Nescafe Double Choc Mocha Instant Coffee, 7 Sachets 146.3g
Chocolate leads here and the coffee walks in behind it, which is either exactly what you wanted or entirely the wrong drink. Sweet and led by cocoa, with proper weight from the chocolate solids instead of the watery sugar of a cheap mocha sachet, and a clinging finish that lingers. It is the sachet that converts people who do not really like coffee, and it is the one to keep in the cupboard for a cold morning or the back end of an afternoon when a black instant feels like work. Make it with less water than the pack suggests, at least the first time: pulled in tighter it sits closer to a proper hot chocolate with a coffee edge, and you can always loosen it. Cocoa has stimulants of its own besides the coffee, so if you watch what you drink late in the day, count the cocoa too, not only the coffee. On everything else it does, it earns its shelf space.
Nescafe Double Choc Mocha Instant Coffee, in brief.
Nescafe Double Choc Mocha is a cocoa-forward instant mocha in single-serve sachets, seven to the box and 146.3g in total, picked into the teas.co.uk curator selection as the sachet for people who want the coffee still audible under the chocolate.
Seven drinks, a little under 21g per sachet, which is heavier than most latte mixes and the reason it drinks like a mocha rather than a thin chocolate coffee. Milk powder is included so the box needs no fridge. Chocolate leads, the coffee reads clearly behind it, and the sweetness is set in the sachet rather than left to you. Caffeinated, and despite the smell it is not a hot chocolate.
Nescafe Double Choc Mocha is a chocolate instant coffee in single-serve sachets, seven to the box and 146.3g of powder in total, which works out at a little under 21g per drink. The name is the specification. A mocha is coffee and chocolate together rather than a coffee with a chocolate note on the end, and the doubling in the title is about how far the chocolate is pushed: this is the sweet, cocoa-forward end of the category rather than a restrained one.
The useful way to judge it is by what it replaces. Against a good espresso-based mocha from a counter it will lose. Against the alternatives that actually exist at four in the afternoon in an office, a hotel room or a caravan, which are a black instant, a plain hot chocolate or nothing at all, it occupies a gap none of them fills: something with both coffee and chocolate in it, ready in thirty seconds, with no milk to keep cold and nothing to measure.
Curator notes: the chocolate, coffee, sweetness and body scores are our own, judged on the seven sachet box and Nescafé's description of it. Orders for the Double Choc box usually go out within 1 to 2 working days. The questions tab below deals with sludge in the mug, water temperature, sweetness, iced mochas and storage.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Nescafe
Nescafe is the instant coffee brand that made the category ordinary, and for most of its history the range has been about the jar. The sachet mixes are a later and quite separate proposition: single-serve, milk included, sweetened, and aimed at the break rather than at breakfast. Within that range the mocha sits between the plain lattes and the outright confectionery drinks. It is sweeter than a latte sachet and more coffee-forward than a chocolate one, which is a narrow strip of territory but a real one.
Packaging: The Double Choc carton and its spent sachets may need separate bins; the box's recycling marks and your council decide.
What You Are Actually Buying
- Count and weight: seven sachets, 146.3g in the box, which is a little under 21g per drink and a heavier sachet than most plain latte mixes.
- A mocha, not a chocolate latte: coffee and chocolate together, with the coffee still audible. If you want the chocolate to do all the talking, a chocolate latte sachet will suit you better.
- Sweetened: the sugar is in the sachet. This is a finished recipe rather than a base you season, and the sweetness is the main thing you cannot adjust.
- Milk included: milk comes ready dried into every Double Choc sachet, which is why the box can sit in a cupboard and pack flat. That same powdered milk is why vegans and anyone avoiding dairy should pass this box by.
- What it is not: not a barista mocha, not a drinking chocolate with a coffee note, and not a decaf. It is an instant mocha, and the heavier sachet is what makes it read as one rather than as a thin chocolate coffee.
Ideal Serving Conditions
Cocoa-heavy powders go wrong in a way plain coffee mixes do not: they sink. A mocha sachet carries more solid matter than a latte sachet, and the heavier particles settle on the bottom of the mug if the water goes in gently and nothing lifts them. Add to that the standard error of pouring straight off a rolling boil, which scalds powdered milk into a faintly cooked, tinny note, and you have the two reasons an instant mocha ever tastes worse than it should.
The Standard Mug
- Measure: one sachet to 180 to 200ml. This is a big sachet, so it will take the upper end of that range without thinning.
- Water: give the boiled kettle a minute's rest first; you want roughly 90 degrees Celsius going onto the mocha, not 100.
- Pour: sachet first into a dry mug, water second, poured quickly and from a good height. The drop does most of the mixing for you.
- Stir from the bottom: once, properly, reaching the base of the mug. Cocoa settles, and a surface stir leaves a sludge you will find at the end.
Adjusting the Balance
- More coffee: half a teaspoon of plain instant in the dry mug brings the coffee back level with the chocolate, which is worth doing if you find the standard mug too sweet.
- More chocolate: a teaspoon of plain cocoa adds bitterness and depth rather than sweetness, which is the only way to make a sweetened sachet taste less sweet.
- Richer: dissolve in 60ml of hot water, then top with 140ml of hot milk. This is the single best change available to the box.
Getting It Right in the Cup
- Water temperature: close to 90 degrees Celsius, so a short pause after the boil.
- Measure: one sachet per 180 to 200ml mug.
- Method: dry mug, powder first, water from a height, one proper stir from the base.
- Storage: sealed and dry in the box, away from kettle steam. Cocoa-based powders clump readily, and a split sachet in a damp cupboard is not worth rescuing.
- Travelling: seven flat sachets, no jar, no milk and no fridge, which is the practical argument for the format.
- Best with: an afternoon break, a cold morning, vanilla ice cream poured over as an affogato, or anywhere a plain instant would feel like hard work.
Source: teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Nescafe Double Choc Mocha Instant Coffee, 7 Sachets 146.3g, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Nescafé
Nescafé invented mass-market instant coffee in 1938 and has been refining it ever since. The Azera range brings cafe-quality micro-ground instant coffee; Gold Blend is the premium freeze-dried; the Original is the everyday standard.
Packaging: The Double Choc carton and its spent sachets may need separate bins; the box's recycling marks and your council decide.
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
Six builds below cover the standard mug, a version made on milk, an affogato, an iced mocha, a rebalanced grown-up cup and a jug for the table.
Made with this tea
The Standard Mug
How to make The Standard Mug with Nescafe Double Choc Mocha.
- 1 sachet Nescafe Double Choc Mocha
- 200ml water at about 90 degrees Celsius
- Boil the kettle, then leave it a minute so the water reaching the milk powder has come off the boil.
- Empty the sachet into a dry mug. A wet mug clumps cocoa before the water arrives.
- Pour from a height and fast; the drop does most of the mixing for you.
- Stir once, properly, reaching the base of the mug rather than swirling the surface.
What you'll end up with: A thick, cocoa-led mocha with the coffee still reading underneath. Sludge in the last inch means the stir did not reach the bottom.
Made on Hot Milk
How to make Made on Hot Milk with Nescafe Double Choc Mocha.
- 1 sachet Nescafe Double Choc Mocha
- 60ml hot water
- 140ml hot milk, dairy or oat
- Dissolve the mocha powder in 60ml of hot water, beating it with the spoon until the paste has lost every bit of grit.
- Heat 140ml of milk until it steams, stopping before it boils.
- Pour the milk in from a height to raise a head.
- Dust with cocoa if you have it.
What you'll end up with: The best drink this box can give. Real milk supplies weight the powder cannot, and the chocolate stops sitting on top of the cup.
Mocha Affogato
How to make Mocha Affogato with Nescafe Double Choc Mocha.
- 1 sachet Nescafe Double Choc Mocha
- 70ml hot water
- 2 scoops vanilla ice cream
- Mix the sachet with only 70ml of hot water into a thick, almost syrupy mocha.
- Scoop the ice cream into a cold bowl.
- Pour the hot mix straight over and eat it before it melts through.
What you'll end up with: The best thing this box does. Made short, the cocoa bitterness comes through properly and cuts the ice cream instead of adding more sweetness to it.
Iced Mocha
How to make Iced Mocha with Nescafe Double Choc Mocha.
- 1 sachet Nescafe Double Choc Mocha
- 80ml hot water
- 120ml cold milk
- A glass of ice
- Dissolve the Double Choc in 80ml of hot water until no speck remains. Cocoa will not disperse in cold water, so this step cannot be skipped.
- Cool the hot mocha base for two minutes before it meets the ice, or the ice simply melts away.
- Pour over ice and top with cold milk.
- Stir briefly and drink before the ice dilutes it.
What you'll end up with: A proper iced mocha. Cold makes sugar read lower on the palate, so this version tastes less sweet than the hot mug from the same sachet.
The Rebalanced Cup
How to make The Rebalanced Cup with Nescafe Double Choc Mocha.
- 1 sachet Nescafe Double Choc Mocha
- 1 teaspoon plain cocoa powder
- Half a teaspoon plain instant coffee
- 200ml water at about 90 degrees Celsius
- Combine all three powders dry in the mug and mix them together before any water goes in.
- Pour from a height and stir once from the base.
- Taste before adding anything. The cocoa has added bitterness and the coffee has moved level with the chocolate.
What you'll end up with: The same sachet reading as a coffee rather than a chocolate drink. You cannot take sugar out of a sachet, so put bitterness back beside it instead.
A Jug for the Table
How to make A Jug for the Table with Nescafe Double Choc Mocha.
- 4 sachets Nescafe Double Choc Mocha
- 250ml hot water
- 550ml hot milk
- Empty four sachets into a warmed jug with 250ml of hot water.
- Whisk hard to a completely smooth paste. Cocoa in a jug clumps worse than cocoa in a mug, so do this properly before the milk goes in.
- Add 550ml of hot milk and whisk again.
- Pour at the table into four mugs.
What you'll end up with: Four mochas from one jug, using more than half the box. Whisking one batch smooth is far easier than fixing four mugs of settled cocoa.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Component | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Milk component (powder) | a large part of the sachet | Body and softness, and the reason the box needs no fridge and packs flat. Also the reason the drink is not dairy-free. |
| Added sugar | present, quantity not stated to us | Set in the factory rather than at your table. The only way to rebalance it is to add bitterness beside it, not to try to remove it. |
| Format | 7 single-serve sachets, 146.3g total | A little under 21g per drink, which is a heavier sachet than most latte mixes. One mug from each sealed sachet, with nothing to weigh out. |
Ingredients and allergens. This barcode's published ingredient list includes milk, both as skimmed powder and as lactose. Recipes change now and then, so let the allergy panel on your own Double Choc box decide.
Ingredients, as published for this barcode: Sugar, skimmed MILK powder (18%), glucose syrup, fat-reduced cocoa powder (11.5%), coconut oil, drinking chocolate (7%) (sugar, cocoa powder (1.8%)), instant coffee (5%), lactose (MILK), acidity regulators (sodium bicarbonate, citric acid), salt.
Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. Where the two disagree, trust the printing on your Double Choc carton.
Pack: Seven Double Choc Mocha sachets, 146.3g in total, at one sachet per mug made up with hot water. The 146.3g pack weight and the seven-sachet count are both stated in the published listing; the per-sachet figure of a little under 21g is worked out from them. Read the ingredient list, nutrition panel and best-before date off the current UK box.
Characterising components shown.
Sourcing & blend. Nescafe Double Choc Mocha Instant Coffee, 7 Sachets 146.3g is made by Nescafe, the instant coffee brand that turned the category into an everyday one. The sachet mixes sit apart from the jars in intent: single-serve, milk included, sweetened, and aimed at the afternoon break rather than at breakfast. Within that range the mocha occupies a narrow but real strip of territory between the plain lattes and the outright confectionery drinks, sweeter than the first and more coffee-forward than the second. The heavier sachet is what makes that positioning work, because a mocha with a latte-sized dose of powder in it reads as a thin chocolate coffee instead.
What's in Nescafe Double Choc Mocha Instant Coffee, 7 Sachets 146.3g, and what isn't:
- In: an instant coffee and chocolate mix with a milk component and added sugar, in a single-serve sachet made up with hot water.
- Sweetened in the sachet: a finished recipe rather than a base you season. Adding cocoa or plain instant coffee rebalances it; nothing removes the sugar.
- Not dairy-free: dried milk runs all through the mocha powder. Anyone vegan, avoiding dairy or allergic to milk needs a different mocha from this one.
- Not a hot chocolate: it looks and smells like one and it is caffeinated, which is worth knowing in a household where the hot chocolate tin is fair game.
- Packaging: the cardboard outer and the used sachet film usually part ways at the bin, so read the carton's recycling note and your council's list.
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 Nescafe Double Choc Mocha Instant Coffee, 7 Sachets 146.3g, please cite teas.co.uk.
What buyers say
No customer reviews of Nescafe Double Choc Mocha Instant Coffee, 7 Sachets 146.3g 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 Nescafé
Other Coffee worth comparing
