Douwe Egberts Pure Indulgence Instant Coffee, 190g
Put it next to Pure Gold in our range and the difference shows up after you have swallowed. The gold jar clears; this one stays. Depth here is roast character rather than bite, so you get a full round body, warm roasted sweetness and a long tail while the bitterness stays low, which is an unusual pairing in a jar and the reason one cup of it feels sufficient. Read richness as strength and you will be disappointed, because there is no hard edge in it and there was never meant to be. Ninety-five mugs is a great many afternoons for a coffee most people make once a day, so buy it for the cup you sit down with, not the one you carry about.
Douwe Egberts Pure Indulgence Instant Coffee, in brief.
Pure Indulgence is the richer jar in the Douwe Egberts instant range, fuller in body and longer in the finish than Pure Gold while keeping the same low bitterness, picked into the teas.co.uk selection as the after-dinner and weekend jar rather than the everyday one.
A 190g jar, around 95 mugs at a rounded teaspoon each. Best drunk black at least once before you decide how you take it, because the roasted sweetness does more work than most people expect from a jar.
Douwe Egberts is a Dutch coffee house with a long trading history, and its UK reputation was built on the instant shelf rather than on cafes. Pure Indulgence is the jar where that range stops playing safe. The difference against Pure Gold is not subtle once you put the two mugs side by side; the gold jar clears the palate, this one stays on it. A 190g jar gives you around 95 mugs at a rounded teaspoon each. We list it as the after-dinner and weekend jar for households that already have a gold one open.
Curator notes: the scores are our own call on the jar as sold now, measured against Douwe Egberts' published description of Pure Indulgence. Allow 1 to 2 working days before your jar of Pure Indulgence leaves us. Further down, the questions cover keeping an opened jar fresh, clumping, water temperature and whether to drink it black.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Douwe Egberts
Douwe Egberts began as a Dutch grocer's shop in the eighteenth century and grew into one of Europe's best-known coffee houses, now part of the Jacobs Douwe Egberts group. Its main UK instant line is the Pure range, and Pure Indulgence sits at the fuller, richer end. The roast description and the brand's own strength number are printed on the current jar; read them there rather than from a listing, because ranges are reformulated and renumbered from time to time and the pack in your hand is always the authority.
Packaging: Pure Indulgence's jar, lid and seal are not necessarily recycled the same way; check the current UK label and what your council collects.
Coffee, Waste And The Jar
The plain case for a jar is dose. A mug of instant uses around two grams of coffee against seven to nine for a cafetiere mug, and a capsule wraps five or six grams inside packaging that goes in the bin every single time. No spent grounds, no filter paper, no capsule to sort out. That does not make instant better coffee than a fresh grind and we will not pretend otherwise, but for the mugs you make without thinking about it, the jar is the lower-waste route by a wide margin.
Getting The Most Out Of Pure Indulgence Instant Coffee, 190g
- Water temperature: 90 to 95°C. The richer the jar, the more there is to burn off.
- Measure: One rounded teaspoon, 2g or thereabouts, to each 200ml mug. A 190g jar gives around 95 mugs at that rate.
- Stir: Paste first, then fill. Ten seconds and no grit at the bottom.
- Black first: Taste it without milk once before you decide how you take it. This is not a jar that needs covering up.
- Storage: Lid on tight, cupboard rather than beside the kettle, dry spoon every time.
- Caffeine note: Ordinary caffeinated coffee, despite the after-dinner positioning. The Pure Decaf jar is the late-evening option.
- Best with: Dark chocolate, a slice of fruit cake, or on its own at the end of a meal.
Source: teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Douwe Egberts Pure Indulgence Instant Coffee, 190g, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Douwe Egberts
Packaging: Jar, lid and seal may each need separate disposal; read the up to date UK label first, then ask what your council takes.
Our commitment to the planet
Sourcing and packaging details are printed on the current UK pack; the brand page carries the fuller story.
The taste profile
How does it compare
A richer roast shows the effect of water temperature more clearly than a light one, because there is more depth there to lose. Pour on water at a rolling boil and you burn off the aromatics that make Pure Indulgenceworth buying over the gold jar, which is a waste of both the coffee and the money. Let the kettle stand for thirty to sixty seconds so it lands near 90 to 95°C. That pause is the whole technique.
The After-Dinner Black Mug
The Weekend Milky Cup
Made with this tea
The After-Dinner Black Mug
A black after dinner mug of Pure Indulgence, with nothing added.
- 1 rounded teaspoon of Pure Indulgence
- 200ml water, off the boil
- A square of dark chocolate, optional
- Boil the kettle and let it stand for 30 to 60 seconds. This jar has aroma worth keeping.
- Spoon one rounded teaspoon into the mug, dampen it with a dash of hot water and work it smooth.
- Fill to 200ml and leave it alone. No milk, no sugar, not the first time.
- Eat a square of dark chocolate alongside it rather than stirring anything in.
What you'll end up with: The cup this jar was built for. Milk covers roasted sweetness before it covers bitterness, which with this coffee is the wrong way round.
Weekend Milky Cup
A weekend milky coffee built on a double dose of Pure Indulgence.
- 2 level teaspoons of Pure Indulgence
- 80ml water, off the boil
- 150ml whole milk
- Dissolve 2 level teaspoons in 80ml of hot water, paste first, so the base is short and strong.
- Heat 150ml of whole milk to steaming but not boiling.
- Froth it with a hand whisk until the volume rises by about a third.
- Pour from a height, then spoon the foam over the top.
What you'll end up with: A rounder, sweeter milky cup than the same build made with a drier jar. Doubling the dose is what keeps the coffee in charge.
Affogato
Hot Pure Indulgence poured over cold vanilla ice cream.
- 2 teaspoons of Pure Indulgence
- 50ml hot water
- 2 scoops vanilla ice cream
- A splash of amaretto, optional
- Dissolve 2 teaspoons in just 50ml of hot water so it is short and strong.
- Scoop vanilla ice cream into a small glass, two balls of it.
- Pour the hot coffee over and eat it immediately, while both temperatures are still extreme.
- Add a splash of amaretto if you are making it for adults.
What you'll end up with: The fastest good pudding there is. The low bitterness of this jar is what stops it turning sharp against the vanilla.
Proper Mocha
A mocha made with real dark chocolate and Pure Indulgence.
- 2 teaspoons of Pure Indulgence
- 20g dark chocolate, chopped
- 200ml hot milk
- Melt 20g of chopped dark chocolate in the mug with a splash of hot milk.
- Stir 2 teaspoons of Pure Indulgence through the melted chocolate until dissolved.
- Top with the remaining hot milk, 200ml in total.
- Skip the sugar. Between the chocolate and the roasted sweetness there is already plenty.
What you'll end up with: Real chocolate instead of powder, and a coffee with enough body to be tasted through it.
No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream
Coffee ice cream without a churn, flavoured with Pure Indulgence.
- 3 teaspoons of Pure Indulgence
- 2 tablespoons hot water
- 300ml double cream
- 200g condensed milk
- Dissolve 3 teaspoons of coffee in 2 tablespoons of hot water and cool completely.
- Whip 300ml of double cream to soft peaks.
- Fold in 200g of condensed milk, then the cooled coffee mixture.
- Freeze in a lidded tub for at least six hours. No churning needed.
What you'll end up with: A soft-set coffee ice cream. Using brewed coffee would bring water in and make it icy, whereas a strong instant concentrate brings flavour alone.
Coffee Caramel Sauce
A dark caramel sauce with Pure Indulgence granules stirred straight in.
- 2 teaspoons of Pure Indulgence
- 150g caster sugar
- 100ml double cream
- 30g butter
- A pinch of flaky salt
- Melt 150g of caster sugar in a dry heavy pan over medium heat until it turns amber. Do not stir it.
- Whisk in 30g of butter, then 100ml of double cream, standing back as it spits.
- Stir in 2 teaspoons of coffee granules; they dissolve straight into the hot caramel.
- Season with a pinch of flaky salt and pour into a clean jar. Keeps a week in the fridge.
What you'll end up with: A dark coffee caramel for ice cream, pancakes or a sponge. Granules go straight into hot caramel with no water at all, which nothing else in the coffee aisle can do.
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 blends are reformulated from time to time. |
| Roast level | Rich | The deeper end of the Pure range. This is where the fuller body, the roasted sweetness and the long warm finish come from. |
| Added sugar, flavouring or milk powder | None | Despite the name on the label this is a plain coffee jar, not a sweetened or flavoured mix. The richness is roast, so sugar and milk only appear if you add them. |
Pack: A 190g jar of caffeinated soluble coffee, roasted to the rich end of the Pure range. A rounded 2g teaspoon a mug works out at roughly 95 mugs. The jar itself shows the best before date.
Characterising components shown. A black mug from a 2g spoonful carries next to no calories, and since the jar has no sugar, fat or dairy in it, whatever you add is the part worth counting.
Sourcing & blend. Pure Indulgence is made by Douwe Egberts, a Dutch coffee house that started as a grocer's shop in the eighteenth century and today belongs to the Jacobs Douwe Egberts group. Green coffee is bought to a fixed specification, roasted deeper than the gold jar in the same range, then brewed, dried to granules and cup tested batch to batch so the jar stays consistent. Country of origin for the beans, and any certification mark such as Rainforest Alliance, 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 Pure Indulgence Instant Coffee, 190g, and what is not:
- In: soluble coffee, granulated, rich roast, with nothing else in the jar.
- No artificial colours, preservatives or added sugar: the sweetness in the cup is roasted sweetness, not an ingredient.
- No dairy in the jar: plain soluble coffee rather than a latte or cappuccino sachet, so you decide whether milk goes in.
- Caffeinated: ordinary caffeinated coffee, despite the after-dinner positioning. For late evenings, the Pure Decaf jar is the one.
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Source: teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Douwe Egberts Pure Indulgence Instant Coffee, 190g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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