of-the-road jar.

That middle-of-the-road character is the point. It is the jar a household can share without argument, at a price below the instant median. At two mugs a day it costs about £46 a year.

Skip it if you want a named origin, or a dark, intense cup; Nescafé Alta Rica, from the same range, is the louder version.

What is in the jar, and how its price has moved, is covered in the full review. Nescafé Gold Blend review

Percol Espresso Noir Intense: best strong instant

Percol sell Espresso Noir Intense as a freeze-dried 'bold Robusta blend' at strength 6, with toffee and dark chocolate notes, and the listing gives the ingredients simply as '100% instant coffee'. Robusta is the reason it is strong: Wikipedia's entry on Coffea canephora puts its caffeine at 2.7% against 1.5% for arabica, and describes the roasted bean as 'strong, full-bodied' with 'more bitterness than arabica'.

It comes as six 100g jars at 7p a cup when we last checked, which keeps five of them sealed while you work through the first. That is a sensible format for a strong instant you get through quickly: cheap in bulk, and only one jar open at a time.

Skip it if you drink your coffee black and dislike bitterness. Robusta brings body and caffeine, and the bitterness comes with them.

Cafédirect Machu Picchu: best single origin

Cafédirect source Machu Picchu from the Huadquiña co-operative near Santa Teresa in Cusco, Peru, grown 'up to 2,200m above sea level', and sell it at strength 4. Their tasting note reads 'dark chocolate leads, with roasted hazelnut adding warmth and a subtle red-fruit sweetness'. The Amazon listing gives the ingredients as '100% Fairtrade Arabica Freeze Dried Instant Coffee'.

This is the dearest of the three, at 12p a cup when we last checked, a penny over the instant median. The extra buys a single origin from a named co-operative, with Fairtrade certification, which is more than most jars will tell you about what is inside.

Skip it if you take instant with plenty of milk and sugar, which cover most of what a single origin adds.

Is freeze-dried instant coffee better than spray-dried?

Yes, for aroma. Spray-drying sprays coffee concentrate 'as a fine mist into very hot, dry air', in Nescafé's words, at typically 150 to 250°C according to Works in Progress. Freeze-drying freezes the concentrate at minus 40 to minus 45°C, breaks it into granules and removes the ice under vacuum over 8 to 16 hours, so the coffee is never heated.

The difference is measurable. A 2024 study in the Burapha Science Journal found freeze-dried instant kept 76% of the brew's volatile aroma compounds on a laboratory scale and 73% on an industrial one, against 50% and 45% for spray-dried. Works in Progress reports that freeze-dried coffee typically retails for roughly twice as much as spray-dried, which is why spray-drying is still the dominant method.

The label usually tells you. Cafédirect print 'freeze dried' in the ingredients, Percol put it in the product name, and Nescafé publish which of their ranges use each process. If a jar says neither, assume nothing.

Which instant coffees are spray-dried?

Plenty, because spray-drying is the cheaper and more common method, and some of them do not look cheap. Nescafé state that Original and Azera are spray-dried, and so are Gold Espresso and Gold Smooth, despite sitting under the Gold name next to the freeze-dried jar. Nescafé Gold Blend Smooth costs about the same per cup as Gold Blend when we last checked, so the drying method is the difference you are choosing between.

The spray-dried Gold jar, and why its mildness is not the same thing as quality, is covered in its own review. Nescafé Gold Blend Smooth review

How do the three compare?

All three are freeze-dried; they differ in bean and in pack. Cafédirect Machu Picchu is the only 100% arabica and the only single origin, Percol Espresso Noir Intense is the only robusta blend, and Nescafé Gold Blend is the only one with roast and ground coffee added to the granules.

The strength numbers do not compare across brands. Each maker runs its own scale, so Percol's 6 and Nescafé's 7 say nothing about which mug is stronger.

What does each cost per cup?

Between 6p and 12p a cup on a 2g serving when we last checked, against a median of just under 11p across the 45 instant coffees we track. At these prices the penny matters, so the table gives one decimal place. At two mugs a day the gap between the cheapest and dearest here is about £41 a year.

Which? report that Nescafé claim 105 cups from a 190g jar of Gold Blend, which works out at about 1.8g a cup, so a level teaspoon goes slightly further than our 2g figure. Prices move; the cards at the top of this page carry today's.

Who should skip all of these?

• Decaf drinkers. None of the three is decaffeinated; Kenco Decaff and illy's decaf instant have their own reviews.
• Anyone who takes instant pale and sweet. Milk and sugar cover much of the aroma that freeze-drying keeps, so the cheapest jar you like is the right one.
• Anyone who wants 100% arabica with a dark roast. Nescafé Alta Rica is that jar, and it is reviewed separately.

The verdict

Buy Nescafé Gold Blend if you want one freeze-dried jar the whole house will drink, at a price under the instant median. Buy Percol Espresso Noir Intense if you want a strong, robusta-led mug and get through enough to justify six jars. Buy Cafédirect Machu Picchu if you drink it black and want to know where it grew.