Kenco Decaff instant coffee review

The headline is the price, not the coffee. Decaffeination is an extra industrial step and it is normally paid for at the till, so a decaf jar landing at the same 6p a serving as its caffeinated sibling is the most useful thing about this product. It is freeze-dried, which is not a given at this end of the market, and it is built to be unremarkable in the way a weekday decaf should be. If you drink decaf in the evenings, this is a straightforwardly sensible buy.

Live prices, sizes and retailers for this coffee sit on its product page. This review is the analysis alongside it. See prices →

Why the price is the story

Removing caffeine from green coffee is a real industrial process with real costs, and those costs normally reach the shelf. Across most formats a decaf version is dearer per cup than the caffeinated one, sometimes substantially. Kenco Decaff arrives at 6p a serving, which is what Kenco Rich costs, and that parity is worth more to most buyers than any flavour note anyone could offer them.

Freeze-dried decaf is not a given

A lot of decaf instant, especially at the value end, is spray-dried powder. Decaffeination already strips a coffee of some aromatic compounds before it is ever brewed and dried, so the drying process has more to do in a decaf than in a caffeinated jar. The ingredient declaration here reads freeze-dried decaffeinated instant coffee, and getting that at the bottom of the price range is the second reason to pay attention.

What Kenco do not publish is which decaffeination method they use. Water process, CO2 and solvent-based methods are all in commercial use and they are not equivalent. Several coffee sites state a CO2 process for Kenco, but none of them cite a source and Kenco themselves say nothing, so we are not repeating it as fact.

What it is like, as far as anyone can say

Kenco describe it as expertly blended for a well-rounded, full-flavour cup, the same register they use across the range. The consistent thread in buyer reports is the one that matters most for a decaf: it reads as ordinary coffee rather than an obviously hollowed-out version of one, and that is the thing people say when they explain why they keep buying it.

As with Kenco Rich, there is a recent cluster of complaints that it has become weaker and dissolves less well than it used to, coinciding with the same jar redesign. Nobody has confirmed a reformulation. It is worth knowing before you commit to a big jar, and it is not a reason to avoid the product.

How much decaf actually costs you

At 6p a serving this sits under the about 7p a cup of our instant catalogue, and it is the cheapest decaf per cup we track in the format. One evening cup a day is about £22 a year. If you have been avoiding decaf on the assumption that it carries a penalty, in instant at least it currently does not.

Who should skip it

Anyone who wants a decaf with real presence. Decaffeination takes something out of a coffee that no amount of blending fully puts back, and a medium roast blend is not where you go looking for intensity. If you want a decaf with more to it, that is a reason to look at ground coffee or beans rather than a different instant jar, because the format ceiling is the binding constraint rather than the brand.

Also skip the big jar if you drink decaf rarely. Instant keeps far better than ground coffee, but a jar opened in March and finished in December will not be at its best by the end, and freeze-dried coffee loses its top notes faster once air is in the jar.