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    "id": 1073238,
    "title": "Kenco Smooth Instant Coffee, 95g",
    "slug": "kenco-smooth-instant-coffee-95g",
    "type": "product",
    "url": "https://teas.co.uk/product/kenco-smooth-instant-coffee-95g/",
    "modified": "2026-09-25T23:28:33+01:00",
    "excerpt": "Kenco Smooth Instant Coffee in the 95g jar is the mild half of the Smooth and Rich pair, in the small size. Low bitterness, a soft rounded middle and a short clean finish, built to be drunk black by people who find ordinary instant coffee too sharp.One thing worth knowing: Smooth describes the flavour, not the caffeine. This is a normally caffeinated jar, and if you want decaffeinated you need a jar that says so on the front.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; jar, lid and seal can require different disposal routes. Rest the kettle rather than pouring on the boil, paste the granules first, and keep the milk to a splash.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.",
    "content_text": "Kenco Smooth Instant Coffee in the 95g jar is the mild half of the Smooth and Rich pair that Kenco has built its instant range around, and the small size of it. Smooth is the one to buy if you want a soluble coffee that tastes of coffee without ever arguing with you: low bitterness, a soft rounded middle and a short finish that clears rather than lingers. Smooth describes the flavour, not the caffeine. This is a normally caffeinated coffee. A great many people pick up a jar labelled Smooth or Mild expecting something gentler in that sense, and there is nothing on the shelf edge to correct them. If you want decaffeinated, buy a jar that says decaffeinated on the front. What Smooth actually means here is a deliberate reduction in the sharp edges. Bitterness and the dry grip at the back of a cup come from compounds that build as beans are roasted further, and a blend pitched at mildness keeps that development shorter. The consequence is a cup that is easy from the first sip and stays easy through the third, with the trade being that there is not a great deal of it in reserve. Taken black it is pleasant and undemanding. Given a generous pour of milk it will disappear, and the Rich jar beside it exists for exactly that reason. The Taste Profile\n Bitterness: \u25cf\u25cb\u25cb\u25cb\u25cb (1/5) The lowest in the Kenco soluble range, and the whole reason this jar exists. Body: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cb\u25cb\u25cb (2/5) Light to medium. Easy rather than substantial. Roundness: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cb (4/5) Soft through the middle, with no sharp corners anywhere. Finish: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cb\u25cb\u25cb (2/5) Short and clean. It clears quickly, which is what makes a third mug easy.\n\nTeas.co.uk Curator Rating: 4.4 / 5 - Our expert verdict from the curators at Teas.co.uk The Story Behind Kenco\nKenco is a long-established British coffee name, now part of the Jacobs Douwe Egberts house, and its instant range is organised around a single honest question rather than a wall of adjectives: do you want it smooth or do you want it rich. Two jars, one mild and one fuller, and nothing in between to muddle the decision. That is a more useful shelf structure than a dozen near-identical names, because the one thing most people can predict about their own taste is whether they find ordinary instant coffee too sharp.\nThe bean composition, the roast description, any certification marks and the nutrition panel are printed on the jar you receive. Soluble blends are reformulated from time to time, so read the label in front of you rather than a listing written earlier.\nPackaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; jar, lid and seal can require different disposal routes. Why A 95g Jar Rather Than The Big One\nIf two people are drinking it every day, the larger 190g jar is the one to have. But instant coffee does not spoil so much as go flat, and it goes flat faster once the jar is open. Granules are hygroscopic: every time the lid comes off they pull moisture out of the air, and moisture is what clumps a jar and dulls it long before the date on the label.\nSo the small jar has a real job. It suits a household with one occasional coffee drinker, a second jar kept at work, a caravan, a holiday let, or simply trying the Smooth side of the range before committing to a big one. Buy for the rate you actually drink it, because a jar going stale in a cupboard is not value. How Does Kenco Smooth, 95g Compare to:\n Kenco Rich Instant Coffee: the other half of the same pair. Fuller, deeper and more bitter, and the one that survives a proper milky mug. Nescaf\u00e9 Gold Blend Instant Coffee, 95g: the benchmark jar at the same size, freeze dried and stronger in aroma. Gold Blend has more presence; Smooth is gentler. Kenco Smooth Instant Coffee, 190g: the same coffee in the household size. The right jar if you are drinking it daily rather than occasionally.\n Ideal Brewing Conditions\nSoluble coffee has already been fully extracted once at the factory and then dried, so there is nothing left in the granule that needs boiling water to release it. Water at 100\u00b0C simply drives off the aromatics that survived the drying. On a mild jar that is a particularly expensive mistake, because mildness leaves aroma doing more of the work than usual; scald it and you are left with warm brown water. The Mug It Is Built For\n Measure: One rounded teaspoon, around 1.8g, for a 200ml mug. Two for a large mug with milk. Water: Freshly boiled, then rested thirty to sixty seconds to land near 90 to 95\u00b0C. Dissolve: A splash of hot water first, stirred to a paste, then fill. Granules dissolve in hot water and sulk in cold milk. Milk: A splash, added last. This is a mild jar and it has little in reserve against a generous pour. Spoon: A dry one, every time. A wet spoon back in the jar is what turns granules into a solid brick.\n Black, Iced And Sweet\n Black: Easier black than most instants, which is the point. A rounded teaspoon, and taste before reaching for sugar. Sugar: A mild coffee needs less of it than a sharp one. Stir it in while the liquid is hot. Iced: Dissolve two teaspoons in 60ml of hot water, cool, then pour over ice and top with cold milk. Late evening: A gentle cup, but still a caffeinated one. Smooth is not decaffeinated and the label is the place to check.\n Getting The Most Out Of Kenco Smooth, 95g\n\nWater temperature: 90 to 95\u00b0C. A mild jar leans on aroma, and boiling water is how you lose it.\nStir: paste first, then fill, then milk. In that order every time.\nMilk: a splash rather than a flood. If your mug is half milk, the Rich jar is the better buy.\nStorage: lid on tight, cupboard rather than windowsill, dry spoon every time.\n\nBest with: plain biscuits, buttered toast, an afternoon break, or a mug for somebody who finds ordinary instant too sharp.\n Safety And Purity\nWhat is in the jar: soluble coffee and nothing else. No sugar, no sweetener and no milk powder.\nIngredients 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.\nAllergen note: plain soluble coffee is not itself a listed allergen, but packing sites handle other products.\nCaffeine and sensitivity: this is a caffeinated coffee despite the word on the front. If you are pregnant, caffeine sensitive or watching your intake for any reason, count your mugs and take advice from your GP or midwife rather than from a product page.",
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        "servings": null,
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        "caffeine": "Caffeinated",
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                "title": "Product Questions",
                "content": "Does Smooth mean lower caffeine?No, and this is the most commonly misread word on the instant shelf. Smooth describes the flavour, not the caffeine level. This is a normally caffeinated coffee. If you want decaffeinated, buy a jar that says decaffeinated on the front of it. How hot should the water be?90 to 95\u00b0C, so rest the kettle for thirty to sixty seconds. Soluble coffee has already been extracted once and nothing in it needs boiling water. On a mild jar that leans on aroma, scalding it is a particularly expensive mistake. How much should I use per mug?One rounded teaspoon, around 1.8g, for a 200ml mug, and two for a large mug with milk. That is our own reckoning, not a claim on the label. Smooth or Rich, which should I buy?Decide by how much milk you take. Smooth is the gentler cup and the easier one black. Rich is fuller and more bitter and is the one that still reads as coffee under a generous pour of milk. Neither is better in the abstract. Will it survive a big milky mug?No. A jar built for low bitterness has very little in reserve, and milk both dilutes a cup and binds to the compounds that give it grip. A splash is fine. Half a mug and you are drinking warm sweetened milk. Why buy the 95g jar instead of the 190g?Buy the bigger jar if you drink coffee daily. The small jar suits an occasional drinker, a second jar at work, a caravan or a holiday let, and trying the Smooth side before committing. Why are there gritty bits at the bottom of my mug?The granules met milk before they met hot water. Always paste them with a splash of hot water first, stir until smooth, then fill and add the milk last. Granules dissolve in hot water and sulk in cold milk. Why has my jar set solid?A wet spoon, almost always. Granules pull moisture out of a damp spoon or a steamy kitchen, and damp is what clumps a jar and dulls it long before the date on the label. Lid tight, dry spoon, cupboard rather than windowsill. Does it need sugar?Less than a sharper jar does, which is part of what you are buying. Taste it black first. If you do take sugar, stir it in while the liquid is hot and before any milk goes in, because sugar barely dissolves in a finished milky mug. Can I make iced coffee with it?Yes, though a mild jar makes a mild iced coffee. Dissolve two teaspoons in 60ml of hot water, cool it, then pour over ice and top with cold milk. Never tip granules straight into cold liquid. Is there sugar or milk powder in the jar?No. This is coffee and nothing else: no sugar, no sweetener, no milk powder. That is a different product from a latte or cappuccino sachet, which is mostly milk powder and sugar by weight. Can I bake with it?Yes, but a mild jar gives a mild result. Dissolve the granules in a small amount of hot water first and cool it before it meets the batter. For a cake that really tastes of coffee, the Rich jar does more work."
            },
            {
                "title": "Ingredients & Nutrition",
                "content": "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: Instant Coffee (90%), Roast and Ground Coffee (10%).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 coffee95g, the whole of the jarEverything you taste. Coffee brewed at the factory and then dried, so the granules are a concentrate you rehydrate in the mug rather than something coffee-flavoured.Bean composition and originsSee current packKenco states the blend and its description on the jar. We have not restated a ratio, a species split or an origin we cannot read off the label in your hand.Roast and blend styleSmooth, per the brand's own range splitThe mild half of the Smooth and Rich pair. Bitterness and dry grip build as beans are roasted further, and a blend pitched at mildness keeps that development shorter. Easy from the first sip, with little in reserve against milk.CaffeineNormally caffeinatedSmooth is a flavour description and not a caffeine one. This is not a decaffeinated coffee, and the front of the jar is the place to check if that matters to you.Water (added by you)The bulk of the finished cupAround 1.8g of granules to a 200ml mug, at 90 to 95 degrees rather than straight off the boil. A mild jar leans on aroma, and boiling water is how that aroma is lost.Pack: Caffeinated, not decaffeinated. Best before date printed on the jar.Black instant coffee carries almost no calories; anything added at the mug, milk or sugar, changes that entirely, and the nutrition panel on the jar is the figure to work from.Sourcing & blend. Kenco is a long-established British coffee name, now part of the Jacobs Douwe Egberts house, and its instant range is built around a single honest question rather than a wall of adjectives: smooth or rich. Two jars, one mild and one fuller, and nothing in between to confuse the choice. That is a more useful shelf structure than a dozen near-identical names, because the thing most people can genuinely predict about their own taste is whether they find ordinary instant coffee too sharp. Smooth is the answer for the people who do. Bitterness and the dry grip at the back of a cup come from compounds that build as beans are roasted further, and a blend pitched at mildness keeps that development shorter, which is why this jar is easy from the first sip and stays easy through the third. The trade is that it holds very little back: taken black it is pleasant and undemanding, and given a generous pour of milk it simply disappears, which is precisely the job the Rich jar beside it exists to do. For the bean composition, the certification marks and the recycling route carried by the jar in your hand, read the current pack.What is in Kenco Smooth Instant Coffee, 95g, and what is not:In: soluble coffee, and nothing else.Not decaffeinated: Smooth is a flavour word. This jar contains caffeine in the ordinary way.No sugar, sweetener or milk powder: this is a plain coffee jar, not a latte or cappuccino sachet.No dairy in the jar: made black it is a plant based drink; milk is something you add, and a splash suits this jar far better than a flood."
            },
            {
                "title": "Flavour Science",
                "content": "The flavour of Kenco Smooth Instant Coffee, 95g is built in three layers, and with a soluble coffee two of the three were settled at the factory: the coffee was brewed there and then dried, so the granules in the jar are a finished extraction rather than a raw material. Reading the layers in order explains what a jar sold on mildness is actually doing, and why it is the style that suffers most from a careless kettle.The outer layer is aromatic, and on this jar it is quiet rather than loud: toasted, faintly nutty, without the sharp roasted edge a darker soluble coffee carries. Aromatic compounds are volatile by definition, which makes them the first things lost when water is driven out of a brewed coffee, and how gently that drying is done is the largest single difference between a good soluble jar and a poor one. A mild jar has a particular problem here, because it has less weight and less bitterness to fall back on: aroma is doing more of the work than it would in a dark jar, and anything that costs you aroma costs you more of the finished cup.The flavour spike arrives as soon as the granules dissolve, and this is where the blend decision shows itself. Roasting is a trade. Push beans further and the acids that give a coffee brightness break down while bitter, dry, cocoa-toned compounds build in their place. A blend pitched at smoothness stops well short of that, and the result in the middle of the mug is rounded and soft with very little grip anywhere: low bitterness, no astringency to speak of, and a gentle toasted sweetness sitting where a darker coffee would put its weight. Taken black that is genuinely pleasant, and it is the reason people who bounce off ordinary instant coffee get on with this one. Taken under a generous pour of milk it is gone, because milk dilutes the cup and its proteins bind to exactly the compounds a mild blend has the least of.The base structure is the finish, and here it is short and clean. It clears almost immediately rather than carrying, which is a virtue in a jar you might empty three mugs of across a working afternoon. It also means there is nothing to hide a mistake behind. An over-scalded mug of a dark soluble coffee still reads as strong coffee; an over-scalded mug of this one reads as warm brown water, and that difference is worth knowing before you blame the jar.Getting it right in the cup. Use one rounded teaspoon, about 1.8g, for a 200ml mug, and two for a large mug with milk. Boil the kettle and let it stand thirty to sixty seconds so the water lands near 90 to 95\u00b0C. Add a splash of that water to the granules and stir them to a paste before filling the mug, then add milk last: granules dissolve readily in hot water and sulk in cold milk, which is the whole explanation for the gritty bottom of a badly made instant coffee. Taste it before reaching for sugar, because a mild jar needs noticeably less than a sharp one, and if you do take sugar stir it in while the liquid is still hot. Use a dry spoon every time.How water and temperature change it. Because everything else is fixed, water is very nearly the whole of your control over this cup, and a mild jar gives you less margin than a dark one. Water off a rolling boil scorches the surviving aromatics, and on this blend that is most of what you came for. Water reheated after going cold tastes flat, because the dissolved oxygen has been driven out of it. Hard tap water flattens sweetness specifically, which is the exact quality a smooth blend is built around, so a filter jug does more good here than it would on a jar sold for its strength. Dose is the other half: a scant teaspoon does not give a milder version of an already mild coffee, it gives a watery one, because there is no extraction happening in the mug to compensate. And storage is the last variable and the easiest to get wrong, since granules are hygroscopic and pull moisture out of the air; a loose lid or a wet spoon will clump the jar and dull it long before the best before date. None of this is a fault in the coffee. It is a fixed concentrate responding to the mug you build around it, and once the water, the spoon and the milk order are right the result repeats itself every time."
            },
            {
                "title": "Recipe Ideas",
                "content": "Kenco Smooth Instant Coffee, 95g is a fixed concentrate in a jar and a deliberately mild one, so these builds are about dose, kettle temperature and knowing how little milk a mild blend can carry. Five serves, from the undemanding black mug it was built for to a gentle cup for someone who normally refuses coffee.\nWays to use it, born here first\n\n \n The Undemanding Black Mug\n \n The cup this jar was built for, and the one people who dislike instant coffee usually get on with.\n \n 2 min\n 1 mug\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 1 rounded teaspoon Kenco Smooth\n 200ml water rested to 90 to 95 degrees\n A dry spoon\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Rest the boiled kettle thirty to sixty seconds.\n Paste the granules with a splash of the hot water.\n Fill the mug, and taste it before reaching for sugar.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: A soft, rounded, low-bitterness mug with a short clean finish. Easy from the first sip to the last.\n\n \n The Splash Of Milk Mug\n \n Exactly how much milk a mild jar can take before the coffee stops being there.\n \n 3 min\n 1 mug\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 1 rounded teaspoon Kenco Smooth\n 180ml water at 90 to 95 degrees\n A splash of milk, 25ml at most\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Paste the granules with hot water and fill the mug.\n Stir in sugar now if you take it, while the liquid is hot.\n Add a small splash of milk last.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: A softened cup with the coffee still audible. Go past a splash on this jar and it disappears entirely.\n\n \n The Two Spoon Milky Mug\n \n If you want a milky mug from a mild jar, the answer is a bigger dose rather than more milk.\n \n 4 min\n 1 large mug\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 2 rounded teaspoons Kenco Smooth\n 150ml water at 90 to 95 degrees\n 150ml hot milk\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Paste two teaspoons with a splash of hot water.\n Fill with only 150ml of water so the brew stays concentrated.\n Top with hot milk and stir once.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: A milky mug that still tastes of coffee. If this is how you drink it every day, the Rich jar does the job at one spoon.\n\n \n Iced Smooth\n \n A mild jar makes a mild iced coffee, which in hot weather is exactly the point.\n \n 10 min\n 1 tall glass\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 2 teaspoons Kenco Smooth\n 60ml hot water\n A tall glass packed with ice\n 150ml cold milk\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Dissolve two teaspoons in 60ml of hot water completely.\n Cool for five minutes, or longer in the fridge.\n Pour over a packed glass of ice and top with cold milk.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: A cold, gentle coffee with no undissolved grit at the bottom of the glass.\n\n \n Coffee For Somebody Who Says They Hate Coffee\n \n A deliberately gentle build, for the mug you make for a guest who normally refuses one.\n \n 4 min\n 1 mug\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 1 level teaspoon Kenco Smooth\n 200ml water at 90 to 95 degrees\n 50ml hot milk\n Sugar to taste\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Use a level teaspoon rather than a rounded one.\n Paste and fill as usual, then add the hot milk.\n Offer sugar separately rather than putting it in.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: A mild cup that tastes of coffee without any of the bitterness that puts people off it in the first place."
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