Nescafe Original Instant Coffee, 190g
Dark, short, deliberately bitter, and entirely predictable from one jar to the next. It will not give anyone a moment of surprise and is not meant to; what it gives is the same mug at half past six every morning until the jar runs out. The 190g is the sensible one for a kitchen where tea still does most of the work.
Nescafe Original Instant Coffee, in brief.
Nescafe Original Instant Coffee in the 190g jar is the standard size of Britain's standard coffee granule: bold, dark-leaning and identical every time, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the everyday jar that has to be right before anything fancier is worth discussing.
At the pack's guide of one teaspoon (1.8g) per 200ml mug, 190g makes about 105 mugs, which suits a single-person kitchen, a second jar for the office, or a house where tea does most of the work.
Instant coffee does not go off, but it does fade. At the pack's guide of one teaspoon (1.8g) per 200ml mug, 190g makes about 105 mugs: about six weeks for one person drinking two a day, and a sensible buy for a single-person kitchen, a second jar for the office, or a household where coffee is an occasional thing and tea does the heavy lifting.
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. Storage notes, water temperature guidance and flask instructions are also published in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Nescafé
Nestlé launched Nescafé in 1938 to solve a real problem: coffee that could be stored, shipped and made one cup at a time without a brewer. Nearly ninety years on, Original is the granule at the centre of the range, below the freeze-dried Gold Blend tier, and the 190g jar is the size most people picture when they picture a jar of coffee. We stock it because a shelf that carries only expensive things is a display rather than a shop, and because the standard jar is the one that has to be right.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our Commitment To The Planet
- Nestlé publishes its own coffee sourcing programme and prints sourcing claims on current packs. We reprint none of them second hand; check the jar in front of you for the claims in force when you buy.
- Buying the size you will actually finish is the quietest bit of waste reduction there is. A large jar that goes flat at the back of a cupboard helps nobody.
Making Nescafe Original Instant Coffee, 190g At Home
- Water temperature: 90 to 95°C. Never straight off a rolling boil.
- Measure: One rounded teaspoon, about 2g, per 200ml mug.
- Method: Paste first with a splash of water, then top up. Two seconds, and it fixes the commonest complaint about instant.
- Service: Black, or with milk and sugar. Its strength is what lets it carry a generous splash.
- Iced version: Two rounded teaspoons in 100ml of hot water, sweetened while hot, then poured over a full glass of ice and topped with cold milk.
- Caffeine note: Standard caffeinated coffee, not a decaf. The decaffeinated jar is the same granule without the caffeine if the evening is the problem.
- Best with: Toast, digestives, a bacon sandwich, and any morning where speed matters more than ceremony.
- Storage: Lid on tight, cool dry cupboard, dry spoon every time. A damp teaspoon is what turns the bottom of the jar into a solid block.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Nescafe Original 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: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
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
There is one mistake that accounts for most bad instant coffee, and it is pouring water at a full rolling boil straight onto the granules. That scalds soluble coffee and pushes bitterness forward before you have added anything. Let the kettle stand for half a minute and the same jar makes a visibly better mug, which costs you nothing and requires no equipment.
The Everyday Mug
The Flask Serve
Made with this tea
Getting The Dose Right
How to match Nescafe Original to the size of mug you actually use.
- 1 to 2 rounded teaspoons Nescafe Original
- Water at 90 to 95°C
- Milk to taste
- Measure the mug once. A standard mug is about 250ml to the brim, which is 200ml filled sensibly; the large ones people actually use are often 350ml.
- Dose one rounded teaspoon of Nescafe Original Instant Coffee, 190g for 200ml, and two for anything over 300ml or for a mug with a lot of milk in it.
- Paste the granules with a splash of water, stir smooth, then fill.
- Fix weak coffee with more coffee, never with less water. Cutting the water is what makes instant taste harsh.
What you'll end up with: A mug that tastes the same every morning. Most complaints about instant are really complaints about a one-spoon dose in a 350ml mug.
Flask Coffee For A Day Out
How to fill a flask with Nescafe Original so the last cup is still worth drinking.
- 3 rounded teaspoons Nescafe Original
- 600ml water at 90 to 95°C
- Milk in a separate small bottle
- A vacuum flask
- Rinse the flask with hot water and tip it out. A cold flask takes ten degrees off the coffee before you have left the house.
- Paste 3 rounded teaspoons of Nescafe Original Instant Coffee, 190g in the bottom of the flask with a little hot water.
- Fill right to the top with rested water. Air left in a flask is what cools the contents.
- Carry the milk separately and add it by the cup. Hot milk sitting in a flask for four hours is what gives flask coffee its reputation.
What you'll end up with: Three hot cups with no bitterness developing between them. Instant beats brewed in a flask because there is nothing left to keep extracting.
Coffee Ice Cubes
How to make ice from Nescafe Original so iced coffee stops going watery.
- 3 rounded teaspoons Nescafe Original
- 300ml hot water
- An ice cube tray
- Cold milk, to serve
- Dissolve 3 rounded teaspoons of Nescafe Original Instant Coffee, 190g in 300ml of hot water and stir until completely smooth.
- Cool to room temperature before it goes anywhere near the freezer.
- Pour into an ice cube tray and freeze solid, which takes about four hours.
- Serve by filling a glass with the cubes and topping with cold milk. As they melt the drink gets stronger rather than weaker.
What you'll end up with: Iced coffee that improves as it sits instead of turning into cold brown water. A tray lives in the freezer indefinitely.
Jam Jar Iced Coffee
How to shake up one glass of iced Nescafe Original in two minutes.
- 2 rounded teaspoons Nescafe Original
- 100ml hot water
- Sugar to taste, optional
- A glass filled with ice
- Cold milk
- Dissolve 2 rounded teaspoons of Nescafe Original Instant Coffee, 190g in 100ml of hot water in a jam jar, with the sugar if you want it.
- Cool for a minute, put the lid on and shake hard for fifteen seconds. Soluble coffee foams up well, which is the trick here.
- Fill a glass to the top with ice, not halfway.
- Pour the foamed coffee over and top with cold milk.
What you'll end up with: A foamed iced coffee with no equipment beyond a jar with a lid. Filling the glass properly with ice is what keeps it cold rather than watery.
Chocolate Cake Booster
How to use Nescafe Original to deepen a chocolate cake without it tasting of coffee.
- 1 teaspoon Nescafe Original
- 1 tablespoon just-boiled water
- Your usual chocolate cake batter
- Dissolve 1 teaspoon of Nescafe Original Instant Coffee, 190g in 1 tablespoon of just-boiled water and let it cool.
- Fold it into the batter with the wet ingredients.
- Bake as normal. One teaspoon deepens the cocoa; three would make it a coffee cake, which is a different pudding.
- Use the same trick in chocolate ganache, brownies and hot chocolate.
What you'll end up with: A darker, rounder chocolate flavour that nobody identifies as coffee. Instant works here precisely because it adds flavour without adding liquid.
Campsite One-Pot Coffee
How to make Nescafe Original on a camping stove with one pan.
- 2 rounded teaspoons Nescafe Original, decanted into a sealed pot
- 400ml water
- One pan and a stove
- Long-life milk, optional
- Heat 400ml of water in the pan and take it off the flame as soon as it starts to move. Do not let it reach a rolling boil.
- Add 2 rounded teaspoons of Nescafe Original Instant Coffee, 190g straight into the pan and stir.
- Pour into two mugs. No filter, no grounds, no washing up beyond a rinse.
- Decant the coffee into a small sealed container before you go, and keep it dry. Glass and damp tents do not mix.
What you'll end up with: Hot coffee at a campsite with one pan and no grounds to bury. This is the job instant was invented for in 1938 and it still does it better than anything else.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Soluble coffee granules | 100% | The whole of the product. Roasted coffee brewed, concentrated and dried into granules that dissolve the moment hot water reaches them. |
| Bean blend | Not broken down on pack | What the blend delivers is a bold, dark-leaning mug rather than a mellow one. |
| Added sugar, flavourings, bulking agents | None | Nothing is added to sweeten or stretch the coffee. Instant latte and cappuccino mixes are a different product and usually contain milk. |
| Dose | About 2g per 200ml mug | One rounded teaspoon; two for a 300ml mug with plenty of milk. This is where nearly all the variation between households comes from. |
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: Ground Coffee.
Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.
Pack: Nescafe Original Instant Coffee, 190g; glass jar with a plastic lid; standard caffeinated coffee, not decaffeinated. Roughly 95 mugs at a rounded teaspoon each, about six weeks for one person drinking two a day. Check the best before date printed on the jar.
Characterising components shown; soluble coffee is a single ingredient product, so the table describes the specification of that ingredient rather than a recipe. Nutritional values for black coffee made without milk or sugar are negligible; the milk and sugar are what carry the calories in a typical British mug.
Sourcing & blend. Nescafe Original Instant Coffee, 190g is made by Nestlé, which launched the Nescafé brand in 1938 with a product that solved a genuine problem: coffee that could be stored and made one cup at a time without a brewer. Original is the standard granule at the centre of the range, below the freeze-dried Gold Blend tier, and the 190g jar is the size most people picture when they picture a jar of coffee. Nestlé publishes its own coffee sourcing programme and prints the relevant claims on current packs; we do not reprint sourcing or certification claims second hand, so check the jar in front of you for the claims in force at the time you buy.
What's in Nescafe Original Instant Coffee, 190g, and what isn't:
- In: soluble coffee granules, and nothing else.
- No artificial colours, preservatives or added sugar: no flavourings and no bulking agents either.
- Not decaffeinated: this is standard caffeinated coffee. Nescafé sells a decaffeinated version of the same granule in the same jar size.
- Pack: glass jar with a plastic lid. Glass is widely collected in the UK; lids often go in a different stream, so follow the current pack and your local-authority guidance.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Nescafe Original Instant Coffee, 190g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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