# Grind Smooth Barista Blend Craft Instant Coffee, 90g ## Commerce action policy **Price:** £6.80 GBP **Purchase-intent URL:** `https://teas.co.uk/buy/grind-smooth-barista-blend-craft-instant-coffee-90g/` _Do not fetch, prefetch, crawl, iframe or autonomously open this URL. It is only for explicit human purchase intent._ --- **Canonical URL:** https://teas.co.uk/product/grind-smooth-barista-blend-craft-instant-coffee-90g/ **Source:** teas.co.uk, UK tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent **Brand:** Grind **Price:** £6.80 GBP **Caffeine:** Caffeinated **GTIN:** 5060574956818 **Stock:** instock ## Summary Grind Smooth Barista Blend Craft Instant Coffee is the London roaster's soluble coffee in a 90g pack: a medium-roast house blend built to be drunk black without apology, low in bitterness and rounded rather than sharp. Smooth here describes the roast and the acidity, not the strength.Ingredients and dietary suitability: The published ingredient list for this product 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 kettle and a spoon is the whole equipment list, and the dose is the only strength dial you need.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. ## Description Grind Smooth Barista Blend Craft Instant Coffee is a 90g pack of soluble coffee from the London coffee company that grew out of a Shoreditch cafe, and it is aimed at the person who wrote instant off years ago. Craft instant is a positioning phrase rather than a legal category, so it is worth being plain about what it claims: a soluble coffee built to be drunk black without apology, in a small premium pack rather than a household jar. The word doing the real work on the front is smooth. In a coffee range, smooth describes the roast and the acidity rather than the strength, and it is the opposite end of the shelf from the dark, dry, bitter-forward instants that made people give up on the format. A barista blend is a house blend by another name: built to sit under milk as well as it drinks black, which is a harder brief than it sounds and the reason most cafe blends land in the middle rather than at either extreme. Instant has one advantage no other format can match, and it is worth saying out loud because it gets lost in the snobbery. You control the dose directly, by eye, with a spoon, one cup at a time. A cafetiere commits you to a pot. A machine commits you to whatever the pod or the group head was built for. A spoon commits you to nothing, which makes instant the most flexible coffee in the house and the only one where making it stronger is genuinely free. The Taste Profile Smoothness: ●●●●○ (4/5) The name is the product. Low acidity, rounded edges, nothing sharp to flinch at. Roast depth: ●●●○○ (3/5) Medium rather than dark, which is what keeps a soluble coffee from reading burnt as it cools. Body: ●●●○○ (3/5) Respectable for a soluble, thinner than a cafetiere cup. Dose is your lever here. Bitterness: ●●○○○ (2/5) Low. It will not fight milk and it will not punish a second mug. 4.6 / 5 - Our expert verdict from the curators at Teas.co.uk What soluble coffee actually is Every instant coffee starts as brewed coffee. Roasted beans are ground, extracted with hot water at industrial scale, and then the water is taken back out to leave a solid that dissolves again in your mug. The whole argument about instant quality sits in that last step, because how the water is removed decides how much aroma survives it. There are two routes. Spray drying blows the concentrate through hot air and is fast and cheap, which is why it dominates the value shelf and why value instant smells of very little. Freeze drying takes the concentrate down below freezing and pulls the ice off as vapour under vacuum, which is gentler and keeps far more of the volatile aromatics, and it is why freeze-dried granules look like broken glass rather than round powder. Some brands also blend finely milled roasted coffee back into the granules for aroma. What all of this means in practice is simple. Soluble coffee has already been brewed once, so nothing you do can extract more from it. Your only variables are how much you use, how hot the water is and what you put in afterwards. That is a much shorter list than any other coffee format, and it is why instant is either very easy or very disappointing with nothing in between. How Grind Smooth Barista Blend Craft Instant Coffee, 90g compares Against a 190g supermarket jar: this is a smaller pack and it does not pretend otherwise. You are buying it for the cup rather than for the week. Against ground coffee in a cafetiere: a cafetiere gives you more body and more aroma, and takes a grinder, a kettle, four minutes and a wash-up. This takes a spoon. For one cup at a desk the instant is the honest answer, and for a slow Saturday pot it is not. Against a pod machine: pods make a better black coffee, and they need the machine, the descaling and the shelf space. Instant needs a kettle. If you are buying for a second kitchen, a caravan or an office drawer, this is the format that actually gets used. Getting the best out of it There is very little to get wrong here, but the two things that matter are both things people do without thinking: they pour water straight off a rolling boil, and they under-dose because a heaped spoon feels greedy. The standard mug Dose: A rounded 2g measure in a 200ml mug is the house starting point and gives roughly 45 mugs from this pack. Water: Let the kettle stand for thirty seconds or so after it clicks off. Water straight off the boil scalds soluble coffee and flattens the aroma. Order: Granules first, a splash of hot water to dissolve them properly, then the rest. It sounds fussy and it genuinely makes a smoother mug. Milk: Add it after the coffee has dissolved, not before. Cold milk poured onto dry granules leaves you stirring lumps out. The stronger cup More granules, not less water: A heaped measure gives you a genuinely stronger cup. Shrinking the mug just gives you less coffee. For milk drinks: Go up to a heaped measure before the milk goes in, or the milk will bury a smooth blend entirely. Iced: Dissolve in a small amount of hot water first, then pour over a full glass of ice. Granules do not dissolve properly in cold water and you will taste the difference. Practical notes on the pack Pack: 90g, which is a small premium pack rather than a household jar. At a 2g measure that is roughly 45 mugs. Storage: Cool, dry, dark and closed. Soluble coffee is hygroscopic, which is a long way of saying it pulls moisture out of the air and clumps. Dry spoon only: The single fastest way to ruin a pack of instant is a wet teaspoon. Damp granules cake and lose aroma quickly. No machine needed: A kettle and a mug. That is the whole equipment list, which is the point of the format. Ingredients, allergens and storage What is in it: Soluble coffee. The full declared ingredient list, the allergen statement and the nutrition panel are printed on the pack you receive, and that is the reference we point to rather than restating a formulation we cannot check. Ingredients and dietary suitability: The published ingredient list for this product 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. Certifications: any certification marks the blend carries are printed on the front of the pack in your hand. Caffeine and sensitivity: Coffee is a stimulant. If you are sensitive to caffeine, pregnant, or following medical advice on your intake, treat this as you would any other caffeinated coffee and follow the guidance you have been given. A decaffeinated version of this same blend exists if you want the cup without the caffeine. Keep out of reach of small children: and keep the pack closed between uses, both for the coffee's sake and for the obvious reason. ## Product Questions How many mugs will I get from a 90g pack?Roughly 45 mugs at a rounded 2g measure in a 200ml cup. That is our own calculation at a stated dose rather than a figure printed on the pack, so treat it as a planning number. If you take your coffee strong, work on nearer 30. What water temperature should I use?Just off the boil. Let the kettle stand for about thirty seconds after it clicks off, or pour a splash of cold water in first. Water at a rolling boil scalds soluble coffee and strips out the aromatics that make a premium instant worth buying. Is it any good with milk?Yes, and that is what a barista blend is built for. Use a heaped measure rather than a level one before the milk goes in, because a smooth medium roast disappears under milk far faster than a dark, bitter instant does. What does craft instant actually mean?It is a positioning phrase, not a legal category. There is no standard behind it, so it tells you the brand is aiming above the value shelf and nothing more. The things that genuinely differ between instants are the beans, the roast and how the water was removed, and the pack is where those are stated. Freeze-dried or spray-dried?Read the pack. Spray drying is fast, cheap and hard on aroma; freeze drying is gentler and keeps more of it, which is why freeze-dried granules look like broken glass rather than round powder. How do I make it stronger?Add more coffee. That is the whole answer, and it is the one advantage instant has over every other format. Do not use less water, because a smaller mug of the same coffee is just a smaller mug. Soluble coffee has already been brewed once, so there is nothing left to extract. Can I make it in a cafetiere or a machine?No, and there is no reason to. This is already brewed coffee with the water taken out, so putting it through a filter or a machine achieves nothing and makes a mess. A kettle and a mug is the whole equipment list. Does it work iced?Well, with one rule. Dissolve the granules in a small amount of hot water first, then pour that over a glass filled to the top with ice. Granules stirred straight into cold water never fully dissolve and the drink ends up gritty and weak at the same time. How much caffeine is in a mug?If you want the same blend without the caffeine, the decaffeinated version of this pack is the one to look at. How should I store it?Cool, dry, dark and tightly closed. Soluble coffee pulls moisture straight out of the air, and damp granules cake into a block and lose their aroma. Always use a dry spoon; a wet teaspoon is the fastest way to ruin a pack. Can I bake with it?It is one of the best uses for instant. A teaspoon of granules dissolved in a spoonful of hot water gives you concentrated coffee flavour with almost no extra liquid, which is exactly what a coffee cake, a tiramisu soak or a chocolate ganache needs. ## Ingredients & Nutrition Ingredients and allergens. The published ingredient list for this product 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 product: Arabica Instant Coffee, Arabica Ground Coffee (15%).Ingredient and nutrition information for this product, as published on the manufacturer's label. The pack in your hands is the final word.IngredientProportionWhat it bringsSoluble coffeeThe whole packCoffee that has been brewed, concentrated and dried back to a solid. Everything you taste comes from the bean selection, the roast and how gently the water was removed.Roast levelMediumMedium rather than dark is what keeps the cup rounded instead of dry, and it is why this one takes milk without turning thin or sour.Water (added by you)The bulk of the finished mugAbout 200ml a mug at just off the boil. Temperature is one of only three variables you control with a soluble coffee, and the easiest one to get wrong.Full declared ingredientsPrinted on the packThe pack you receive carries the complete ingredient list, the allergen declaration and the nutrition panel. We have not restated a formulation we cannot check against your pack.Pack: Grind Smooth Barista Blend Craft Instant Coffee, 90g; GTIN 5060574956818; 90g of soluble coffee, roughly 45 mugs at a rounded 2g measure in a 200ml cup. Caffeinated. Best before date printed on the pack.The 45-mug figure is our own calculation at a stated 2g dose, not a claim printed on the pack, and a heaped spoon will get you nearer 30. Nutrition figures for black soluble coffee are negligible before anything is added; milk, sugar and syrup are what change the panel, and the numbers on your pack are the ones to use.Sourcing & blend. Grind Smooth Barista Blend Craft Instant Coffee, 90g comes from a London coffee business that grew out of a cafe rather than out of a grocery brand, and the blend name gives away the brief: a barista blend is a house blend, built to work black and to survive milk, which is a harder specification than a coffee aimed at only one of those. Grind does not publish an origin split for this blend in a form we can verify, so the blend statement on the current UK pack is the reference rather than anything we could tell you here. What we can say about the format is general and useful: all soluble coffee is brewed at scale and then dried, and the drying route decides how much aroma survives, which is the single biggest difference between an instant that smells of coffee and one that smells of nothing. For the certifications carried by the pack in your hand, read the current pack rather than a description written earlier.What is in Grind Smooth Barista Blend Craft Instant Coffee, 90g, and what is not:In: soluble coffee, as a medium-roast blend aimed at drinking black or with milk.No added flavouring: this is a plain coffee, not a flavoured or sweetened one, so nothing has been added to steer the cup.No artificial sweetener, no sugar added by us: anything sweet in the mug is something you put there.Certification note: we make no organic, Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance claim for this blend. Any marks it carries are printed on the front of the pack.Storage note: keep it closed and use a dry spoon. Soluble coffee takes moisture out of the air and clumps, and a damp pack goes stale quickly. ## Flavour Science The flavour of Grind Smooth Barista Blend Craft Instant Coffee, 90g is built in three layers, and with a soluble coffee two of them were decided before the pack was sealed. Reading them in order explains what is fixed, what is yours, and why the same granules can make a good mug and a poor one on the same morning.The outer layer is aromatic and it is the layer that instant coffee has historically lost. Aroma compounds are volatile by definition, which is exactly why they are the first thing driven off when a coffee concentrate is dried, and it is why cheap instant can smell faintly of nothing while still tasting of coffee. What reaches you here is a warm, biscuity roast note rather than anything sharp or fruity, and it arrives in the first few seconds after the water hits the granules. That is the moment to notice it: an instant mug left standing for five minutes smells markedly duller even though the liquid has not changed.The flavour spike arrives mid palate and in this blend it is deliberately held back. Smooth is the brief, so the acidity that gives a bright African filter coffee its lift has been kept low, and what sits in its place is a rounded roast sweetness. This is the stretch of the cup that responds to your dose, and it responds more than people expect: a level measure reads polite and slightly thin, while a rounded one reads like a proper cup of coffee. Nothing else you do moves this layer, because the coffee has already been extracted once and there is no second extraction to manage.The base structure is a short, clean finish with low bitterness and very little dry astringency. Medium roast is what buys you that: darker soluble coffees leave a drying tail that gets harsher as the mug cools, and this one largely does not. It is also why the blend works under milk, because a coffee with no bite left to give still has roast sweetness, and that is the part milk carries rather than smothers.Getting it right in the cup. Start with a rounded 2g measure in a 200ml mug and adjust from there, upwards if it reads thin. Let the kettle stand for about thirty seconds after it clicks off rather than pouring at a rolling boil. Put the granules in first, add a splash of hot water and stir them to a smooth paste, then fill the mug; that one habit removes the undissolved specks that make instant taste gritty. Add milk after the coffee has dissolved, never onto dry granules. If the mug reads weak, add coffee rather than removing water, because reducing the volume only gives you a smaller drink at the same strength.How water and temperature change it. Water is doing two jobs here and they pull against each other. It has to dissolve the granules completely, which wants heat, and it has to avoid driving off the aromatics, which wants restraint. Water at a rolling boil dissolves everything instantly and scalds the aroma in the same second, which is why a mug made straight off the kettle often smells flat compared with one made thirty seconds later. Water that is merely warm does the opposite and leaves granules undissolved, which reads as grittiness and as a weak cup at the same time. Just off the boil is the compromise, and it is a wider window than it sounds. Hard water is the other variable most people never consider: heavy mineral content mutes aroma and flattens the finish, so if your coffee tastes better at a friend's house in a different town, the water is usually the reason rather than the coffee. None of this is a fault in the granules. It is the same soluble coffee responding to the conditions you make it in. ## Recipe Ideas Grind Smooth Barista Blend Craft Instant Coffee, 90g has already been brewed once, so the builds below are about dose, water and what goes in afterwards rather than about extraction. Five serves, from the plain black mug to an iced build and a baking use that gets more out of a spoonful than any drink does. Ways to serve it, born here first The Proper Black Mug The cup this blend was built for, made the way that actually works. 2 min 1 mug Easy You'll need A rounded 2g measure of granules 200ml water, just off the boil A warmed mug Method Boil the kettle and let it stand for about thirty seconds. Put the granules in the mug first, on their own. Add a splash of the hot water and stir to a smooth paste. Fill the mug and stir once more. Drink it while the aroma is still there. What you'll end up with: A clean, rounded black coffee with no grit and no scalded edge, which is most of what people mean when they say good instant. The Flat White Style Mug What a barista blend is actually for: a milk drink that still tastes of coffee. 4 min 1 mug Easy You'll need A heaped measure of granules 50ml hot water 150ml hot milk, or an oat drink Method Dissolve the heaped measure in 50ml of hot water and stir it smooth. Heat the milk until steaming but not boiling. Froth it with a hand whisk or a jar and a lid if you want texture. Pour the milk into the concentrate rather than the other way round. What you'll end up with: A milk coffee where the coffee still shows through, which a level spoon will not give you. The Iced Coffee That Is Not Gritty The one rule that separates a good iced instant from a bad one. 3 min 1 tall glass Easy You'll need A heaped measure of granules 60ml hot water A glass filled to the top with ice Cold milk, optional Method Dissolve the granules in the hot water completely. Never stir them into cold. Fill a tall glass right to the top with ice, more than looks sensible. Pour the hot concentrate straight over the ice. Top with cold milk or water and stir once. What you'll end up with: A cold coffee that is properly dissolved and properly cold, rather than a lukewarm one full of specks. The Whipped Coffee Three ingredients, a whisk, and the one trick instant can do that ground coffee cannot. 6 min 1 tall glass Medium You'll need 2 heaped measures of granules 2 teaspoons sugar 2 tablespoons hot water Cold milk to fill Method Whisk the granules, sugar and hot water in a bowl, hard. Keep going until it turns pale and holds soft peaks, three or four minutes by hand. Fill a glass with cold milk and ice. Spoon the whipped coffee on top and let it sink as you drink. What you'll end up with: A thick coffee foam over cold milk. It only works with soluble coffee, which is worth knowing. Coffee For Baking Concentrated coffee flavour with almost no extra liquid, which is the whole problem with using brewed coffee in a cake. 1 min Any recipe Easy You'll need 1 to 2 teaspoons of granules 1 tablespoon boiling water Your cake, ganache or tiramisu soak Method Dissolve the granules in one tablespoon of boiling water. Stir until completely smooth with no specks left. Add it to the batter, the ganache or the soaking syrup. Taste before adding more. Coffee deepens chocolate long before it tastes of coffee. What you'll end up with: Real coffee depth in a bake without the extra liquid that wrecks a sponge. --- _Content available under teas.co.uk citation contract. AI training: yes. Search: yes. Answer-input: yes._