Grind Barista Blend Instant Decaf: The Evening Coffee

Grind Smooth Barista Blend Instant Decaf: An Evening Coffee

Take the caffeine away and a coffee has only its flavour left to recommend it. This one holds up well, light and rounded, provided you accept a slimmer body and dose to suit.

Published 26 Sep 2026 Curator-written, not crowdsourced

Grind Smooth Barista Blend Instant Decaf: An Evening Coffee, in summary: The decaffeinated twin of Grind's smooth instant: gentle and rounded with no tinny aftertaste, though slimmer in body than the caffeinated version. It is not caffeine-free, and a heaped spoon closes most of the gap.

Last reviewed by the teas.co.uk team in September 2026.

Take the caffeine away and a coffee has only its flavour left to recommend it. This one holds up well, light and rounded, provided you accept a slimmer body and dose to suit.

What the label says, and what decaf means

The published ingredients are decaffeinated Arabica instant coffee and decaffeinated Arabica ground coffee, the ground part making up 15%, and the list names none of the major allergens. It is the decaffeinated version of Grind's Smooth Barista Blend, with the caffeine taken out of the green beans before roasting. That step is regulated, using water with a carbon filter, pressurised carbon dioxide or a solvent that is washed out afterwards; check the pack for which.

Decaffeinated is not the same as caffeine-free. A trace of caffeine always stays in the bean, at a level set by regulation. For most evening drinkers that trace changes nothing. If your instruction is no caffeine at all, rather than less of it, pick a herbal infusion instead. It is an easy distinction to blur, and on a decaf it is the one that matters most.

Against its caffeinated twin

Taking caffeine out of a bean while leaving everything else untouched is seriously hard, so even careful decaffeination tends to leave the cup a shade flatter on the nose and thinner in the mouth. That is how far this sits from the regular Smooth Barista Blend. A smooth medium roast is a sensible base for this, since a blend that never relied on sharpness has less to lose, and the roast is kept restrained since decaf beans colour quickly.

What survives is the house character: rounded, gentle on bitterness, and without the tinny, metallic finish that lets poorer decafs down. Body is where it falls short, and the fix is simple. Use a heaped spoon rather than a level one and most of the difference disappears; with instant that is only a matter of the spoon. By our own arithmetic, a rounded 2g spoon in a 200ml cup gives about 45 mugs from 90g, so heaping brings that number down a little.

The mug after dinner

Treat it like the caffeinated version at the kettle: water just off the boil rather than at a rolling boil, which would scorch the coffee and strip what aroma a decaf has. Drink it fairly promptly, too. A decaf's aroma is modest to begin with and fades first, so a mug left standing loses more of its appeal than an ordinary coffee would. Milk suits it, but heap the spoon before you add any.

We think of this as the late mug for one, when a cafetière of Grind House Decaf would be more coffee than anyone needs. Between the two, Grind cover the decaf drinker who brews by the pot and the one who makes a single mug by the spoon. The regular Smooth Barista Blend is the pack for the mornings; this is the one for after nine.

The packs we stock

Grind Smooth Barista Blend Craft Instant Decaf, 90g (barcode 5060574956825)

What the label says

The published ingredient list for Grind Smooth Barista Blend Craft Instant Decaf, 90g names none of the 14 major allergens. A decaf's recipe and allergen details can change, so read the current pack before buying.

Ingredients, as published: Decaffeinated Arabica Instant Coffee, Decaffeinated Arabica Ground Coffee (15%).

Ingredient and nutrition information for this product, as published on the manufacturer's label. The label on the decaf you buy has the last word.

What to eat with it

Oreo Vanilla Cookie Chocolate Sandwich Biscuit Twin Pack, 2 x 154g: A chocolate and vanilla sandwich biscuit adds the richness a light decaf lacks.
Thomas Fudge's 6 Dark Chocolate Florentines: Florentines have the feel of an after-dinner biscuit, and their dark chocolate gives a mild mug some depth.
Border Lemon Drizzle Melts Organic Biscuits, 150g: A citrus-sharp lemon biscuit suits a mild late-evening mug better than yet more chocolate would.

Elsewhere in the Grind range

The full range is on the Grind brand page.

FAQ

Is Grind Smooth Barista Blend Instant Decaf caffeine-free? No. It is decaffeinated, which leaves a small trace of caffeine in the coffee.

How is the caffeine removed? It is drawn out of the green beans before roasting by one of three regulated routes: a carbon-filtered water process, pressurised carbon dioxide or a solvent. Check the pack for which.

Does decaf instant taste like the caffeinated version? Close, but a little flatter in aroma and lighter in body, because decaffeination takes out more than caffeine.

Is it all instant coffee? Not quite. The published ingredients are decaffeinated Arabica instant coffee plus decaffeinated Arabica ground coffee, which makes up 15%.

How do I make decaf instant taste fuller? Use more of it. Heap the spoon instead of levelling it and the difference from the caffeinated version mostly disappears, though the 90g pack will not stretch quite as far.

Curator's note: Heap the spoon and drink it while it is hot. Treated that way, it is a decaf we are happy to reach for at nine at night. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.

In short: Grind Smooth Barista Blend Instant Decaf: An Evening Coffee

Field	Detail
Brand	Grind
Packs we stock	90g
Category	Instant Coffee
Allergens (as published)	No published ingredient of Grind Smooth Barista Blend Instant Decaf falls among the 14 major allergens.
Caffeine	decaffeinated
Caffeine	Decaffeinated, not caffeine-free
Dose	Heaped, not level
Occasion	After dinner, one mug