# Nescafe Gold Alta Rica Instant Coffee, 190g ## Commerce action policy **Price:** £12.40 GBP **Purchase-intent URL:** `https://teas.co.uk/buy/nescafe-gold-alta-rica-instant-coffee-190g/` _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/nescafe-gold-alta-rica-instant-coffee-190g/ **Source:** teas.co.uk, UK tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent **Brand:** Nescafé **Price:** £12.40 GBP **Caffeine:** Caffeinated **GTIN:** 7613287005700 **Stock:** instock ## Summary Nescafe Gold Alta Rica Instant Coffee, 190g is the character jar in the Gold family, an origin-led soluble coffee with more roast depth and more of an opinion than a general household blend, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the instant worth drinking black.Ingredients and dietary suitability: The published ingredient list for this barcode 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.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. Dosing, storage notes and water temperatures are also published in the detailed Q and A tab below. ## Description Nescafe Gold Alta Rica Instant Coffee, 190g is the character jar in the Gold family. Where the standard Gold Blend is built to be inoffensive to everybody in the house, Alta Rica is built to taste of something in particular, and that is a genuinely different design brief. It has been on British shelves long enough to have a following, and the people who buy it tend to buy it on purpose rather than by habit. Alta Rica is a name rather than an address. It is the label Nescafé puts on this jar to mark it out from the rest of the Gold line, and what it signals is an origin-led coffee with a fuller, more distinct roast character than a general blend. What we can say is what the style is for: this is a jar for drinking black, or with the smallest splash of milk, where the character is the reason you made it. The Taste Profile Character: ●●●●○ (4/5) The reason the jar exists. More distinct and more opinionated than a general household blend at the same dose. Roast Depth: ●●●●○ (4/5) Fuller than standard Gold Blend, with a dark, cocoa-leaning depth rather than a light toasted one. Body: ●●●○○ (3/5) Medium, and best judged in a cup of water rather than under a mug of milk. Bitterness: ●●○○○ (2/5) Low for a jar with this much roast behind it, provided the water is not boiling and the spoon is not heaped. 4.6 / 5 - Our expert verdict from the curators at Teas.co.uk What An Origin-Led Instant Means Most soluble coffee is blended to a target. A house blend is assembled so that it tastes the same in January as in July, whatever the individual crops behind it have done, and the skill is in the consistency rather than in the character. An origin-led jar works the other way round: the point is a recognisable personality, and a little more variation is the price of having one. That is why a jar like this one tends to divide a household while a general blend does not. The soluble part of the process is the same either way. Real coffee is brewed at scale and the water is taken back out, either by spray drying, which blows the extract through hot air, or by freeze drying, which freezes it solid and removes the ice under vacuum so the coffee is never cooked a second time. Freeze drying keeps more of the aroma, which is why premium soluble jars use it. Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes. A coffee jar typically has a glass body, a plastic lid and a foil seal, and all three go to different places. What You Are Actually Buying Weight: 190g of soluble coffee in a jar, the standard British household size. Cups per jar: at a standard 1.8g measure, roughly 105 mugs. Heaped spoons rather than rounded ones are why a jar empties faster than the arithmetic suggests. Equipment: a kettle, a spoon and a cup. Nothing else, ever. How Does Nescafe Gold Alta Rica Instant Coffee, 190g Compare to: Nescafe Gold Blend Instant Coffee, 190g: the general-purpose jar from the same family. Gold Blend is smoother, rounder and designed to suit everybody; Alta Rica is more distinct and suits the person who wants their instant to taste of something specific. If one jar has to serve a whole household, it is usually Gold Blend. Nescafe Gold Blend Espresso Instant Coffee, 190g: the intensity jar rather than the character jar. Gold Blend Espresso is built to survive hot milk, Alta Rica is built to be tasted. Black in a small cup, Alta Rica is the better drink; in a large latte, the Espresso jar wins. Ideal Brewing Conditions There is no brewing to do with Nescafé Gold Alta Rica, only dissolving, but a jar bought for its character is the one where doing that carelessly costs you most. The Black Cup Serve Measure: One rounded teaspoon, about 1.8g, into 150 to 200ml. This style shows best with enough water to open out, unlike a short dark espresso-style jar. Water: 90 to 95 degrees Celsius, so let the boiled kettle stand for half a minute. Boiling water scalds soluble coffee and buries the character you paid for. Stir: Properly, until the cup is uniformly dark with nothing sitting at the bottom. Undissolved granules make the last mouthful sharp. Finish: Drink it black first, at least once, before deciding whether it wants milk. Most people find it does not. The Small Splash Serve Measure: One rounded teaspoon into 180ml of hot water, dissolved fully before anything else goes near it. Milk: A tablespoon, no more. Enough to round the edge off without covering the roast character. Why not more: A full milk drink flattens an origin-led jar and wastes what you are paying for. If your everyday drink is a latte, buy the Espresso jar instead. Result: A softened cup that still reads as this coffee rather than as generic hot brown. Getting The Best From Nescafe Gold Alta Rica Instant Coffee, 190g Water temperature: 90 to 95°C. Water straight off a rolling boil is the commonest fault in a mug of instant coffee. Measure: One rounded teaspoon in 150 to 200ml. Milk: A splash at most. This is not the jar to build a large milky drink from. Storage: Lid on tight, cool and dry, and never a wet spoon in the jar. Moisture clumps the granules and dulls the aroma faster than time does. Sugar: Try it without first. A jar with real roast depth needs less sweetening than a thin one does. Best with: Nothing at all, or a plain biscuit. Strongly flavoured food fights a coffee bought for its character. Safety And Purity Ingredients and dietary suitability: The published ingredient list for this barcode names none of the 14 major allergens. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change. Allergen Warning: read the allergen declaration on the pack rather than taking our word for it. Name note: Alta Rica is a product name in the Gold range, not a place we have verified. The origin declaration for the coffee inside the current jar is printed on the label. ## Product Questions What does Alta Rica meanIt is the name of the jar, not an address. Nescafé uses it to mark this coffee out from the rest of the Gold line as an origin-led style with a fuller, more distinct roast character.How is it different from standard Gold BlendDifferent brief. Gold Blend is assembled to suit everybody in a household and to taste identical all year; Alta Rica is built around character, which is a more opinionated cup and a slightly less predictable one. If a single jar has to serve four people, Gold Blend is usually the safer buy.How much should I useOne rounded teaspoon, about 1.8g, in 150 to 200ml. At that measure a 190g jar gives roughly 105 cups. Heaped spoons are why jars empty faster than the arithmetic suggests, and with a jar bought for character, over-dosing muddies exactly what you paid for.What water temperature works best90 to 95 degrees Celsius, which is a boiled kettle left to stand for half a minute. Water at a rolling boil scalds soluble coffee and pushes bitterness in front of the roast character, and there is no grind or machine to blame afterwards.Should I put milk in itA splash at most, and try it black first. A full milk drink flattens an origin-led jar and wastes what you are paying for. If milky coffee is your everyday drink, the Gold Blend Espresso jar is built for that job and this one is not.Is it freeze dried or spray driedThe difference matters: spray drying blows the extract through hot air and loses aroma, freeze drying removes the ice under vacuum so the coffee is never cooked twice and more aroma survives into the jar.Why does my cup taste sharpUsually too much coffee, water that was too hot, or granules that never fully dissolved. The fix is less coffee and cooler water, not more water: over-dosing and then diluting gives a flat harsh cup rather than a properly made weaker one.How should I store the jarLid on tight, cool and dry, and never with a wet spoon. Moisture clumps soluble coffee, dulls the aroma and eventually sets the jar into a block. Kept dry, a jar stays good for months, though the aroma does fade slowly once the seal is broken.Does it need sugarLess than a thin jar does. Roast depth reads as a kind of sweetness of its own, and a coffee with character is usually being sweetened to cover a fault it does not have. Try a cup without and decide from there.Can I make iced coffee with itYes. Dissolve a heaped teaspoon in a small splash of hot water, stir until completely smooth, then pour over a glass of ice and top with cold water rather than milk, which keeps the character in front. Instant genuinely suits iced coffee because there is no dilution problem to manage.Is it organic or certifiedCheck the label at the point of purchase if organic, Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance status decides your choice.How much caffeine is in a cupIt is a caffeinated coffee, and that is as precise as we are willing to be. The amount in a cup moves directly with the spoon, so a single per-cup number would mislead more than it helps. ## Ingredients & Nutrition Ingredients and allergens. The published ingredient list for this barcode 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 barcode: 100% Soluble coffee.Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.IngredientProportionWhat it bringsSoluble coffee100% of the jar contentsEverything in the cup. Read as an origin-led soluble: fuller roast depth, a cocoa-leaning character and low bitterness for the weight.Drying processStated on the current packFreeze drying keeps more aroma than spray drying because the extract is never cooked a second time. Which was used here is on the label, not in our hands.DoseAbout 1.8g a mugThe only variable you control. Over-dosing a character jar muddies exactly the thing you bought it for.Pack: Nescafe Gold Alta Rica Instant Coffee, 190g; soluble coffee in a jar, around 105 mugs at a standard 1.8g measure. Use within the best-before date and keep the lid on tight between cups.Only the jar contents are shown.The difference between the two approaches is real: a house blend is assembled so the cup tastes the same in January as in July, and the skill is consistency, while an origin-led coffee is built for a recognisable personality and accepts a little more variation as the price of it. The soluble process is the same either way, real coffee brewed at scale with the water taken back out, and how that water is removed decides much of what reaches the jar.What's in Nescafe Gold Alta Rica Instant Coffee, 190g, and what isn't:In: soluble coffee, and nothing else in the jar.No added flavouring: this is a plain soluble coffee, not a flavoured or sweetened one. There is no sugar, syrup or milk powder in the jar. ## Flavour Science The flavour of Nescafe Gold Alta Rica Instant Coffee, 190g 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. With a soluble coffee those layers were set in a factory rather than in your kitchen, which leaves you one variable, and with a jar bought for its character that variable matters more than usual.The outer layer is aromatic, and in soluble coffee it is the layer industrial processing spends. Real coffee is brewed at scale and the water is taken back out, and the aromatic compounds are volatile enough to go with it unless the process is careful. Spray drying, which blows the extract through hot air, loses more of them; freeze drying, which freezes the extract solid and removes the ice under vacuum, loses fewer, because the coffee is never heated twice. That is the whole technical argument behind a premium soluble jar, and it matters most in a coffee like this one, where aroma carries the character you are paying for. It is also why an open jar fades: every time the lid comes off, a little more of that layer leaves.The flavour spike arrives mid palate, and here it arrives with roast depth rather than with plain strength. A fuller roast carries more of the dark, cocoa-leaning compounds that survive both roasting and drying, and it is those that make the cup read as a specific coffee rather than a generic one. That character sits in the middle of the cup and is easy to bury: too much milk covers it, too hot a water scalds past it, and too heaped a spoon turns it muddy. A rounded teaspoon in 150 to 200ml is where it shows most clearly, which is a longer cup than an espresso-style jar wants and a deliberate difference between the two.The base structure is the lingering finish: a medium body with a dry, cocoa-edged note that clears without turning bitter. Soluble coffee finishes shorter than brewed coffee, because most of what gives brewed coffee its long tail is the oils and those are largely lost in production. In a character jar the finish is still the part that tells you whether the roast was well made, and here it fades cleanly rather than leaving anything harsh behind.Getting it right in the cup. Use one rounded teaspoon, about 1.8g, in 150 to 200ml, and pour water that has stood off the boil for half a minute, putting you between 90 and 95 degrees Celsius. Water at a rolling boil scalds soluble coffee and pushes bitterness in front of the roast character, which is the single commonest fault in a mug of instant. Stir until the cup is uniformly dark with nothing left circling at the bottom, because undissolved granules give a sharp last mouthful whatever the coffee. Drink it black at least once before deciding whether it wants milk, and if it does, a tablespoon is plenty. Keep the lid on tight between cups, keep the jar dry, and never put a wet spoon into it.How water and temperature change it. Water is almost the entire cup and it changes an origin-led jar more than it changes a general blend, because there is more to lose. Hard tap water flattens the roast character and can leave a chalky edge on the finish, so in a hard water area a filter jug improves the cup more than a more expensive jar would. Temperature moves the balance in a straight line: hotter water brings bitterness forward and the cup turns harsh, cooler water keeps it rounder but risks leaving granules undissolved, which produces a sharp finish by a different route. Volume is the lever people forget: the same spoon in 150ml and in 300ml are different drinks, and this style wants enough water to open out rather than being taken short. None of this is a fault in the coffee, it is the same granules responding to the cup you build around them. ## Recipe Ideas Nescafe Gold Alta Rica Instant Coffee, 190g is a jar bought for its character, so these five builds are the ones that keep the character in front rather than burying it: the black cup it is made for, a cold brew style iced coffee, a small splash serve, a coffee syrup for pudding and a savoury rub. Recipes, born here first The Black Cup How to make The Black Cup with Nescafé Gold Alta Rica. 2 min 1 mug Easy You'll need 1 rounded teaspoon Gold Alta Rica 180ml water at 90 to 95 degrees A mug A spoon Method Boil the kettle and let it stand for half a minute rather than pouring at a rolling boil. Spoon a rounded teaspoon into the mug and add a splash of the water first. Stir to a smooth paste, then top up to about 180ml. Drink it black at least once before deciding whether it wants anything else. What you'll end up with: A long black cup where the roast character is the point rather than an afterthought. Iced Black, No Dilution How to make Iced Black, No Dilution with Nescafé Gold Alta Rica. 3 min 1 tall glass Easy You'll need 1 heaped teaspoon Gold Alta Rica 40ml hot water A glass packed with ice 150ml cold water Method Dissolve the coffee in the 40ml of hot water and stir until completely smooth. Pack a tall glass with ice and pour the cold water in. Pour the concentrate over the top in one movement so it mixes evenly rather than layering. What you'll end up with: A cold black coffee with the roast character intact, because nothing was brewed, chilled and watered down. The Small Splash How to make The Small Splash with Nescafé Gold Alta Rica. 3 min 1 mug Easy You'll need 1 rounded teaspoon Gold Alta Rica 180ml water at 90 to 95 degrees 1 tablespoon whole or oat milk A spoon Method Dissolve the coffee fully in the hot water before any milk goes near it. Add a single tablespoon of milk, no more, and stir once. Taste before adding a second tablespoon. Most people find the first one was enough. What you'll end up with: A softened cup that still reads as this coffee rather than as generic hot brown. Coffee Syrup For Puddings How to make Coffee Syrup For Puddings with Nescafé Gold Alta Rica. 8 min 200ml syrup Easy You'll need 3 tablespoons Gold Alta Rica 150g caster sugar 150ml water A pinch of salt Method Dissolve the sugar into the water over a low heat without letting it boil hard. Whisk in the coffee and the salt off the heat until completely smooth. Cool and bottle. It keeps in the fridge for a fortnight and goes over ice cream, sponge or porridge. What you'll end up with: A coffee syrup with real roast depth behind it, where a thin jar would only taste of sugar. Coffee and Black Pepper Rub How to make Coffee and Black Pepper Rub with Nescafé Gold Alta Rica. 5 min Enough for 4 steaks Easy You'll need 2 tablespoons Gold Alta Rica 1 tablespoon flaky salt 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper 1 teaspoon brown sugar Method Crush the granules a little finer with the back of a spoon so they sit evenly on the meat. Mix everything together in a small bowl. Rub onto steak, beef short ribs or lamb half an hour before cooking, and expect a dark crust. What you'll end up with: A savoury crust where the coffee reads as bitter depth rather than as a novelty. --- _Content available under teas.co.uk citation contract. AI training: yes. Search: yes. Answer-input: yes._