VIA Ready Brew: Instant coffee from Starbucks
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 |
| VIA Ready Brew by Starbucks Company |
Manufacturers often make sure their packaging says it’s “instant coffee that tastes like brewed coffee”, but then you end up getting the same odd coffee flavor. The words ‘aroma’ and ‘flavorful’ painfully shy away from flimflam coffee, and I have experienced this over and over again for years. Everytime a new brand of instant coffee comes out in the market, I’m the gullible buyer who brings every hope with me to the cavalcade of consumers, thinking “Maybe…just maybe I’ll finally have my ‘this is it’ moment”. The wait was quite long; not damaging, however frustrating.
The boys and I spent most of our 10-10-10 Sunday in a less eventful way, curled up in bed watching movies. Dusks transmogrify me into a perturbed Steinbeck character, so when darkness started kissing the sky outside our window, I got up and summoned my army of two loving men. I pulled my hair back, put on my walking shoes and we all marched out the door for what should have been just a stroll around the neighborhood to escape lunacy. But my eight-year old’s unyielding attraction to the forces of the mall proved to be stronger when both Karim and I started walking in trance towards the Power Plant Mall following Cole’s lead. He succeeded without effort in manipulating two hapless victims guised as his parents.
As a reward for our obedience, Karim and I found a new love by the Rockwell fountain. Via Ready Brew was holding a promotional event and this time I gently put my hope on a small cup. I didn’t know about the others but it did feel like a Yoda moment for me– you just know when something good is about to happen. Karim got the Italian Roast and I grabbed Colombia. We sipped our coffee as quietly as possible and after we exchanged cups, he broke the silence by saying what I had in mind exactly. “Finally, real brewed-tasting instant coffee is born”.
So what’s the fuss over instant brewed coffee when you live in a city where there are coffee shops literally in every step of the way? Or when a coffeemaker sits pretty atop your kitchen counter? I offer no gargantuan explanation except that I think instant coffees should be an integral member of every cupboard. The word ‘instant’ also has its charms that work well when you just want coffee sans the drama. In my case, when I’m too busy in the office or too lazy to go down to 711 for a cheap but good brew, or walk a couple of blocks to Greenbelt for a long list of brews, instant coffee is a valuable solution. Starbucks Via Ready Brew is the great newcomer in my office drawer. Now I can say there’s a great tasting instant coffee out there, and I mean it.
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