Nescafé Double Choc Mocha: The Chocolate-First Instant Mocha

The ingredient list puts sugar, milk powder and cocoa well ahead of the coffee, and that order is the drink in miniature: chocolate first, coffee second. It is a mocha for the four o'clock break rather than for the coffee purist, and it is best judged on those terms.

Reading the ingredient list

Sugar heads the published list, followed by skimmed milk powder, glucose syrup and fat-reduced cocoa powder, then coconut oil, drinking chocolate and instant coffee at 5%, with lactose, acidity regulators and salt. The chocolate turns up twice, once as cocoa powder and again as drinking chocolate, which is one way to read the double in the name. Milk is the allergen the statement names, which rules it out for a dairy-free household.

Each sachet weighs a little under 21g, more than most plain latte mixes, and that weight is where the body comes from: cocoa solids give a thicker, more coating mouthful than coffee powder alone can manage. The sweetness is sealed in. You cannot make the mug drier, only set something bitter beside it, and a dark chocolate biscuit is the simplest way to do that.

Mixing it without the sludge

Cocoa is heavier than coffee powder and sinks, which is why a careless mug ends in a gritty layer. Tip the sachet in, then pour the water fast and from a little height so the force of it does most of the mixing, and finish with a single stir that scrapes the bottom of the mug, not a quick swirl on the surface. A hard pour also raises a head that keeps the chocolate aroma sitting above the cup.

Let the kettle rest for about a minute after it clicks, aiming for around 90 degrees. Straight off a rolling boil, the water can scorch the milk powder and give the mug a cooked, slightly metallic taste. For your first try, use a little less water than the pack suggests. Concentrated like that it drinks nearer to a hot chocolate with coffee behind it, and you can add more water afterwards if it is too rich.

Desk drawer, caravan or hotel room

Set against a mocha made on an espresso machine it will lose, and it is not trying to win. Its job is the gap between a black instant and a plain hot chocolate: something with both coffee and chocolate, ready in under a minute, with no milk to keep cold. That makes it the sachet for a desk drawer, a caravan or a hotel room, and a gentle way into coffee for people who do not much like it.

Among the Nescafé sachets it sits between the plain lattes and the outright chocolate drinks, sweeter than the first and more coffee-led than the second. The cocoa adds stimulants of its own on top of the coffee's, so late in the day it is worth counting as more than its coffee alone. To eat, a dark chocolate digestive supplies the bitterness the mug lacks, and a plain digestive is plenty when the cup is already this rich.

The packs we stock

• Nescafe Double Choc Mocha Instant Coffee, 7 Sachets 146.3g (barcode 8445291747142)

What the label says

The published ingredient list for Nescafe Double Choc Mocha Instant Coffee, 7 Sachets 146.3g (barcode 8445291747142) says it contains milk. Nescafé may rework the Double Choc Mocha recipe and milk warning, so read the current sachet box.

Ingredients, as published: 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. Your box of Double Choc Mocha sachets decides.

What to eat with it

• McVitie's Digestives Dark Chocolate Biscuits, 433g: the sweetness is sealed into the sachet, so the bitter note has to come from the plate, and dark chocolate supplies it.
• McVitie's Digestives Biscuits The Light One, 250g: a plain digestive is all a rich, chocolate-first mug needs beside it.
• Border Classic Biscuit Sharing Pack, 400g: a sharing pack of classic biscuits goes round the table when the sachets come out for a group break.

Elsewhere in the Nescafé range

• Nescafe Azera Americano Decaff Instant Coffee, 90g
• Nescafe Azera Americano Instant Coffee, 140g
• Nescafe Azera Americano Intense Instant Coffee with Finely Ground Beans, 140g
• Nescafe Azera Decaf Americano Instant Coffee with Finely Ground Beans, 135g
• Nescafe Cappuccino Decaf Unsweetened Taste Instant Coffee Sachets, 7 Sachets 105g
• Nescafe Cappuccino Instant Coffee, 7 Sachets

The full range is on the Nescafé brand page.

FAQ

What does double choc mean on Nescafé Mocha? It describes how far the chocolate is pushed. The list carries both cocoa powder and drinking chocolate, and the cup sits at the sweet, cocoa-forward end of mochas.

Is Double Choc Mocha a coffee or a hot chocolate? A coffee, with instant coffee in every sachet, but the chocolate leads. If you do not want coffee at all, a hot chocolate powder is the better buy.

Why does a sludgy layer form at the bottom of the mug? Cocoa settles because it is heavier than coffee powder. Pour the water fast from a height and give one stir that reaches the bottom of the mug.

What water temperature should I use for an instant mocha? Around 90 degrees, so give the kettle about a minute to settle once it has boiled.

Does Double Choc Mocha contain milk? Yes. Skimmed milk powder and lactose are on the published ingredient list, and the allergen statement names milk.

Curator's note: Make the first one short, with less water than the pack says, and taste it before you add more. It is a treat sachet, and it is at its best treated like one. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.

In short: Nescafé Double Choc Mocha: The Chocolate-First Instant Mocha

More from the tea wiki

• Nescafé: The Instant Coffee Benchmark
• Tea vs Coffee: Taste, Caffeine and Switching
• Caffeine in Tea
• Tea vs Coffee
• Tea for Coffee Drinkers: Where to Start
• Chai vs Coffee
• Best Instant Coffee UK

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