Beanies coffee is instant coffee granules that have been flavoured with the intention of producing a cup of coffee like you would get in a coffee shop if you ordered a coffee with a flavoured syrup.
You can also buy Beanies flavoured coffee as whole coffee beans and as all-in-one sachets that contain coffee and powdered milk.
In this article, we will take a look at all the different ways you can buy Beanies coffee, what it tastes like, how much it costs and whether or not it represents good value for money.
Lots of people enjoy a Vanilla Latte from Starbucks or Costa so we were hopeful that you may get something similar if you buy a jar of “Very Vanilla” instant coffee from Beanies.
Should you buy Beanies instant coffee or whole coffee?
Whenever you are faced with the choice between instant coffee and whole coffee beans, always choose whole coffee beans.
Whole coffee beans are freshly roasted seeds from coffee berries and retain their freshness when kept in whole bean form and ground down just before you make your coffee.
Instant coffee is the lowest quality coffee because it has been already been made into liquid coffee before and then frozen and broken down into the granules you get in the jar.
Instant coffee does offer the convenience of being able to make a coffee very quickly and with whole beans you have to grind them and then brew them in a coffee maker.
The taste difference is worlds apart and it’s well worth the small extra effort with whole beans.
This article explains instant coffee in more detail:
And this article goes through some low-cost options if you want to brew your own coffee with a coffee machine:
What is the best coffee machine?
Beanies coffee beans are massively better value for money than their instant coffee. Let’s compare the prices.
How much does Beanies coffee cost?
Beanies instant coffee is extremely expensive but the whole coffee beans are much more reasonably priced and it’s hard to understand the huge difference in price.
It is subjective because they do offer unique flavours that you won’t be able to get elsewhere so if you love the flavoured coffee then you could argue that it’s worth it.
At the time of writing their instant coffee was £2.50 per jar of 50 grams. That works out at £50 per kg.
£50 per kg is a seriously large amount of money to pay for coffee, especially instant coffee.
The flavoured coffee beans, on the other hand, are being sold for £15 per kg so you are paying over three times as much for their instant coffee which is a significantly inferior product.
As mentioned above, whole coffee beans are much better tasting and better quality than instant coffee.
They also do an all in one sachet that costs £12.50 for 50. These contain instant coffee and powdered milk. We wouldn’t recommend these as fresh milk is always better than powdered milk and they work out really expensive as well at over £33 per kg
What does beanies coffee taste like?
They offer around 20 different flavours of instant coffee at any time with a flavour to cater for ever palate.
These are all of the different Beanie instant coffee flavours on one page.
I think that it is a bit like Marmite, either you love it or you hate it. We are big coffee lovers and I have personally never been a fan of flavoured coffee because it can overpower the coffee flavour itself.
If it’s subtle then it’s ok but it’s important that you get both the coffee and the flavoured element when you drink each mouthful.
I haven’t tried all of the flavours and I was pretty surprised to see that Sainsbury’s do a couple of the flavours.
Having worked for a supermarket head office myself I know how they work in terms of selecting products for the very competitive space on each shelf.
The two flavours they had were Irish Cream and Amaretto and therefore they are most likely the best-selling flavours Beanie offer.
I can’t be sure but they wouldn’t stick this in Sainsbury’s by selecting the one that Beanie sell the least of that’s for sure.
I gave the Amaretto flavour a go and it wasn’t for me. I couldn’t taste the coffee and the Amaretto flavouring overpowered the coffee and it didn’t really taste like Amaretto.
I’m sure that there will be people out there that disagree with me but when I’m paying £50 per kg for my coffee it has to taste really good or I’m going to be complaining.
For that kind of money, you can buy some seriously good single estate organic Fairtrade coffee.
Unfortunately, the quality of this coffee does not come close to the price they are asking for it so it’s all about how much you value the uniqueness of the flavour and that is a personal thing.
It didn’t work for me but you may love it. Here are some unbiased reviews left on Trustpilot which tend to lean towards my view although I did find one person that loved it.
If you want to sample some of the best value for money coffee beans out there then here are a selection for you to consider:
How to choose and buy coffee beans
What coffee varieties are used for beanies coffee?
On the Beanie website, it states under the ingredients for the instant coffee “freeze-dried coffee, flavourings”
I tend to steer away from coffee when I don’t know the kind of coffee that is being used and beanie don’t tell you on the website.
When I contacted customer services to ask them they responded to say “Our whole bean coffee beans are a mixture of both arabica and robusta”
They didn’t specify whether it was 50/50 or 90/10 one way or the other so it’s hard to know.
When I asked them about the instant coffee they ignored me and didn’t respond.
There are two main varieties of coffee, Arabica and Robusta. Arabica is by far the better and Robusta tends to be used in cheaper instant coffee’s.
Having been ignored when I asked about the variety in their instant coffee I’m going to assume its 100% Robusta which isn’t bad, its just not as good as Arabica and at £50 per kg you can get some SERIOUSLY GOOD Arabica.
Do you put milk in Beanies coffee?
You certainly can add milk to Beanies coffee and its probably the way that most people will drink it but it just means that you are diluting the flavours even more and end up with a drink that has lots going on but it doesn’t really combine well.
If you are using the instant coffee then you have the coffee itself and then you add water. Then there is the flavouring that is in the coffee and then you add milk.
So you have 4 ingredients already and then you may add sugar as well!
If you normally take milk with your coffee then try drinking Beanies without milk and the taste you get from the flavouring may work for you instead of the milk.
Is Beanies coffee Vegan?
Yes, it is Vegan as stated on their website for the instant and whole bean coffee.
Verdict
Beanies coffee is ok for a bit of a novelty or as a gift for someone but the flavours can overpower the coffee and it does work out very expensive particularly the instant.
