Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Blend Instant Coffee, 190g
The coffee is not really the decision here. The jar size is. This is the big one, and it commits you to a long run of the same cup, which makes it a jar for people the brand has already won over, not for anyone still deciding. What you get is even and mildly toasted, low in bitterness, faintly sweet at the close, and forgiving in a way that matters more than it sounds: water straight off a rolling boil, a heaped spoon where a level one was meant, a mug left to go half cold and topped up again, and it barely flinches at any of it. Interesting is not on offer. If interesting is what you are after, the answer is a bag of beans, not a bigger jar.
Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Blend Instant Coffee, in brief.
Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Blend Instant Coffee is the high-street name in a 190g jar, a smooth medium-roast soluble coffee with low bitterness and a soft, faintly sweet finish.
Around 95 mugs at a rounded teaspoon each. It will not reproduce the flat white you buy on the way to work, because no jar does that, but it is an easy, familiar mug from a brand most British drinkers can already picture.
Costa began as a coffee roastery in London in 1971, set up by the brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa, and grew into the best-known coffee chain in the country. The retail jars came much later and sit in a different part of your kitchen from the cups you buy out. The 100g Costa Smooth Medium Roast we also list is a different coffee: a microground jar with finely ground roast coffee blended into the instant. This 190g Smooth Medium Blend is a straight instant coffee. At a rounded teaspoon per mug it works out at around 95 mugs.
Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Common questions are answered in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Costa
Sergio and Bruno Costa started roasting coffee in London in 1971 and supplied it to caterers before the shops arrived; the first Costa store followed, and the chain became a fixture of the British high street. The retail range, jars included, is a later development and is made for the home rather than the counter. The roast description, the bean blend and any strength number are printed on the current jar. Read them from the pack you have bought, because retail ranges are reformulated periodically and a listing is only ever a snapshot.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; the jar, the lid and the seal can require different disposal routes.
Coffee, Waste And The Jar
There is a straightforward environmental argument for the jar and it comes down to dose. A mug of instant uses about two grams of coffee; a cafetiere mug uses seven to nine, and a capsule seals five or six grams into packaging you throw away every time you use it. From a jar there are no spent grounds, no filter and nothing to sort. It is not better coffee than a fresh grind. It is the lower-waste option for the mugs you make on autopilot, and in most houses that is most of them.
Getting The Most Out Of Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Blend Instant Coffee, 190g
- Water temperature: 90 to 95°C. Never straight off the boil.
- Measure: One rounded teaspoon, about 2g, per 200ml mug. A 190g jar gives around 95 mugs at that rate.
- Stir: Paste first, then fill the mug. Ten seconds for a visibly better cup.
- Milk: Double the dose if half the mug is going to be milk, or the coffee disappears.
- Storage: Lid on tight, in a cupboard away from the kettle, and a dry spoon every time.
- Caffeine note: Ordinary caffeinated coffee. Medium roast says nothing about caffeine either way; dose is what controls that.
- Best with: A bacon sandwich, a shortbread finger, or the eleven o'clock biscuit.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Blend Instant Coffee, 190g, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Costa
Costa is the British coffee chain that grew from a Lambeth coffee bar to the UK's biggest cafe brand. Their retail range includes ground coffee, instant, and pods designed to deliver the cafe drink experience at home.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; the jar, lid and seal can require different disposal routes.
The taste profile
How does it compare
The single biggest improvement available to anyone drinking instant coffeecosts nothing: stop pouring water straight off a rolling boil. Soluble coffee has already been brewed and dried, so boiling water extracts nothing extra and simply burns off the aromatics, which is where the flat, papery taste people blame on instant actually comes from. Let the kettle stand for thirty to sixty seconds and the same jar tastes noticeably better.
The Everyday Smooth Mug
The Home Cappuccino-Style Cup
Made with this tea
The Everyday Smooth Mug
How to make The Everyday Smooth Mug with Costa Smooth Medium Blend.
- 1 rounded teaspoon Costa Smooth
- 200ml water, off the boil
- A splash of milk
- Boil the kettle and let it stand for 30 to 60 seconds before pouring.
- Spoon one rounded teaspoon of Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Blend Instant Coffee, 190g into the mug with a splash of the hot water.
- Stir to a paste, then fill to 200ml.
- Add a splash of milk. Taste before you reach for sugar; a low-bitterness jar needs less.
What you'll end up with: A clean, even mug with no scorched edge. The thirty second wait is worth more than the price difference between any two jars on the shelf.
Cappuccino-Style Cup
How to make Cappuccino-Style Cup with Costa Smooth Medium Blend.
- 2 level teaspoons Costa Smooth
- 80ml water, off the boil
- 150ml whole or barista oat milk
- Cocoa to dust
- Dissolve 2 level teaspoons in 80ml of hot water, paste first, for a short strong base.
- Heat 150ml of milk to steaming, not boiling.
- Froth it hard with a hand whisk until it roughly doubles in volume.
- Pour the liquid milk in first, holding the foam back with a spoon, then pile the foam on and dust with cocoa.
What you'll end up with: The right ratio of coffee to milk to foam. There is no crema without a machine, but this is as close as a kettle gets.
Iced Latte
How to make Iced Latte with Costa Smooth Medium Blend.
- 2 teaspoons Costa Smooth
- 80ml hot water
- 150ml cold milk
- A tall glass of ice
- Dissolve 2 teaspoons in 80ml of hot water until completely clear.
- Cool the concentrate for five minutes, or melt one ice cube into it.
- Fill a tall glass with ice and 150ml of cold milk.
- Pour the concentrate over the back of a spoon so it layers.
What you'll end up with: A layered iced latte that tastes of coffee rather than melted ice. Cooling the concentrate first is the entire difference.
Whipped Coffee (Dalgona)
How to make Whipped Coffee (Dalgona) with Costa Smooth Medium Blend.
- 1 tablespoon Costa Smooth
- 1 tablespoon caster sugar
- 1 tablespoon hot water
- 200ml cold milk
- Ice
- Combine one tablespoon each of coffee, caster sugar and hot water in a bowl.
- Whisk for three to five minutes by hand, or one minute with beaters, until pale and holding soft peaks.
- Fill a tall glass with ice and 200ml of cold milk.
- Spoon the whipped coffee over the top.
What you'll end up with: A thick coffee foam over cold milk. Only soluble coffee whips like this; ground coffee will not do it at all.
Coffee Overnight Oats
How to make Coffee Overnight Oats with Costa Smooth Medium Blend.
- 1 teaspoon Costa Smooth
- 50g rolled oats
- 150ml milk of your choice
- 1 teaspoon honey or maple syrup
- Banana or berries to top
- Stir 1 teaspoon of coffee granules straight into 150ml of cold milk until dissolved. It takes a minute of stirring rather than seconds.
- Mix in 50g of rolled oats and a teaspoon of honey or maple syrup.
- Refrigerate overnight in a covered jar.
- Top with banana or berries in the morning.
What you'll end up with: Breakfast and coffee in one jar. A smooth medium roast is right here; a dark one turns bitter against the oats.
Coffee Traybake Icing
How to make Coffee Traybake Icing with Costa Smooth Medium Blend.
- 2 teaspoons Costa Smooth
- 1 tablespoon hot water
- 250g icing sugar
- 50g soft butter
- Dissolve 2 teaspoons of coffee in 1 tablespoon of hot water and cool it completely.
- Beat 50g of soft butter into 250g of icing sugar.
- Add the cooled coffee a little at a time until it spreads without running.
- Spread over a cooled traybake and mark it with a fork.
What you'll end up with: Coffee icing with real flavour and no extra liquid. This is the job instant was practically invented for.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Soluble coffee | 100% | The whole of the jar. Roasted coffee is brewed and then dried back to granules, so what you spoon out is coffee and nothing else. |
| Bean blend | See current pack | The arabica and robusta balance sets the weight and the bitterness of the cup. It is declared on the jar and we do not restate it here, because retail blends are reformulated from time to time. |
| Roast level | Medium | The smooth option in the Costa retail range. Even colour in the cup, low bitterness and a faint sweetness on the finish. |
| Added sugar, flavouring or milk powder | None | A plain coffee jar. The cappuccino, latte and flavoured products in the same brand range are separate items with their own ingredient lists. |
Ingredients and allergens. The published ingredient list for this barcode names none of the 14 major allergens. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.
Ingredients, as published for this barcode: INSTANT COFFEE 100%.
Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.
Pack: Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Blend Instant Coffee, 190g; caffeinated soluble coffee in a jar. Around 95 mugs at a rounded 2g teaspoon each. Best before date is printed on the pack.
Characterising components shown. A black mug built from a 2g dose contributes a negligible amount of energy, and there is no sugar, fat or dairy in the jar; anything you add to the mug is yours to count.
Sourcing & blend. Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Blend Instant Coffee, 190g carries the name of the roastery Sergio and Bruno Costa started in London in 1971, which grew into the best-known coffee chain in Britain. The retail jars are a later part of that business and are made for home use rather than for the counter, so they are formulated for a mug and a kettle instead of an espresso machine. Country of origin for the beans, and any certification mark, appear on the current UK pack; read the jar rather than a listing, because sourcing programmes and pack claims are updated more often than product pages are.
What is in Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Blend Instant Coffee, 190g, and what is not:
- In: soluble coffee, granulated, medium roast, with nothing else in the jar.
- No artificial colours, preservatives or added sugar: there is no sweetener and no flavouring in this jar.
- No dairy in the jar: the milky drinks in the same brand range are different products; do not read their allergen information across to this one.
- Caffeinated: ordinary caffeinated coffee. Medium roast says nothing about caffeine either way, because dose is what controls that.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Blend Instant Coffee, 190g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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