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    "id": 1073115,
    "title": "Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant, 150g",
    "slug": "costa-coffee-smooth-medium-roast-instant-150g",
    "type": "product",
    "url": "https://teas.co.uk/product/costa-coffee-smooth-medium-roast-instant-150g/",
    "modified": "2026-09-25T23:28:16+01:00",
    "excerpt": "Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant is the high-street brand in a 150g jar, a mild everyday instant for a milky mug.Ingredients and dietary suitability: 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.Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.A 150g jar giving roughly 83 mugs at a rounded teaspoon, medium roasted, low in bitterness and built around milk rather than in spite of it. If it keeps tasting too gentle, the Intense Dark Roast jar is the other end of the same range.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.",
    "content_text": "Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant is the high street brand in a jar, and the 150g size is the one to buy if you already know you like it. We stock the 100g jar of the same Smooth Medium Roast line, so this is not a new flavour to try; it is the same coffee in the size that stops you running out on a Wednesday. Instant coffee has one job, which is to be ready before the kettle has finished ticking, and the only real question is how good the cup is when it gets there.\n\nSmooth Medium Roast is the mild end of the Costa jar range and it is deliberately unchallenging. There is no dark bitter edge, no burnt note and no attempt to imitate an espresso. It is built for a mug with milk, drunk at a desk or a kitchen table, several times a day. If you want the heavier, more bitter profile, the Intense Dark Roast jar is the other end of the same shelf, and we stock that too.\n\nThe Taste Profile\n\nSmoothness: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cf (5/5) The whole pitch of the jar. Rounded, easy and free of any harsh edge.\nRoast Depth: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cb\u25cb (3/5) Medium. Toasted and mildly nutty rather than dark or smoky.\nBody: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cb\u25cb (3/5) Medium for an instant, which means lighter than any brewed cup at the same strength.\nBitterness: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cb\u25cb\u25cb (2/5) Low, and low on purpose. This is the jar you hand to somebody who says coffee is too strong.\n\nTeas.co.uk Curator Rating\n4.7 / 5 - Our expert verdict from the curators at Teas.co.uk\n\nThe Story Behind Costa\n\nCosta is a British coffee house chain, and its retail packs exist because of the shops rather than the other way round. That gives the jar a specific brief: taste enough like the milky coffee people order over the counter that buying it for the house feels like the same decision. It is why the range is organised by how strong you want the cup rather than by origin, and why Smooth Medium Roast is the volume seller of the set. Costa do not publish a green origin list or a decaffeination-style process breakdown to us for this jar, so we are not going to invent one.\n\nPackaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.\n\nWhat You Are Actually Buying\n\nWeight: 150g of instant coffee.\nMugs per jar: at a normal 1.8g teaspoon, 150g works out at roughly 83 mugs. Heap the spoon and you will get fewer. That arithmetic is ours, from the jar weight, not a claim printed on the label.\n\nRoast: medium, at the mild end of the Costa range. The Intense Dark Roast jar is the darker option if this one turns out to be too gentle for you.\nWhat it is not: not a decaf, not flavoured, and not a bean-in-jar hybrid. Straight instant coffee.\n\nHow Does Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant, 150g Compare to:\n\nCosta Intense Dark Roast Coffee, 100g: the same brand, the opposite end of the range. Darker, more bitter and more assertive under milk. Choose Intense if Smooth keeps tasting thin to you.\nNescafe Azera Americano Coffee, 90g: instant granules with finely ground roasted coffee mixed in. It reads closer to a brewed cup, with more aroma and more body, and it costs meaningfully more per mug. Smooth Medium Roast is the everyday jar; Azera is the one for when you want the cup to be an event.\n\nIdeal Serving Conditions\n\nInstant coffee gets blamed for a lot of sins that are actually water temperature and dose. The granules are already fully extracted and dried, so nothing here needs brewing; what you are doing is rehydrating coffee solids. Water straight from a rolling boil scorches them and produces the flat, slightly papery taste people associate with cheap instant. Thirty seconds of patience fixes it.\n\nThe Everyday Mug\n\nMeasure: one rounded teaspoon, about 1.8g, per 200ml mug. Two if you want it strong; adding a second spoon is a far better route to strength than brewing the first one hotter.\nWater: let the kettle stand for thirty seconds after it clicks, so you are pouring at around 95 degrees Celsius rather than 100.\nOrder: granules first, then a splash of hot water to dissolve them completely, then the rest of the water, then milk. Dissolving properly before the milk goes in removes the gritty mouthful at the bottom.\nStir: properly, for a few seconds. Half the complaints about instant coffee are undissolved granules.\n\nThe Strong Mug, and the Milky One\n\nFor strength: two level teaspoons in 200ml. The roast is mild enough that a double dose reads as fuller rather than bitter, which is not true of a dark instant.\nFor a milky mug: two teaspoons in 60ml of hot water, dissolved hard into a paste first, then top with 150ml of hot milk. Dissolving in a small amount of water first is the whole trick.\nFor iced: two teaspoons in 60ml of hot water, stirred until smooth, then poured over a full glass of ice with cold milk.\n\nGetting It Right in the Cup\n\nWater temperature: around 95 degrees Celsius, not straight off a rolling boil.\nMeasure: 1.8g, a rounded teaspoon, per 200ml mug.\nMilk: this jar takes it well and is designed around it. Whole milk rounds the cup; oat milk suits it better than almond, which tends to thin out a mild coffee.\nSugar: add it while the water is hot rather than after the milk, so it dissolves.\nStorage: keep the lid on tight and the jar in a cupboard. Instant coffee is hygroscopic, which means it pulls moisture out of the air and clumps. A damp jar is a stale jar.\nBest with: breakfast, a mid-morning break, biscuits, or a desk and a long afternoon.\n\nSafety And Purity\n\nCaffeine note: this is a caffeinated coffee. A mild-tasting instant is not a low-caffeine one, and taste is a poor guide to it. If you want the same routine late in the evening, a decaffeinated jar is the sensible swap.\n\nIngredients and dietary suitability: 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.\n\nAllergen note: plain instant coffee carries no declarable allergens in itself, but packing sites vary and handle other products.\n\nThe calories in a mug are whatever goes in after the water.\n\nChild safety: caffeinated products are not suitable for younger children. Keep out of reach.",
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        "servings": null,
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        "caffeine": "Caffeinated",
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                "title": "Product Questions",
                "content": "How is this different from the 100g Costa Smooth Medium Roast we already sell?It is the same Smooth Medium Roast line in the larger 150g jar.Is it a strong coffee?No, and that is the point of it. Smooth Medium Roast is the mild end of the Costa jar range: rounded, low in bitterness and easy to drink with milk. If you want the assertive one, the Intense Dark Roast jar is the other end of the same shelf.How many mugs do I get from a 150g jar?At a normal 1.8g rounded teaspoon you get roughly 83 mugs. Heap the spoon or double-dose for strength and it will be fewer. That is our arithmetic from the jar weight, not a figure printed on the label.What water temperature should I use?Around 95 degrees Celsius, which means letting the kettle stand for about thirty seconds after it clicks. Water straight off a rolling boil scorches instant granules and gives you the flat, papery taste people blame on instant coffee in general.Why is there grit at the bottom of my mug?Undissolved granules. Put the coffee in first, add a splash of hot water and stir it to a smooth paste before you add the rest of the water and the milk. Adding cold milk to half-dissolved granules is what leaves the sludge.Does it work with oat or almond milk?Oat milk suits it well because it adds body that a mild instant is short of. Almond milk tends to thin the cup further and can make it taste watery. Whole dairy milk is still the safest match for this particular jar.Can I make iced coffee with it?Yes, and instant is genuinely good at it. Dissolve two teaspoons in 60ml of hot water, stir until completely smooth, then pour over a full glass of ice and top with cold milk. A full glass of ice, not half a glass.Why does my jar go clumpy?Instant coffee is hygroscopic: it pulls moisture out of the air. A lid left loose, a wet teaspoon or a jar kept next to the kettle will all do it. Keep the lid tight, use a dry spoon and store it in a cupboard.How much caffeine is in a mug?A mild taste is not a guide to caffeine content: this is a normal caffeinated coffee.Is it organic, Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance certified?Any marks that apply are printed on the current UK pack; read them there.Is the jar recyclable?Jars, lids and seals often take different routes, and those routes differ by council. Follow the current UK pack and your local authority's guidance rather than a general rule about glass or plastic.Can I cook with instant coffee?It is arguably better for baking than brewed coffee, because you can add coffee flavour without adding liquid. A teaspoon dissolved in a tablespoon of hot water goes into a chocolate cake batter or a buttercream without loosening it."
            },
            {
                "title": "Ingredients & Nutrition",
                "content": "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.Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.ComponentProportionWhat it bringsInstant coffee100% of the jarCoffee that has been brewed, concentrated and dried. Nothing else is needed and nothing else is added in a plain instant.Roast depthmediumThe mild end of the Costa jar range. Toasted and lightly nutty rather than dark, smoky or bitter.Originnot declared to usCosta publish the roast level but not a green origin list for this jar, so no origin is quoted here.Formatinstant granulesAlready extracted and dried, so the mug takes seconds. You are rehydrating coffee solids, not brewing them.Pack: Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant, 150g; instant coffee, caffeinated. Roughly 83 mugs at a rounded 1.8g teaspoon. Keep the lid tight once opened; see the jar for the unopened best-before date.Costa publish this as a medium roast but do not declare the green origins, the bean ratio or the drying process to us, so none is quoted here. Certification marks, allergen advice and the exact best-before date must be read off the current UK pack.Sourcing & blend. Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant, 150g is put together by Costa, the British coffee house chain whose retail packs exist because of the shops rather than the other way round. That sets the brief for the jar: it has to taste enough like the milky coffee people order over the counter that buying it for the house feels like the same decision. It is also why the range is organised by strength rather than by origin, with Smooth at the mild end and Intense at the dark end.What's in Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant, 150g, and what isn't:\nIn: instant coffee, and nothing else. A plain instant jar is brewed coffee with the water taken out; it needs no additives.\nNo artificial colours, preservatives or added sugar: this is an unsweetened black coffee product. Anything sweet in the mug goes in at your kitchen table.\nEnergy: made black with nothing added, coffee contributes negligible energy. The calories in a mug are the milk and the sugar.\nPackaging: follow the current UK pack and your local-authority guidance; jars, lids and seals often take different disposal routes."
            },
            {
                "title": "Flavour Science",
                "content": "The flavour of Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant, 150g is built in three layers, and reading them in order explains exactly why the cup tastes the way it does from the first lift of steam to the last swallow.The outer layer is aromatic, and instant coffee is at its weakest here. Making instant means brewing coffee, concentrating it and then removing the water, and the volatile aromatic compounds are the first things to leave with it. Manufacturers capture and add some of that aroma back, which is the smell that hits you when a new jar is opened and which fades over the following weeks. It is the main reason a mug of instant smells less of coffee than a cafetiere does even when the strength in the mouth is similar.The flavour spike arrives mid palate, and in a medium roast built for smoothness it is deliberately gentle: toasted, lightly nutty, with a soft roast sweetness and no sharp top end. A darker instant would give you burnt sugar and a bitter spike instead. Because the granules are already fully extracted, you cannot develop this layer with a longer brew the way you can with ground coffee. The only real lever you have is dose, which is why a second teaspoon is the correct answer to a weak mug and hotter water is the wrong one.The base structure is the finish, and it is short by design. There is little of the bitter tail that gives a dark roast its length, and the body is lighter than a brewed cup at the same apparent strength. That is the trade instant makes, and it is also why this jar reads so well with milk: there is nothing sharp for the milk to fight with, so the cup gets rounder rather than duller. A well made mug should still be pleasant on the final mouthful, not just the first.Getting it right in the cup. One rounded 1.8g teaspoon per 200ml, water at around 95 degrees Celsius, and a proper stir. Scorching is the failure mode here rather than under-extraction: water straight from a rolling boil drives off what aroma the granules have and leaves a flat, papery taste that people then blame on instant coffee as a category. Dissolve the granules in a splash of water before the milk goes in, or you get grit at the bottom. For a stronger mug add a second spoon rather than reaching for a hotter kettle; the roast is mild enough that a double dose reads as fuller rather than bitter.How water and temperature change it. The same jar gives a measurably different mug depending on how you treat the water. Water at a rolling boil flattens the aroma and pushes a faint scorched note forward; water around 95 degrees keeps what aromatics there are in the liquid. Water that is too cool, below about 80 degrees, leaves granules undissolved and the mug tastes thin and gritty at once. Hard tap water mutes the top end and can leave a chalky edge, so in a hard water area a slightly heavier dose restores the balance, while soft water lets the mild roast sweetness come through more clearly. None of this is a fault in the coffee, it is the same granules responding to the mug you build around them, and once you know which way you like it the result is repeatable every time."
            },
            {
                "title": "Recipe Ideas",
                "content": "Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant, 150g dissolves in seconds, which makes it the most flexible coffee in the cupboard once you stop thinking of it only as a hot mug. Six builds below cover the everyday cup, two milk drinks, two cold ones and a bake.\nServing ideas, born here first\n\n \n The Everyday Mug, Done Properly\n \n How to make The Everyday Mug, Done Properly with Costa Smooth Medium Roast.\n \n 2 min\n 1 mug\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 1 rounded teaspoon Costa Smooth Medium Roast\n 200ml water at 95 degrees Celsius\n Milk to taste\n Sugar if you take it\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Boil the kettle and let it stand for thirty seconds. This is the whole difference between a rounded mug and a scorched one.\n Add one rounded teaspoon of Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant, 150g to the mug with a splash of the hot water and stir it to a smooth paste.\n Top with the rest of the water, stirring as you pour.\n Finish with milk, and sugar while it is still hot if you take it.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: A clean, rounded mug with no grit at the bottom. The paste step is the one worth keeping.\n\n \n Instant Flat White\n \n How to make Instant Flat White with Costa Smooth Medium Roast.\n \n 4 min\n 1 cup\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 2 teaspoons Costa Smooth Medium Roast\n 60ml water at 95 degrees Celsius\n 150ml hot milk\n A milk frother or a jar with a lid\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Dissolve two teaspoons in only 60ml of hot water and stir hard until it is completely smooth and dark.\n Heat 150ml of milk until steaming but not boiling, then froth it briefly so the foam stays thin.\n Pour the milk into the coffee base in one steady motion.\n Drink straight away, while the foam is still glossy.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: A surprisingly convincing milk coffee. Concentrating the instant into a small amount of water first is what makes it work.\n\n \n Whipped Coffee\n \n How to make Whipped Coffee with Costa Smooth Medium Roast.\n \n 6 min\n 2 glasses\n Medium\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 2 tablespoons Costa Smooth Medium Roast\n 2 tablespoons caster sugar\n 2 tablespoons very hot water\n 300ml cold milk\n Ice\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Combine equal parts instant coffee, sugar and very hot water in a bowl.\n Whisk hard for three to four minutes until it turns pale, thick and glossy. An electric whisk does it in one.\n Fill two glasses with ice and cold milk.\n Spoon the whipped coffee on top and stir it down as you drink.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: A thick coffee foam over cold milk. Only instant coffee will whip like this; ground coffee will not.\n\n \n Iced Coffee for a Hot Afternoon\n \n How to make Iced Coffee for a Hot Afternoon with Costa Smooth Medium Roast.\n \n 4 min\n 1 tall glass\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 2 teaspoons Costa Smooth Medium Roast\n 60ml water at 95 degrees Celsius\n A full glass of ice\n 150ml cold milk\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Dissolve two teaspoons in 60ml of hot water and stir until completely smooth.\n Fill a tall glass to the top with ice, not halfway.\n Pour the coffee base over the ice, then top with cold milk.\n Stir once and drink before the ice melts down.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: A cold coffee that still tastes of coffee at the bottom. Dissolving in a small amount of hot water first avoids the gritty finish.\n\n \n Coffee Chocolate Cake Booster\n \n How to make Coffee Chocolate Cake Booster with Costa Smooth Medium Roast.\n \n 3 min\n 1 cake\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 2 teaspoons Costa Smooth Medium Roast\n 1 tablespoon hot water\n Your usual chocolate cake batter\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Dissolve two teaspoons of instant coffee in one tablespoon of hot water.\n Stir it into the wet ingredients of a chocolate cake batter before the flour goes in.\n Bake as normal, with no other changes to the recipe.\n Taste the difference: the cake will read as more chocolatey rather than as coffee flavoured.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: Deeper, darker chocolate flavour with no extra liquid. This is what instant coffee is genuinely better at than brewed.\n\n \n Coffee Buttercream\n \n How to make Coffee Buttercream with Costa Smooth Medium Roast.\n \n 10 min\n Fills 1 cake\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 2 teaspoons Costa Smooth Medium Roast\n 1 tablespoon hot water\n 150g soft butter\n 300g icing sugar\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Dissolve the coffee in one tablespoon of hot water and let it cool completely.\n Beat the butter until pale, then add the icing sugar in two goes.\n Pour in the cooled coffee and beat again until smooth.\n Chill for ten minutes if it is too soft to spread.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: A coffee buttercream that is actually coffee flavoured rather than beige. Cooling the coffee first stops the butter splitting."
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