Ranking of 12 Flavored Instant Coffees

Flavored coffee belongs in its own category, as does instant coffee. Put those two things together, and you have a fairly small niche. Instant coffee has been around longer than you may think, though, and the first flavored instant coffee possibly dates back to the mid to late 1700s when coffee flour was mixed with butter, suet, vanilla, cinnamon, and musk to create a paste. The paste became instant flavored coffee when hot water was added. Today, instant coffee encompasses a few different styles and a handful of flavors, and it is sold as a fine powder or granules.

To determine which flavored instant coffees are worth enjoying, I gathered a dozen brands with various flavors from a handful of local stores. Flavors included vanilla, hazelnut, and caramel, and styles included cappuccino, latte, and regular. Though it’s tough to compare a vanilla latte to a caramel cappuccino, this ranking was based mostly on taste and how the particular brand delivered with its version of flavored instant coffee.

Maxwell House iced hazelnut latte makes for a pretty iced coffee and photographs well next to the box. But that’s about the only positive I could come up with for this instant coffee. The latte experience, where you smell the rich coffee aroma as you take a sip, with the light, sweet foam hitting your taste buds first, should result in a welcoming taste of coffee to balance out the senses. That didn’t happen. This latte had a weird smell, and when I took a sip, it tasted like chemicals. It was entirely too sweet — even for a sweet tooth — and bore no resemblance to coffee, not even flavored coffee. I’m not entirely sure how to describe it.

Though my initial reaction to this iced hazelnut latte immediately placed it at the bottom of the list, it’s possible there’s a mixed coffee drink you could make this with or add to. However, the amount of sugar in each packet (10 grams per serving) might place this product squarely in the dessert column as opposed to the coffee column. As a matter of fact, a sweet hazelnut coffee flavor might make some desserts taste better.

One of my favorite flavors for coffee is French vanilla, so imagine my disappointment when the Hills Bros. Cappuccino French Vanilla landed next to last. As one of the many flavored instant coffee brands on this list with a high amount of sugar (16 grams per serving), I found it to be way too sweet, which does an injustice to the French vanilla flavor. It definitely tasted like a vanilla, but because of the sickeningly sweet punch and the chemical aftertaste, Hills Bros. French vanilla squeaks in just above Maxwell House, making it a notch above last.

This particular brand refers to its flavored instant coffees as cappuccino, but I’d argue against that particular label. Cappuccino should have some form of coffee taste, which usually comes from espresso, but this was more like a thick French vanilla drink — no coffee taste detected. You might have better luck using this flavored instant coffee if you think of it as a French vanilla sugar substitute.

Folgers instant latte French vanilla can be made either hot or cold, so I tested both options. Unfortunately, I was left disappointed in yet another French vanilla flavored instant coffee. The overall product is similar to Hills Bros. French vanilla with its overly sweet profile and lack of coffee undertones. The drink also left me with a bit of an unpleasant aftertaste. Rather than using the word latte, I think a better description for this instant drink would be vanilla milk. Granted, a homemade latte is made up of more than 50% milk, but I detected zero coffee flavor to complement the sweet vanilla.

I didn’t notice much difference between hot or iced — neither option impressed me much. Folgers instant latte French vanilla gets a slight bump up from last because its aftertaste is a smidge less offending. With 19 grams of sugar, this instant latte makes for another good contender as a French vanilla sugar substitute that can be used as a way to enhance sweet desserts like a vanilla loaf cake.

Walmart’s Great Value brand offers a French vanilla cappuccino beverage mix. It’s safe to say the brand could remove the word cappuccino from the label and the marketing would be more accurate. It smelled delicious when I opened the container, but this mix proceeded to disappoint me like the other French vanilla flavors I tried. I also found this variation to be too sweet (6 grams of sugar per serving), but unlike the others appearing lower on the list, it did not come with an unpleasant aftertaste. Also ranking it a little bit higher is that it featured a better vanilla flavor that reminded me of a good vanilla ice cream.

The Great Value French vanilla cappuccino drink mix has potential past making a warm flavored milk. Because the vanilla flavor was pleasant, it’s another brand that might be best used as a French vanilla sugar substitute. This mix could complement a number of desserts like cakes, ice cream, cookies, or perhaps a sweet, blended dessert drink.

Maxwell House International Cafè Vienna is a flavored instant coffee that tasted more like coffee, putting it midway on the list. Though it had 17 grams of sugar per serving, it had less of a sweet profile and more of a coffee taste. Overall, though, it was just okay. I used to drink General Foods International Coffee Cafè Vienna years ago before it was discontinued under that brand. In the early 2000s, it was scooped up by Kraft Foods Inc. and sold under the Maxwell House brand instead. But it didn’t taste the same, and personally, I feel its quality has suffered.

You could argue Vienna isn’t a flavor but a style of coffee that originated out of Vienna, Austria. It’s the birthplace of the cappuccino and a historical epicenter for coffeehouses. And while the cappuccino has evolved over time, Vienna coffee still stands as a creamy, milky concoction of espresso with foamed and steamed milk that has slight variations to make a range of Viennese drinks. Maxwell House’s version had a hint of an espresso bite, but the overall flavor fell flat. It was a bit spicy, which helped, but not enough to rank it any higher.

I had high hopes for the Maxwell House International French vanilla since I previously enjoyed it when it was sold under the General Foods brand, but I found it to be lacking in any kind of oomph. Still, it sits midway on the list because it was tasty, just not as a coffee. In all fairness, the packaging does not use the word coffee nor any other word associated with coffee, except cafè. But there’s some expectation of a latte or cappuccino experience due to General Foods’ past product and the current coffee brand owner, Maxwell House. But it didn’t resemble a coffee style and was instead, as the label suggests, a “cafè style beverage mix.”

If you’re looking for a French vanilla drink, this is not a bad choice. It’s why this flavored mix is in the middle of our list. It was a thinner consistency than the other French vanilla options but still resembled vanilla milk. With 14 grams of sugar per serving, this mix did not taste nearly as sweet as the other varieties and also featured a lighter French vanilla flavor.

Nescafé Taster’s Choice is a popular instant coffee brand that’s been around since the 1930s. I’ve had Taster’s Choice many times in the past and consider it to be a decent choice for instant coffee. Since hazelnut is another favorite flavor of mine for coffee, I was looking forward to trying this option.

Nescafé Taster’s Choice Hazelnut is one of the few brands on this list that looks like regular coffee when dissolved and isn’t laden with a host of additional ingredients. It contains very little added sugar (only 2 grams per serving), but it was still surprisingly sweet — oddly, a little too sweet. The coffee had a fairly light profile but featured a pleasant hazelnut taste. One of the main reasons it doesn’t rank any higher on this list is because I thought it had a weird aftertaste. Worse than that, it was a lingering aftertaste that I couldn’t quite get rid of until I brushed my teeth.

I was happy to try the Black Rifle Coffee Company vanilla bomb instant coffee since it comes from a solid and consistent brand that has impressed me with some of its other options. It can be made either hot or iced, so I tasted it both ways. I wasn’t overwhelmed in the flavor category, but it had a nice, light hint of vanilla. The coffee itself was light as well. I thought it got too watered down when making it as iced. This is an easy fix, though, as you could use two packets instead of one or just not add as much water or ice.

I was thankful to see an option that didn’t include any added sugar (though it states it does include natural flavoring among the ingredients) since a good-flavored coffee doesn’t need to be sweet. Nothing against the sweet variety, but it’s easier to add sweetener than it is to take it away. Though the lack of sugar helped bump this brand up higher on the list, taste was still the deciding factor, and it just didn’t have enough of a coffee or vanilla profile to move up in the ranking.

“Whoa,” was my first reaction to opening Hills Bros. cappuccino English toffee. The smell was overwhelming to such a degree that I had to cover my nose. Suddenly, it was like I was standing in a toffee factory surrounded by candy. The smell grew stronger when I added hot water to the mug. I was almost afraid to try it after having tried the French vanilla variety that was sickeningly sweet. I figured with the heavy saccharine smell that it must be overloaded with sugar. It turned out that this mix did not taste too sweet at all. It had a pleasant, well-balanced flavor of toffee and coffee, and the initial smell died down considerably after a minute or two.

This Hills Bros. mix still has a high sugar content (15 grams per serving), but comparatively speaking to the other options on this list, it was delicious. It had a deeper coffee-like flavor that I was looking for, but it was complemented with a toffee taste that wasn’t overpoweringly sweet. So if you don’t mind sugar in your flavored instant coffee, this is definitely a good one to try.

I happened to try Hills Bros. Cappuccino White Chocolate Caramel after the English toffee, and it actually bumped the toffee flavor out of third place. I was expecting this flavor to be too sweet because white chocolate tends to be quite sweet on its own. Add caramel, and I thought for sure my head might pop off my shoulders from the sugar overload. But once again, I was pleasantly surprised with the result. Sure, this instant coffee also has a high amount of sugar (15 grams per serving) — there’s a theme here — but it was not so sweet that the overall flavor got lost. My best description is it tasted like butterscotch — a creamy butterscotch coffee.

This white chocolate caramel flavor was actually pretty mild compared to some of the other options on this list. It was not as rich as the toffee flavor or as thick as the French vanilla flavor, but it provided a balance of coffee, flavor, and sweetness that makes this a pleasant after-dinner dessert drink.

Starbucks is known for its flavored coffee drinks and more — from its vanilla latte to the chocolate chip Frappuccino to caramel apple spice. The company is well-known in the coffee and drink world, inciting debates among everyone from coffee shop-goers to home brewers as well as non-coffee drinkers. Personally, I’m a fan of the coffee itself when I make it at home, and I’ve had my share of Starbucks drip brewed, espresso, K-cups, and instant coffee. For this ranking, I sampled the brand’s new Crema Collection Premium Instant Coffee. It comes in three flavors, but the only one I found on the shelves was salted caramel.

It smelled great as soon as I opened it — a combination of espresso and caramel. The packaging states it can be made hot or cold, both of which foamed up to create a pleasing fresh-made cappuccino look. The lightly sweet caramel foam hit first, followed by a deep, rich, creamy coffee taste that had a hint of caramel as well. It wasn’t too sweet and resembled a true cappuccino more than any other on this list. While I enjoyed the hot version, I think the iced version was much better. Making this with cold water and ice created an instant and refreshing cold cappuccino.

Of all the flavored instant coffees I tried for this ranking, Dunkin’ was not the one I thought would finish at the top of the list. But it was the clear winner as soon as I tried it. Dunkin’ Cold Caramel delivered a home run in the iced coffee ballpark. It had a good balance of coffee and caramel where the added flavor didn’t overpower the coffee itself; instead, they worked together. I enjoyed the iced coffee as is and also with cream.

The coffee carried more heft than I was expecting, and I thought it made for a refreshing cold coffee. I usually find Dunkin’ coffee to be too light, but even with the ice, this caramel instant coffee didn’t get watered down and still tasted like coffee. Each packet contains only natural and artificial flavor, no sugar. It wasn’t sweet except for the backdrop of caramel flavor, so you’ll have to add sweetener if you’re looking for more of a sweet sip.

It had been a long time since I had a flavored instant coffee, but the mood struck. So I went hunting for the best one that could be found in a local supermarket. After noticing that Hills Bros. and Maxwell House seem to dominate the instant coffee category, I chose three flavors from each of those that are typically offered by other brands — vanilla, hazelnut, and caramel. Some instant flavors are available cold as well, and I added those in for a good mix.

Armed with a dozen flavored instant coffees, I taste-tested each option after making it according to package directions. A few were tested iced and hot, a couple were just iced, while the majority were hot. They all dissolved very well without issue.

The main ranking factor was taste. I wanted a flavored cup of coffee, not sweet, flavored milk. I gave more weight to those that weren’t simply loaded with sugar, which just masks the overall flavor profile (basically, the bottom four). Bonus points went to those that could be either hot or cold. The top 5 are all great choices but for different reasons. It’s hard to compare a sweet, creamy, hot latte style coffee with an iced flavored, black coffee. The winner, though, had a nice balance of coffee and flavor, without being sweet.