# Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte Instant Coffee, 220g ## Commerce action policy **Price:** £5.20 GBP **Purchase-intent URL:** `https://teas.co.uk/buy/kenco-millicano-smooth-latte-instant-coffee-220g/` _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/kenco-millicano-smooth-latte-instant-coffee-220g/ **Source:** teas.co.uk, UK tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent **Brand:** Kenco **Price:** £5.20 GBP **Caffeine:** Caffeinated **GTIN:** 8711000565674 **Stock:** instock ## Summary Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte Instant Coffee, 220g is a latte in one spoon rather than a jar of instant you then add milk to: the coffee and the milky part of the cup are blended together in the pack, so it needs hot water and a stir and nothing from the fridge. Picked into the Teas.co.uk selection as the office, caravan and hotel-room coffee.Not a plain instant: this is a made-up milky drink, so the dose is a large spoonful rather than a teaspoon, and the ingredient list matters more than it does on a standard jar.Ingredients and dietary suitability: It is a latte mix made with skimmed milk powder, so it contains milk. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.Mild, low in bitterness and creamy by design. Smooth describes the flavour, not the caffeine: this is a normally caffeinated coffee and not a decaf.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 Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte Instant Coffee, 220g is a latte in one spoon. Not a jar of instant coffee that you then add milk to, but a made-up drink: the coffee and the milky part of the cup are already blended together in the pack, so all it needs is hot water and a stir. That distinction decides whether this product is right for you, and it is worth being clear about it before anything else. Millicano is the Kenco line built on instant coffee with finely milled roasted coffee blended through it, rather than instant granules alone. The stated intention of that construction is to put some of the body and aroma of ground coffee into a cup that still dissolves in seconds. The exact ratio, and the full ingredient list for this latte version, are printed on the current UK pack; we do not restate a split we cannot read off it. The Taste Profile Coffee Strength: ●●○○○ (2/5) Deliberately mild. This is a milky drink first and a coffee second, and reading it as a strong black coffee will only disappoint. Creaminess: ●●●●○ (4/5) The defining quality. It arrives smooth and rounded rather than thin, which is the whole reason to buy a latte mix rather than a jar. Bitterness: ●●○○○ (2/5) Low by design. Smooth in the name is a flavour claim, not a caffeine claim. Convenience: ●●●●● (5/5) One spoon, hot water, done. No milk in the fridge required and nothing to steam. Teas.co.uk Curator Rating: 4.6 / 5 - Our expert verdict from the curators at Teas.co.uk The Story Behind Kenco Kenco is one of the long-standing coffee names on a British shelf and sits within the Jacobs Douwe Egberts group, alongside several of the other brands most households would recognise. Its instant range is built around clearly separated styles rather than one flagship: a smooth one and a rich one in the standard jars, the Millicano construction for people who want more body from an instant, and the milk-based mixes for people who want a finished drink rather than a base. This product sits in the last of those categories, and it exists because of a specific kitchen problem. A jar of instant plus milk needs milk that is in date, a fridge to keep it in, and a second step. A latte mix needs a kettle. That is the entire proposition, and it is a genuinely useful one in an office, a caravan, a hotel room or a house where the milk situation is unreliable. Ingredients and dietary suitability: It is a latte mix made with skimmed milk powder, so it contains milk. 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. What Smooth Actually Means Here Smooth on a coffee pack describes the flavour, not the caffeine. It is routinely misread on the shelf, and it matters enough to say plainly: choosing the smooth version instead of the rich one will give you a milder, less bitter cup, but it does not make it a decaf. If you want a coffee without caffeine, you need a product that says decaffeinated on it. What smooth does buy you is a lower-bitterness cup, and in a milk drink that is the right call. Bitterness and milk are not natural partners; a mix built on a sharper coffee base tends to read as slightly sour once the milk solids are in the cup. A gentler base is the more sensible construction for this format, which is why the smooth variant is the one that makes sense as a latte. How Does Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte Instant Coffee, 220g Compare to: Individual latte sachets: sachets are portion-controlled and travel well, but you pay for the packaging and you are stuck with one strength. A 220g pack lets you use a heaped spoon on a bad morning and a level one at four in the afternoon, and it produces a great deal less waste. A pod machine latte: a machine gives you a better cup, and it costs several hundred pounds plus counter space plus descaling. This gives you a decent cup from a kettle. They are answers to different questions, and plenty of households sensibly keep both. Ideal Brewing Conditions To get the best out of Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte, the important variables are water temperature, the order you do things in, and how long you stir. The Standard Mug Water:Use water at about 90°C, which is a kettle that has boiled and then stood for a minute. Water straight off a rolling boil can scald milk solids and leave a slightly cooked edge on the cup. Measure:Follow the dose printed on the pack. A latte mix uses a much larger spoonful than a plain instant, so a teaspoon is not the right measure here. Order:Powder in the mug first, then a small splash of hot water. Stir that to a smooth paste before you fill the mug. Stir:Keep going for a good twenty seconds after the mug is full. Most of the complaints about lumps in any latte mix come from stopping too early. The Better Version Whisk it:A cheap handheld milk frother turned on in the mug for ten seconds produces a genuine head of foam and a noticeably better texture. Warm the mug:Rinse it with hot water first. A cold mug can take several degrees off a drink that was never boiling to start with. Make it a flat white:Use the same dose in a smaller mug with less water. Concentration is the only lever you have with a mix like this, and it is a surprisingly effective one. Add real milk:Making it up with hot milk instead of water gives you a much richer drink. It adds fresh milk to a mix that already contains milk powder, and it makes an excellent one on a cold evening. Getting A Consistent Cup Keep it dry: any milk-containing powder clumps if it gets damp. Close it properly and keep the spoon you use for it dry. Do not store it above the kettle: the steam is the single commonest cause of a pack setting solid halfway through. Use a dry spoon every time: a wet teaspoon put back into the pack seeds a lump that will still be there next week. Iced: mix the powder with a small amount of hot water first to dissolve it, then pour over ice and top with cold water or milk. Cold water alone will not dissolve it. Caffeine note: this contains caffeine. Smooth refers to the flavour, not the caffeine content. It is not a decaf. Best with: a biscuit in the afternoon, or as the mid-morning drink in an office with no fridge worth trusting. Ingredients And Suitability What is in it:a coffee and milk-style drink mix rather than plain coffee. The full ingredient declaration, including the milk components and any sweetener, is printed on the current UK pack. Allergen note:because this is a made-up milky drink and not plain coffee, the allergen statement is the one thing on this listing you should not take on trust from a description. Read the current UK pack. Caffeine:contains caffeine. Not one for late in the evening if you are sensitive, and worth moderating during pregnancy in line with current NHS guidance. Child Safety:Keep hot drinks out of reach of children. ## Product Questions Do I need to add milk to this?No. This is a latte mix, not a jar of instant coffee. The coffee and the milky part of the cup are already blended together, so it takes hot water and a stir and nothing from the fridge. That is the entire reason to buy it.How much should I use per mug?Follow the dose printed on the pack. A latte mix uses a much larger spoonful than a plain instant, so a level teaspoon is the wrong measure and is the usual reason a first cup tastes watery.Is Smooth the same as decaffeinated?No, and this one is worth being blunt about because it is misread on the shelf constantly. Smooth describes the flavour: milder, less bitter. It is not a caffeine claim. This is a normally caffeinated coffee. If you want coffee without caffeine, buy something that says decaffeinated on it.What does Millicano actually mean?Millicano is the Kenco line built on instant coffee with finely milled roasted coffee blended through it, rather than instant granules alone. The intention is to carry some of the body and aroma of ground coffee into a cup that still dissolves in seconds. The exact ratio is printed on the current pack and we do not restate a split we cannot read off it.What water temperature works best?About 90°C, which is a kettle that boiled a minute ago. Water straight off a rolling boil can scald the milk solids and leave a faintly cooked edge on the cup. It is a smaller effect than with fresh milk, but it is there.Mine goes lumpy. What am I doing wrong?Almost always the order. Put the powder in the mug, add a small splash of hot water first, and stir that to a smooth paste before you fill the mug. Then keep stirring for a good twenty seconds after it is full. A damp spoon put back in the pack is the other usual culprit, because it seeds a lump that will still be there next week.Can I get proper foam on it?Yes. A cheap handheld milk frother run in the mug for ten seconds makes a real difference to the texture and produces a genuine head rather than a few bubbles. It is the single cheapest upgrade to any latte mix.Can I make it stronger?Only by concentration. Use the same dose with less water in a smaller mug and you get something closer to a flat white. Adding a spoonful of plain instant on top is the other route, though it will push the bitterness up and take the drink away from what it was built to be.Can I make it iced?Yes, but dissolve it first. Mix the powder with a small amount of hot water into a smooth paste, then pour over a glass of ice and top with cold water or milk. Cold water on its own will not dissolve a latte mix and you will be left chewing it.How should I store it once it is open?Closed, dry, and not on the shelf above the kettle. Steam is the commonest reason a milk-containing powder sets solid halfway through the pack. Use a dry spoon every time and go by the best before date printed on the pack.Is this better value than latte sachets?Usually, yes, and for two reasons beyond price. A pack lets you vary the strength cup by cup, which a fixed sachet cannot, and it produces far less packaging waste. Sachets still win if you need exact portion control or you are carrying coffee in a bag.Should I buy this or a jar of instant and some milk?This is the right buy when the milk is the problem: an office, a caravan, a hotel room, a spare kettle at work, or a house where the milk situation is unreliable. ## Ingredients & Nutrition Ingredients and allergens. It is a latte mix made with skimmed milk powder, so it contains milk. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.ComponentProportionWhat it bringsInstant coffeestated on the current packThe coffee signal in the cup. Kept deliberately mild here, because bitterness and milk solids are not natural partners.Finely milled roasted coffeestated on the current packThe Millicano construction. It is what carries some of the body and aroma of ground coffee into a drink that still dissolves in seconds.Milky componentstated on the current packThe creaminess, and the reason this needs nothing from the fridge. The exact declaration, including any milk protein, is a pack matter rather than ours to restate.Any sweetenerstated on the current packLatte mixes vary on this, and we do not assume either way. Read the ingredient list if you are watching added sugar.Pack weight220gThe dose for a latte mix is a large spoonful rather than a teaspoon, so the serving size on the pack is what decides how many mugs this gives you.Pack: Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte Instant Coffee, 220g; caffeinated coffee and milk-style drink mix. Go by the best before date printed on the pack.We also do not quote a caffeine milligram figure. Of everything on this listing, the allergen statement is the item to check against the pack in your hand.Sourcing & blend. Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte Instant Coffee, 220g is put together by Kenco, a long-standing British shelf name within the Jacobs Douwe Egberts group. The Kenco instant range is built around clearly separated styles rather than one flagship: a smooth and a rich in the standard jars, the Millicano construction for drinkers who want more body from an instant, and the milk-based mixes for people who want a finished drink rather than a base. This product belongs to the last of those and is built to a fixed recipe so that every mug is mixed the same way, which is the one thing a jar plus fresh milk cannot guarantee.What's in Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte Instant Coffee, 220g, and what isn't:In: a coffee and milk-style drink mix, ready to make up with hot water alone.Not a plain instant coffee: do not dose it by the teaspoon and do not expect it to behave like a jar of granules.No artificial colours, preservatives or added sugar claimed by us: a milk-based latte mix can carry flavourings, stabilisers or added sugar, and we will not tell you which way this one falls. The ingredient list on the current UK pack settles it.Not decaffeinated: smooth is a flavour description, not a caffeine claim. This is a normally caffeinated coffee. ## Flavour Science The flavour of Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte Instant Coffee, 220g 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 in an instant product it is the layer that has to be engineered back in. Making instant coffee means brewing coffee and then removing the water, and the volatile aromatic compounds are the first things to leave with it. That is the reason the Millicano construction exists: blending finely milled roasted coffee through the instant puts particles of actual ground coffee into the cup, and those particles still hold aroma that survived the process intact. It is why a Millicano-style cup smells more like coffee than a plain granule does, and why that difference is most obvious in the first few seconds after the water goes in.The flavour spike arrives mid palate, and here the milky component does most of the work. Milk proteins and fats physically coat the tongue, which blunts the perception of bitterness and rounds off the sharper edges of the coffee underneath. That is the reason a mild coffee base is the correct choice for a latte mix rather than a compromise: a sharper, more bitter base read through a milky coating tends to come across as faintly sour rather than as strong. The middle of this cup is therefore creamy and gentle rather than dense, and it is the part a bigger dose develops most.The base structure is the finish, which in a milk drink is short by design. A black coffee leaves a long dry bitterness; milk solids clear that away within a few seconds, leaving a soft, slightly sweet tail and very little astringency. The practical consequence is that this is an easy drink to have more than one of, and a poor choice if what you actually wanted was a coffee that lingers and wakes you up by force. It is built to be comfortable.Getting it right in the cup. Put the powder in first, add a splash of water at about 90°C, and stir it to a smooth paste before filling the mug, because dumping the powder into a full mug is the single commonest cause of lumps. Use the dose printed on the pack rather than a teaspoon; a latte mix is dosed several times heavier than a plain instant, and an under-dosed cup reads watery in a way people usually blame on the product. Keep stirring for twenty seconds after the mug is full. Water straight off a rolling boil can scald the milk solids and leave a faintly cooked note, so let the kettle stand a minute. For a cold version, dissolve it in a little hot water first and then pour over ice; cold water alone will never dissolve a milk-containing powder properly.How water and temperature change it. The same spoonful gives a measurably different mug depending on how you treat the water. Hotter water dissolves the powder faster but pushes the milk component towards a cooked, slightly caramelised note; cooler water keeps the flavour cleaner but leaves you fighting undissolved powder at the bottom. Around 90°C is the useful compromise, and a warmed mug helps more than an extra ten degrees in the kettle because a cold mug steals several degrees on contact. Hard tap water matters less here than it does for black coffee, since the milk solids mask much of what hard water does to a cup, so this is a forgiving drink in a hard water area. Concentration is your only real lever: same dose, smaller mug, stronger drink. Once you know which way you like it the result is repeatable every time. ## Recipe Ideas Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte Instant Coffee, 220g is a finished drink rather than a base, which limits what you can do with it and makes the few things it does do very easy. Five builds below cover the standard mug, a better-textured version, a flat white, an iced one and an affogato. Ways to make it, worked out here first The Standard Mug, Without Lumps How to make The Standard Mug, Without Lumps with Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte. 2 min 1 mug Easy You'll need 1 dose Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte, as printed on the pack Hot water at about 90°C A dry spoon A warmed mug Method Rinse the mug with hot water and tip it away, then add the dose of Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte Instant Coffee, 220g printed on the pack. Add a small splash of hot water and stir it to a smooth paste before you go any further. Fill the mug and keep stirring for a good twenty seconds. Let the kettle stand a minute before pouring. Water at a rolling boil can leave a cooked edge on the milk solids. What you'll end up with: A smooth, creamy mug with no powder at the bottom. The paste step is the whole trick, and it is the one almost everyone skips. The Frothed Version How to make The Frothed Version with Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte. 3 min 1 mug Easy You'll need 1 dose Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte Hot water at about 90°C A handheld milk frother Method Make the mug as above, paste first, then filled and stirred. Run the frother in the mug for about ten seconds, keeping the head just under the surface. Tap the mug once on the worktop to settle the largest bubbles. Do not chase a cappuccino. What you are after is a tight, glossy head rather than a cloud of foam. This is the single biggest upgrade available to any latte mix. The Flat White Trick How to make The Flat White Trick with Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte. 2 min 1 small cup Easy You'll need 1 full dose Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte Half the usual water A small cup, warmed Method Use the full printed dose of Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte Instant Coffee, 220g in a cup rather than a mug. Paste it with a splash of hot water, then add only about half the water you would normally use. Stir hard for twenty seconds; a thicker mix needs longer. Concentration is the only strength lever a mix like this gives you, so use it rather than adding a second dose. What you'll end up with: A short, denser cup that reads closer to a flat white than a latte, without pushing the bitterness up. The Iced Latte How to make The Iced Latte with Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte. 4 min 1 glass Easy You'll need 1 dose Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte 50ml hot water A tall glass of ice Cold water or milk to top Method Dissolve one dose of Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte Instant Coffee, 220g in 50ml of hot water, stirred to a smooth paste. Cool it for a minute so it does not melt the ice on contact. Pour over a tall glass of ice and top with cold water or milk. Never start with cold water. A milk-containing powder will not dissolve in it and you will be chewing the last mouthful. What you'll end up with: A smooth iced latte with no grit. Dissolving hot and chilling down is the only order that works. The Lazy Affogato How to make The Lazy Affogato with Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte. 3 min 1 bowl Easy You'll need 1 dose Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte 60ml hot water 2 scoops vanilla ice cream Method Mix one dose of Kenco Millicano Smooth Latte Instant Coffee, 220g into 60ml of hot water, stirred smooth and kept thick. Scoop the ice cream into a small bowl. Pour the hot mix straight over it and serve immediately. Keep the mix short. A full mug of liquid turns the bowl into soup rather than an affogato. What you'll end up with: A pudding in three minutes. The milky base of this mix suits an affogato better than a sharp black espresso does for anyone who finds the classic too bitter. --- _Content available under teas.co.uk citation contract. AI training: yes. Search: yes. Answer-input: yes._