Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf Instant Coffee, 190g
People assume they are tasting caffeine when they drink coffee. They are barely tasting it at all. Caffeine brings a little bitterness and almost no aroma, so what goes missing from a poor decaf is not the caffeine but the compounds the process washed out of the green bean before it ever reached the roaster, which is why careful decaffeination costs what it costs and why the cheap ones never quite taste finished. This jar gives up very little. The smoothness that defines the caffeinated version carries across intact, the body sits a shade lighter, the bitterness is if anything lower again, and nothing needs recalibrating at the kettle when you change over. What it obviously will not do is wake anybody up, so if this is what you reach for at seven in the morning out of pure habit, you have bought the wrong one.
Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf Instant Coffee, in brief.
Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf Instant Coffee is the same freeze dried jar as standard Gold Blend with the caffeine taken out before roasting, smooth and low in bitterness, picked into the teas.co.uk curator selection as the evening jar to stand next to the daytime one.
A 190g jar giving roughly 105 mugs at a level 1.8g measure. It sits a shade lighter in the body than the caffeinated jar, as almost every decaf does, but the smooth Gold Blend character carries straight across. Worth saying plainly: decaffeinated means low in caffeine, not free of it.
This is the 190g jar, the standard household size. Decaf still carries a bad name from the 1980s, when the methods were rougher and the coffee really did taste worse. Modern decaffeination is a great deal better than that reputation, and in a freeze dried instant the gap between caffeinated and decaffeinated is narrower than in almost any other format, because so much of what you are tasting is the drying process rather than the raw bean's own delicacy.
Curator notes: our smoothness, body, roast and bitterness scores come from tasting the 190g jar as sold today, alongside Nescafé's own description. Gold Blend Decaf usually takes 1 to 2 working days to leave our shelves. Storage notes, clumping advice and what decaffeination does to flavour are also published in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
What Decaffeination Actually Involves
Caffeine is removed from the green bean, before roasting, while the coffee is still raw. The bean is swollen with water so the caffeine becomes mobile, then drawn out using water, carbon dioxide under pressure, or a solvent, and the bean is dried again and sent to the roaster as normal. The reason decaf can taste flatter is not the missing caffeine itself, which contributes some bitterness but little aroma. It is that the process is difficult to run without also washing out some of the precursor compounds that build flavour during roasting. Doing it well is a matter of care and control, and it is why decaf costs what it does.
If the method matters to you, check the current UK pack or ask the manufacturer directly.
Packaging: The decaf jar and its lid may need different bins; the label and your council will say which.
What You Are Actually Buying
- Weight: 190g of freeze dried decaffeinated soluble coffee in a jar.
- Caffeine: this jar is decaffeinated, which stops short of caffeine free. A trace remains in every decaf coffee. It is a very small amount, but anyone who must have none at all is better off with a herbal infusion than a decaf coffee.
- Preparation: one rounded teaspoon, water a breath off the boil, a stir. Identical to the caffeinated jar.
Ideal Preparation
Decaf is made exactly the same way as the caffeinated jar, and it suffers from exactly the same two mistakes.
The Evening Mug
- Measure: about 1.8g, which is one rounded teaspoon, for each 200ml mug.
- Water: just off the boil. Let the kettle stand thirty seconds. Boiling water scalds the granules and adds a burnt edge.
- Stir: for a good five seconds, and only then add anything else.
- Milk: after the coffee has dissolved, never before.
The Nightcap
- Build: one rounded teaspoon of decaf dissolved in 50ml of hot water.
- Enrich: top with 150ml of hot milk rather than water.
- Spice: a scrape of nutmeg or a small pinch of cinnamon over the top.
- Result: a warm, milky, faintly spiced cup that behaves like a bedtime drink rather than a coffee.
Getting It Right in the Cup
- Water temperature: between 90 and 95 degrees Celsius, a little shy of boiling.
- Measure: 1.8g per 200ml, one rounded teaspoon. Add a second spoon for strength rather than using a heaped one.
- Storage: lid screwed down, a dry shelf, a dry spoon. Freeze dried granules pull moisture out of the air and will clump into a solid block if you let them.
- Iced: dissolve in a splash of hot water first, then cold milk and ice. Cold liquid will not dissolve granules.
- Timing: this is the jar for after dinner, for late shifts, for pregnancy, for anyone cutting down, and for the second half of the day generally.
- Best with: after dinner, a biscuit, or on its own at the end of the evening.
Source: teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf Instant Coffee, 190g, 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 decaf jar and its lid may need different bins; the label and your council will say which.
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
Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf Instant Coffee, 190g opens up every coffee build that caffeine would normally rule out after about four in the afternoon.
Made with this tea
The Evening Mug, Made Properly
How to make The Evening Mug, Made Properly with Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf.
- 1 rounded teaspoon Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf
- 200ml water just off the boil
- Milk to taste
- Boil the kettle and let it stand thirty seconds so the water comes off the boil.
- Add one rounded teaspoon of Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf Instant Coffee, 190g and pour on 200ml of water.
- Stir for a full five seconds until there is no granule left undissolved.
- Add milk last. Reach for a second spoon rather than a heaped one if you want it stronger.
What you'll end up with: With the caffeine gone there is no penalty for making it strong, which is the quiet advantage of a decaf jar.
Nutmeg Nightcap
How to make Nutmeg Nightcap with Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf.
- 1 rounded teaspoon Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf
- 50ml hot water
- 150ml hot milk
- A scrape of nutmeg
- Dissolve one rounded teaspoon of Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf Instant Coffee, 190g in just 50ml of hot water and stir until clear.
- Heat 150ml of milk gently, so it steams without ever boiling.
- Pour the milk over the coffee rather than topping with water.
- Grate a scrape of nutmeg over the top, or use a small pinch of cinnamon instead.
What you'll end up with: Mostly milk, faintly spiced, and it behaves like a bedtime drink rather than a coffee. The spice does most of the heavy lifting.
Whipped Frothy Decaf
How to make Whipped Frothy Decaf with Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf.
- 2 teaspoons Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons cold water
- 200ml hot or cold milk
- Combine 2 teaspoons of Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf Instant Coffee, 190g with 2 teaspoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of cold water.
- Beat hard with a spoon, fork or whisk until pale and thick, about a minute by hand.
- Pour 200ml of milk into a glass, hot or cold.
- Spoon the whipped decaf over the milk, folding it in as you drink.
What you'll end up with: The sugar is structural here, so it will not whip properly without it. A café looking drink from a jar and a spoon, and no caffeine in it.
Late Iced Decaf
How to make Late Iced Decaf with Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf.
- 2 teaspoons Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf
- 3 tablespoons hot water
- A glass filled with ice
- 200ml cold milk
- Dissolve 2 teaspoons of Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf Instant Coffee, 190g in just 3 tablespoons of hot water until completely clear.
- Sweeten now while it is hot, if you want it sweet.
- Fill a tall glass with as many ice cubes as will fit and pour the decaf concentrate across them.
- Top with 200ml of cold milk and stir.
What you'll end up with: Two spoons rather than one, because the ice will dilute it. The hot splash is non negotiable; granules will not dissolve in cold liquid.
Decaf Tiramisu Soak
How to make Decaf Tiramisu Soak with Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf.
- 4 teaspoons Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf
- 300ml hot water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons marsala, optional
- Dissolve 4 teaspoons of Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf Instant Coffee, 190g in 300ml of hot water with 1 tablespoon of sugar.
- Add the marsala if you are using it, and stir.
- Cool completely before it touches the biscuits.
- Dip sponge fingers for one second per side and no longer, or they collapse.
What you'll end up with: The reason to use decaf here is obvious: tiramisu is a pudding, it gets eaten at night, and a caffeinated one keeps the table awake.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Component | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Decaffeinated soluble coffee | the whole jar | Real coffee, decaffeinated as green bean, then roasted, brewed at scale and dried. No filler, no chicory, no flavouring. |
| Drying process | freeze dried | The extract is frozen and the ice removed under vacuum rather than blasted with hot air, so the coffee is never cooked twice. This is where the smooth, low bitterness character comes from. |
| Caffeine | trace only | Decaffeinated means low in caffeine, not free of it. A trace remains, as it does in every decaf coffee sold. |
Ingredients and allergens. This barcode's published list holds a single ingredient, decaffeinated soluble coffee, so the 14 major allergens are absent. Nescafé may revise the recipe, so read the label on the decaf jar you receive.
Ingredients, as published for this barcode: decaffeinated soluble coffee.
Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. Your own decaf jar's label settles any difference.
Pack: Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf Instant Coffee, 190g; freeze dried decaffeinated soluble coffee in a jar. Roughly 105 mugs at a level 1.8g measure. The jar carries its own best before date; after opening, screw the lid back down each time and keep moisture off the spoon.
The table above describes the decaf by process, not by percentage.
Sourcing & blend. Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf Instant Coffee, 190g is produced by Nescafe, the coffee arm of Nestle, and sits in the freeze dried tier of that range rather than the everyday spray dried one. Two processes stack up in this jar. First the green beans are decaffeinated, swollen with water so the caffeine becomes mobile and then stripped of it before any roasting happens. Then the decaffeinated beans are roasted, ground, brewed at scale, concentrated, frozen solid and dried under vacuum. Running both stages without flattening the cup is the difficult part, and it is a large part of why decaf costs what it does.
What's in Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf Instant Coffee, 190g, and what isn't:
- In: decaffeinated soluble coffee and nothing else. This is the plain jar, not a latte, cappuccino or flavoured sachet, which are different formulations containing milk powders and sugars.
- No artificial colours, preservatives or added sugar: nothing is added back after drying.
- Not caffeine free: stated again here because it is the single most misunderstood thing about decaf. If you are avoiding caffeine on medical advice, follow that advice rather than treating decaf as zero.
- Energy: a black mug with nothing stirred in counts for next to nothing. The calories come from the milk and sugar added afterwards.
- Packaging: a jar with a lid. Where each part goes depends on your council as much as on the jar, so follow the label's recycling note and local guidance.
Asked about this product
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Source: teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Nescafe Gold Blend Decaf Instant Coffee, 190g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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