Waka Premium Instant Coffee Sachets — 100% Arabica Freeze Dried Beans — For Hot or Iced Coffee (8 Count, Medium Roast)

I never thought I would find what I would consider to be the perfect cup of coffee in an instant form until I purchased my first box of WAKA Colombian Coffee. The flavor is the best I have tasted from any instant coffee on the market and I have tried many of them. Far better in my opinion than the big brand version that we all know has a shop on every corner. I believe the the folks at WAKA have very high standards when it comes to the flavor of their coffee and the process they use to make sure no flavor is lost in the process that they use to make this instant coffee. You would really be hard pressed to choose which coffee was a coffee shop coffee and which was an instant coffee if you placed them side by side. Being a very active backpacker and outdoorsmen the afternoon coffee is something I really look forward to. WAKA comes in convenient little packs that are easy to dissolve in hot or cold water which makes getting that coffee fix a breeze. Buy with confidence that you are receiving a high quality product.

I have purchased Waka instant coffee several times and I have reviewed it before. I like both the decaf and regular. My preference is to mix two teaspoons with 10 to 12 oz. of hot (.5%) milk and a splash of half 'n half to make a creamy coffee beverage. I also like to mix it with a small amount of hot water, ice, and milk for a delicious glass of iced "coffee". With milk, no sugar is required. I may not be the best one to comment on coffee because of how I like to prepare it, but I can say the product yields a smooth cup with good coffee flavor; never bitter. I have also added it to baking recipes. I have tried several other instant coffees but Waka is the best. I recommend it, especially if you want to get creative with your coffee-flavored beverages.

I waited to review this until I had finished the whole package. Full disclosure: I’m not a fancy coffee connoisseur, just a casual, one-cup-in-the-morning kind of drinker. I only enjoy hot coffee, and I drink it black. My only other instant coffee consumption prior to this was Folgers, which I did have in my cupboard for comparison. I felt like the Waka was better than the Folgers in every way except for the price and the container. Folgers has a very distinct smell and taste, which I do like in a sort of nostalgia kind of way. When I compared the two, I found Waka to have more of a freshly-brewed coffee smell and taste, if that makes sense, which I enjoyed. The only thing I found problematic with Waka was the zip closure on the bag. About halfway through the coffee, the zip came loose from the bag, so I had to roll it up and zip it inside another zip bag to keep it fresh. This was inconvenient enough to drop one star for the packaging.

Superior flavor for instant coffee. Did the research and one of the best. About 90 cents a cup.

I have not purchased instant coffee in a long while mainly because I never could drink up an entire jar before it went stale. Recently, I decided to try individually wrapped packets because I was confident that they would stay fresh a lot longer. I did an on-line search for best instant coffees, and Waka was one of them. Waka was even at the top of a couple of lists. I wanted a sample before I ordered, but seller does not provide samples. I ordered the 8 pack and had my first cup this morning. My impressions follow. It was fresh. It tastes good but not exceptionally good. I honestly cannot tell the difference between the Waka and other instants I have used such as Folgers and Taster's Choice. The latter was my go-to instant for many years before they changed the container size. In short, you can get as good a cup of coffee from Folgers, Taster's Choice, and I presume a few others. The Waka is not worth the extra cost in my opinion, which was why I wanted to sample before I purchased. Still, I have seven more good cups of coffee left over, and I am not worried about the packets going stale before I can use them up. I am just glad I did not take the hype to heart to the extent that I purchased the 3 box size. Re strength, one packet to 8 oz of hot water makes a quite strong cup of coffee---too strong for me. I like my coffee a bit weaker. 8 oz is far less than a full size beaker, which is what I use, so I just added more water to top it up and then added a bit of half 'n half and of course a little sugar. It made a good cup of instant coffee. It would probably work well to turn into a liquid topping for desserts, too. However, if you are on a budget, just know that you can do just as well with some other brands. If you live for good morning coffee, then either brew the best you can find, or better still, if you have the freedom to do so, then go to a good coffee shop and have your morning coffee there. One aside I would mention is that the BEST coffee I have ever tasted in my life---smooth as silk, smelt heavenly, not bitter, and packed an unsuspecting wallop of caffeine, was coffee my spouse brought back from Colombia in the 1980s. We shared several of the coffee bricks with friends, and without exception, everyone and his dog absolutely raved about this coffee (it was the kind you brew in a drip coffee maker) and wanted to buy it. It was no exaggeration to say it was simply divine coffee. However, I have never seen it for sale anywhere in the U.S. in all of these years. I have no idea why. All I can tell you is if that coffee were made available here, they could sell it for several times the price of the Waka, and it would put Waka and every other coffee seller out of business. I think it could even have converted people who generally did not especially like coffee. The upshot is you can keep searching, but I doubt you are going to find anything better than the brands I listed. By all means, try Waka, but keep your expectations within a normal range. I could serve Waka blind to friends and family, and I do not think anyone of them would find it any better than most other "good" instant coffees.

Recently some instant coffee startups have gone a level beyond Mount Hagen and Starbucks. I'm thinking of Sudden, Swift, Voila, and Waka. The only one I haven't tried is Sudden because of "excessive delays." Waka to me tastes somewhere between Swift and Voila.* Swift is mostly dark chocolate and nuttiness regardless of the origin, and Waka has softer notes of sweet toffee, milk chocolate, and crucially some acidity and stone fruit. Waka has no stale or off-putting flavors, but there's a bit of that instant coffee powderiness (really, just a bit). Waka is currently a lot cheaper than the competition. Swift comes close with their house Mainstay blend, but that one is more bitter than Waka IMHO. The only thing Waka doesn't have is variety. I do hope they come up with some more origins soon, then maybe I would subscribe. *I've only tried Swift's house-roasted coffee, but they also process instant for some independent roasters and I wouldn't be surprised if the difference is in roast quality.