Douwe Egberts Pure Gold Instant Coffee, Medium Roast, 6.7-Ounce, 190g (Packaging May Vary)

If you have ever stayed in the Netherlands or even visited during a vacation, chances are you have had some Douwe Egberts coffee while you were there. This brand is a staple of the Dutch, and as the label depicts, the brand has been around for some 200 years. I was a bit skeptical when I saw this on Amazon as an instant, freeze-dried variant, but because I've had "the real thing" so many times, I wanted to give it a try. I'm very glad I did. This is the best instant coffee I've had, with the exception of "the other brand" which will point you toward financial ruin if you drink more than one cup a day. The taste is flavorful, and medium (they also make a dark roast, if you prefer that), with a wonderful aroma that is certainly half of the coffee experience. The coffee comes in the original glass jar that they have been using for years, with a rubberized plastic seal underneath the top of the glass handle (yes, the ENTIRE bottle is glass, other than the airtight seal itself), so nice that you will not want to throw it away when you are finished. The coffee dissolves instantly and effortlessly with just a few stirs, and you might be excused for thinking that it was an actual brewed coffee were you just to smell it without seeing it made. I'm so pleased to see Amazon selling it, and my only fear at this point is that it might be a temporary thing. Let's hope not. This is the perfect intersection of quality and price, and I can't recommend it highly enough. If you are not familiar with this brand because you have never been to Holland (more correctly, "the Netherlands;" "Holland" is a province within the Netherlands, although we often use the names interchangeably), and you have a need for instant coffee, run, don't walk, to buy either this one (a medium blend) or the darker roast variant. Five big Dutch Stars!

I've never been a coffee drinker until recently - and the coffee at Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts never appealed to me. But then I decided to find an instant decaf I would like, and after being very pleased with Douwe Egberts decaf, started ordering their pure gold medium roast regular coffee. Wow! I'm hooked.......especially when I combine it with the super-healthy raw organic cocoa powder I bought from Amazon, and a bit of almond milk. But it's delicious by itself........and better than the brewed coffee available at most coffee places. My guess is that this is indeed the best instant coffee available. Highly recommended! (And if you combine it with raw cocoa for a rich mocha taste, it will last longer too!) (Later: While I still find this to be the best instant coffee available, I am now very annoyed by the constant price increase. Very soon after I signed up for subscribe and save money, the subscribe and price went up full 30%. And now I see, for the next month, that it's going up another 30%. That's a 60% increase in two months - from around $12 to almost $20. This is NOT OK! I will be looking for other sources for this delicious coffee.)

This is easily the best instant coffee I've ever bought and I wish I could give it 10 stars. I like a strong tasting coffee but that usually just gives me a bitter brew that needs cream to make it drinkable. This coffee though, tastes thoroughly and strongly like coffee but with no bitterness or overpoweringness. I've tried various methods of brewing and brands of coffee in the past, and due to current living situation have been using instant coffee. But since I found this brand, I don't see any reason to ever stop using instant even when I move into my own home. The closest I've found to a con is that it was so wonderful when I first tried it, I kept making more and ended up drinking way way too much coffee. I was just so happy to be drinking flavorful coffee that didn't make my stomach hurt. So I got a little wired when it first got here, but seriously - I'm in love with this stuff (and while my reviews tend to be mostly positive in nature, I've never been so over the top before lol).

I am reviewing several instant coffees at the same time, and the same review will be found for all of them. My reviews are based on two criteria: How it tastes, and how well I wake up with it. Quick disclaimer, I am generally a health nut, with one exception, coffee. I am aware that instant coffee is not exactly in the healthy food category, but this is a choice that I make because I just don't have time to brew an actual pot of coffee. I'm starting with my worst, and will work my way down to my favorite, also note, I drink my coffee black. 6th Place: Davidoff Cafe Rich Aroma Instant Coffee This coffee has a great aroma, but tastes like Folgers (dirty dishwater). I was actually very disappointed as I had high expectations. I can deal with Folgers flavor, but this coffee made me feel awful; the same sick feeling that I get from Folgers instant coffee. (I swear Folgers must have some sort of contaminant in it.) I gave it a second chance, and felt just as bad. In the recycling it went. I tried to save the glass container, but the design is so ridiculous, that I couldn't even find a use for it. Flavor Rank: #6 Stimulant Rank: #6 5th Place: Jacob's Coffee Jacobs Kronung Instant I would say this coffee is a little better in flavor than the Davidoff, but not by much. And this coffee didn't make feel particularly well either. I wouldn't waste my money on either this one or the Davidoff brand. Flavor Rank: #5 Stimulant Rank: #5 4th Place: Buen dia by Juan Valdez Classic 100% Colombian Freeze Dried Coffee This coffee is okay in flavor, I don't feel sick from it, and the stimulant effect is moderate - more than the Mount Hagen, but less than some of the others reviewed. So the flavor is middle of the pack, and the stimulant effect is middle of the pack. It's okay if you're a moderate coffee drinker, but there are definitely better options. Flavor Rank: #4 Stimulant Rank: #3 3rd Place: Mount Hagen Freeze Dried Instant Coffee This coffee is absolutely yummy! The flavor is delicious, and just really makes you enjoy your first cup of coffee. But the weakness of the stimulant effect placed it below some of the others. I need three cups of this just to get going. I now only drink this one if I want to enjoy a nice cup of coffee, but have no need for large amounts of caffeine. Flavor Rank: #1 Stimulant Rank: #4 2nd Place: Douwe Egberts Pure Gold Instant Coffee The flavor of this coffee is quite good (not as tasty as the Mount Hagen organic stuff, but it is definitely more caffeinated). This coffee was on the top of my list until I found that Douwe Egberts offers a stronger flavor/darker blend (the next review). The stimulant effect is good, and the flavor is good. However the flavor of this one is a little weaker than the darker roast Douwe Egberts Pure Indulgence. If the Pure indulgence wasn't available, I would settle for this one. Flavor Rank: #3 Stimulant Rank: #1 (tie) 1st place: Douwe Egberts Pure Indulgence Instant Coffee This one is the winner. The Pure Gold is lighter in flavor than this one, and I don't care for it quite as much. Both have equal stimulant effect; with either of the Douwe Egberts two cups and I'm good for the day. I often feel I don't need a third cup half way through my day to keep going. The flavor isn't quite as good as the Mount Hagen, but it is the next best. And what it lacks in flavor is made up for in better stimulant effect. Thus is this my number one choice for now. Flavor Rank: #2 Stimulant Rank: #1 (tie)

I have three children under three. I drink a lot of caffeine in lots of different ways. This instant coffee is certainly the easiest method for me to get my fix, and it is one of the tastiest. The container is attractive, which is always a tiny jolt of pleasure. The crystals smell good and are an appealing goldish color. The coffee dissolves fairly quickly into my warm-but-not-piping-hot water (I can't afford to worry about spilling hot coffee on my tasmanian devil-like children). Often there is significant residue on the side of the cup, which if it comes off while you're drinking, is quite a bitter jolt. Speaking of jolt, this coffee gives a really nice caffeine buzz. Part of the joy of instant coffee is that you can control the caffeine content very easily, and a tablespoon of this stuff in six ounces of water plus an ounce or two of soy milk is about the best thing in the world.

I had Douwe Egberts at a restaurant and liked the flavor. Of course it wasn't the instant, but I wanted to try. We normally have Tasters Choice on hand for a quick cup, and it is ok at best, so thought I would give this a try. I know coffee, and if you are expecting knock you off your socks flavor with this, don't be. It's instant. On the other hand, if you are looking for a change from your normal instant coffee brand, this is worth a try. I would say the flavor is slightly better than Tasters Choice. Although, Douwe's costs more. So, in the end, if I can get this at a better price, I guess I would buy it, otherwise, for $4 more a jar, it's a toss up for me.

Admittedly I am a bit of a coffee snob. I’ll say that up front. Ordinarily, I don’t even buy regular ground coffee. I buy whole green beans and roast the coffee myself in small batches, grind it with a professional grinder usually found in fancy coffee shops, and I prefer to make a cold brew style. I’m really just telling you this to give you a bit of perspective when you read my review of how these coffees taste — no, I am not going to use the term “cupping!” So you may well wonder why in the world I’m drinking instant coffee? Well, when you need a quick and convenient cup of coffee, nothing beats instant! I tried a lot of different brands. My parents always had Tasters’ Choice when I was growing up, and my girlfriend was keen on Folgers. I went through the supermarket brands and tried Starbucks’ Via. All terrible. Then I ventured onto Amazon, and there were some interesting new ones: Davidoff, Juan Valdez, Mount Hagen. Horrid. I ended up with a couple which are worth mentioning — Jacobs (originally German) and Douwe Egberts (orginally Dutch), and it is interesting in how much variability there is between sub-brands (they are all owned by Kraft Foods now). To make things as controlled as possible, I tasted these blind, along with a friend. Each cup was prepared with 3 grams of coffee mixed into 200 ml of water brought to 98 degrees Celsius, mixed and allowed to rest for a minute before tasting. Jacobs Krönung (which means “crown”). Dry appearance: irregular crystalline pieces of medium brown color. Dry aroma: dry, slightly pungent, herbaceous, stewed tomatoes, cloying sweetness, barbecue sauce Wet appearance: uniformly murky brown and bilious Wet aroma: surprisingly bland generic “coffee” aroma Flavor: Herbaceous and oddly bitter, flavors do not blend well, stewed spinach, rancid oil, old stale coffee. Bottom line: very disappointing, overall I had high hopes for this as a bolder version of Cronat Gold, but like a stereo that distorts and clips when the volume is too high, it just didn’t work. Jacobs Cronat Gold Dry appearance: irregular crystalline pieces of light brown color. Dry aroma: very faint, dry, sandy, dusty Wet appearance: uniformly murky brown and bilious Wet aroma: mild, faint generic coffee aroma, light and fruitless Flavor: Mild enough that the bitterness is not overwhelming, very little flavor at all, quite bland, subtle roasted grains. Bottom line: palatable to drink with tolerable bitterness, but not enjoyable, succeeding largely because it has almost no flavor. Douwe Egberts Pure Gold Dry appearance: irregular crystalline pieces of light brown color. Dry aroma: dry, faint dusty aroma, mildly acrid, acidic, slight generic coffee aroma. Wet appearance: uniformly murky brown and bilious Wet aroma: harshly bitter, acidic, repugnant, battery acid Flavor: strong acid flavor, stomach acid, vomit, bile, sour, fruitless. Bottom line: A huge let down, as I was hoping for a milder version of Pure Indulgence, but again it become very unbalanced and almost like pure acid. I had a strong instinct to to spit this out; quite difficult to drink. Douwe Egberts Pure Indulgence Dry appearance: irregular crystalline pieces of medium dark color. Dry aroma: roasted coffee beans, tomato paste, sundried tomatoes Wet appearance: uniformly murky brown and bilious Wet aroma: mildy acidic, roasted grains, bland, “diner coffee” Flavor: mildly bitter, bitterness balanced by coffee flavors, “diner coffee” Bottom line: If you have ever had coffee from a small diner, like Denny’s, or some other humble restaurant or bar, then you know the flavor. The strength of the coffee blends well with the bitter finish; it seems like low quality fresh brewed coffee from old grounds. Amazingly, that is the winner! Douwe Egberts Pure Indulgence. It’s palatable, and it’s not terrible. In fact, I would believe it might be brewed from coffee grounds of some sort. It’s not in any way comparable to freshly roasted, freshly ground coffee. There is no fruit, sharpness, or complexity. It is full of flavor defects. However, you could pass this off as non-instant, which is something of a miracle apparently. I could certainly drink this! It’s almost enjoyable when you compare it to everything else in fact.

Coffee spilled 2 containers not sealed properly