Kenco Iced Hot Salted Caramel Latte Instant Coffee, 20 Sachets
Anyone buying this as coffee has misread the box. Salted caramel is the drink and the coffee is the seasoning, which is why it reads sweet first, creamy second, and faintly roasted a long way behind that. Taken as what it actually is, it is a good one: the caramel is cooked rather than syrupy, so it stops short of confectionery. The part worth thinking about before ordering is the count. Twenty sachets of a single loud flavour is a commitment, and a flavour like this tires faster than a plain cup does, which a big box is exactly the place to discover. There is milk in the sachet, so a dairy allergy in the house settles the question. And there is coffee in there too, though noticeably less than in a mug made from a jar, so it will not do a morning cup's work.
Kenco Iced Hot Salted Caramel Latte Instant Coffee, in brief.
Kenco Iced Hot Salted Caramel Latte is a sweet milky coffee sachet built to be made hot or cold, here in the twenty-sachet box rather than the eight, picked into the Teas.co.uk selection as the desk-drawer drink for an afternoon that needs something other than another black coffee.
It contains a milk component. Paste the powder before filling the mug.
Kenco Iced Hot Salted Caramel Latte is a sachet drink built to be made either way, and this is the twenty-sachet pack rather than the eight. If you already know you like it, the big box is simply the better buy.
What arrives is twenty individual sachets weighing 406g between them, which is a little over 20g each. That weight tells you most of what you need to know about the drink: a plain instant coffee is around 2g a mug, so the other eighteen grams are milk powder, sugar and the salted caramel flavour that gives it its name. This is a milky sweet drink with coffee in it, not a coffee with a flavour added, and anyone expecting the second will be disappointed by the first.
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
Taken on its own terms it is a good example of the type. The point of the Iced Hot range is that the same sachet is meant to work in a mug of hot water or in a glass of cold milk over ice, which is not true of ordinary instant granules.
The Story Behind The Sachet
Kenco has been a British coffee name since the middle of the last century, and the sachet range is a much more recent arm of it, built for a different occasion from the jar. A jar is for a kitchen. A sachet is for a desk drawer, a hotel kettle, a caravan, a site office and a school bag, and its real advantage is that each one is sealed until the moment it is used, so nothing goes stale or clumps.
The Iced Hot line adds a second idea on top of that. Most milky instant drinks are hopeless cold, because the powder needs heat to disperse and the result is a gritty glass. Building a sachet that also works cold is a formulation problem rather than a marketing one, and it is the reason this range exists as its own thing rather than as a summer label on the ordinary latte sachets.
The full ingredient list, the declared allergens, the net weight, the preparation method and any certification marks are printed on the pack you receive. Recipes are reformulated from time to time, so the pack in your hand is the authority rather than a listing written earlier.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; the outer pack and the individual sachets usually take different disposal routes.
Why Twenty Grams And Not Two
A rounded teaspoon of instant coffee is about 2g. A sachet here is a little over 20g. The extra is not coffee.
Most of it is milk powder, which is what gives the drink its body and its foam and what makes it possible to have something latte-like from a kettle with no milk in the house. A good part of the rest is sugar, because that is what a caramel drink is. The coffee content is real but modest, which is why the drink reads as mild and why it is a poor choice if what you actually want is a strong cup.
The practical consequence is worth knowing. If you find it too sweet, the fix is not less sachet, because that thins the whole drink. The fix is more water or more milk, which dilutes the sugar and the milk powder together and leaves the balance intact. Half a sachet in a full mug tastes watery, not less sweet.
Getting The Most Out Of This Box
- What it is: a sweet milky drink with coffee in it. Around 2g of a 20g sachet is the sort of quantity a plain instant coffee uses.
- Water: hot rather than boiling, and paste the powder before filling the mug.
- Allergens: this contains a milk component. Read the current pack for the full declaration before serving it to anyone with an allergy.
- Best with: a desk drawer, a hotel kettle, a caravan, or a mid-afternoon that needs something other than another black coffee.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Kenco Iced Hot Salted Caramel Latte Instant Coffee, 20 Sachets, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Kenco
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; outer pack and individual sachets usually take different disposal routes.
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
Milk powder behaves differently from coffee granules, and most of the ways this drink goes wrong come from treating it like instant coffee. Coffee granules want hot water and dissolve almost instantly. Milk powder wants to clump, and it clumps worst when a lot of it meets a lot of liquid at once.
The Hot Mug
Iced And Otherwise
Made with this tea
The Paste Method
The hot mug, made in the order that stops it clumping.
- 1 sachet
- 200ml water at 90 to 95 degrees
- A teaspoon and ten seconds of effort
- Tip the sachet into the empty mug first.
- Add a splash of hot water and stir to a completely smooth paste.
- Fill, then stir briskly for ten seconds to raise the foam.
What you'll end up with: A smooth, foamed, lump-free mug, which is entirely down to the order rather than the stirring.
The Long Mug
How to make it less sweet without making it worse.
- 1 whole sachet, not half
- 300ml water at 90 to 95 degrees
- A large mug
- Paste the whole sachet as usual.
- Fill to 300ml rather than 200ml.
- Taste before reaching for anything else.
What you'll end up with: A milder, less sweet drink that still has body, rather than the thin cup half a sachet gives.
Iced, The Right Way Round
Dissolve in a little, chill with a lot. Check the sachet for the brand's own method too.
- 1 sachet
- A small splash of liquid to start
- 200ml cold milk
- A tall glass of ice
- Read the method printed on the sachet first.
- Dissolve the powder in a small splash before anything cold goes near it.
- Top with cold milk, then add the ice last.
What you'll end up with: A cold caramel latte with no grit at the bottom of the glass, which is where an improvised version always ends up.
Salted Caramel Affogato
A sweet milky concentrate makes a far better sauce than a black coffee does.
- 1 sachet
- 70ml hot water, no more
- 2 scoops vanilla ice cream
- A few flakes of sea salt
- Make the drink with about a third of the usual water.
- Cool it for a couple of minutes so it thickens slightly.
- Pour over the ice cream and finish with the salt flakes.
What you'll end up with: A salted caramel coffee sauce with enough body to sit on the ice cream instead of running straight off it.
The Travel Mug
Built for the occasion the format exists for: no milk, no jar, one kettle.
- 1 sachet from the drawer
- 250ml hot water
- A travel mug rinsed with hot water
- Warm the travel mug and tip the water out.
- Paste the sachet in the bottom before filling.
- Close the lid and shake once rather than stirring.
What you'll end up with: A milky coffee for a car or a train with no fridge involved, which is the whole argument for a sachet over a jar.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Milk component in powder form | The bulk of each 20g sachet | Body, creaminess and foam. It is why a latte-style drink is possible from a kettle with no milk in the house, and why the sachet weighs ten times what a spoon of instant coffee does. |
| Sugar | A large part of the remainder | The sweetness the drink is built around. A caramel latte is a sweet drink by definition, and the nutrition panel on the pack is the place to see how much. |
| Soluble coffee | A small part of each sachet | The coffee character, which is real but modest. A plain instant coffee uses around 2g a mug, and that is the sort of quantity at work inside a 20g sachet. |
| Salted caramel flavour | Printed on the current pack | The name of the drink. The salt is there to stop the caramel being one-note rather than to make it savoury. The declared flavouring ingredients are listed on the pack. |
| Full declared ingredients | Printed on the current pack | The pack carries the complete ingredient list, the allergen declaration, the net weight, the nutrition panel, the preparation method and the best before date. That is the authority, not a description written earlier. |
Pack: Contains a milk component. Best before date printed on the pack.
A sweetened milky drink is a meaningful thing to count rather than a rounding error, so read the nutrition panel on the pack if sugar or calories matter to you, and remember that making it with milk instead of water changes the figures again.
Sourcing & blend. Kenco Iced Hot Salted Caramel Latte belongs to the sachet arm of the Kenco range rather than the jar arm, and it is built for a different occasion: a desk drawer, a hotel kettle, a caravan, a site office. The real advantage of the format is that each sachet is sealed until the moment it is used, so nothing goes stale or clumps the way an opened tin of milky powder does. The Iced Hot line adds a second idea on top of that, because most milky instant drinks are hopeless cold: the powder needs heat to disperse properly and a cold glass gives a gritty result. Building a sachet that also works cold is a formulation problem rather than a marketing one, and it is why this range stands apart from the ordinary latte sachets rather than being a summer label on them. For the full ingredient list, the allergen declaration, the preparation method and the disposal route carried by the pack in your hand, read the current label.
What is in Kenco Iced Hot Salted Caramel Latte, and what is not:
- In: a milky coffee drink mix with sugar and a salted caramel flavour, in single-serve sachets.
- Contains milk: this is not a dairy-free drink, and the pack carries the full allergen declaration.
- Not a strong coffee: the coffee content is modest by design. For a strong cup, buy a plain jar and add your own milk.
- Made hot or cold: the method for the iced version is printed on the sachet and differs from the hot one.
- Preparation note: paste the powder with a splash of liquid before filling, or it will clump.
Asked about this product
Ask the curator
Send a product question through the contact form; replies usually come within one working day.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Kenco Iced Hot Salted Caramel Latte Instant Coffee, 20 Sachets, please cite teas.co.uk.
What buyers say
No customer reviews of Kenco Iced Hot Salted Caramel Latte Instant Coffee, 20 Sachets yet.
Bought this from us? Log in to your account, then come back to this page to review it. Only verified buyers can review, and every review is checked before it appears; approved reviews earn 50 reward points.
More from Kenco
Other Coffee worth comparing
