Starbucks Via Ready Brew: taste-test

Yesterday, I received a sample of Starbucks VIA(tm) Ready Brew Colombia in the liner of my Dallas Morning News—so I set up a blind taste test.

Bottom line: Starbucks VIA Ready Brew tastes like battery acid. We'll stick with Community Coffee Dark Roast.

The three contenders were:
- Our regular coffee, which is Community Coffee's Dark Roast (brewed in a Bunn BTX Thermo-Fresh Brewer)
- Nescafé Brasero, an instant coffee I bought on a recent consulting trip to Norway
- Starbucks VIA Colombia Ready Brew

The taste-testers: my wife Patti, her mother Gretta, and myself.

I knew which coffees were which, but Patti and Gretta knew them only as coffees A, B, and C.

First, we tried all three coffees black.
- Patti's preference order: C most preferred, then B, then A least preferred, with the comment that B was bitter, but A was worse.
- Gretta's preference order: C most preferred, then A, then B least preferred, with the comment that B was the most bitter.

Then, after adding sugar and half & half, they sipped again, were polled again, and gave the same preference orders.

They result: they liked their regular coffee (Community Coffee Dark Roast) best (coffee C), and were split on whether Starbucks (B) or Nescafé (A) was the worst.

So, we won't be switching anytime soon.

Scientific? Not even close.  Fair?  Absolutely. We were comparing the coffee we drank everyday to an alternative, which is exactly what Starbucks intended people do with its free samples.

If anything, our informal little taste-test made me look forward to trying the instant version of Community Coffee's Dark Roast. We already know that we like its basic flavor.  The VIA packet contains 3.3g (0.1164oz) of instant coffee, and they cost about a dollar per packet in bulk online, so VIA costs about a dollar per cup.  The instant Community Coffee Dark Roast, however, has a list price of $5.69 for a 7 oz jar, which (all else being equal) would make 60 cups, hence costing less that 10¢ per cup -- one-tenth the cost of Starbucks VIA. And, of course, Community Coffee's ground coffee costs even less per cup than that.

Apparently, Starbucks is continuing its business model of selling overpriced coffee to people with more money than sense (or taste).

Thanks for the sample, Starbucks! Now we know that our Community Coffee Dark Roast is not only less expensive, but also tastes better, than Starbucks.