The 3 Best Instant Espresso Brands for Bold, Rich Coffee at Home

Instant espresso might seem like the cheap way to get your daily caffeine fix, but in my experience, it’s actually a luxury—a surprise hack to make your average cup of coffee taste even stronger, fuller, more robust. Obviously, that isn’t true for all brands (some taste straight from the ashtray), but that’s where we come in. I taste-tested all of the brands I could find at major grocery stores to find the three best instant espresso powders out there.

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What we looked for in the best instant espresso:

Freeze-dried beans: In the world of instant espresso, freeze-dried beans are known to retain a much fuller flavor compared to the alternative, spray-dried. (That being said, spray-dried instant espresso can also taste great, too…as you’ll see below.)
Robust flavor: The flavor should be able to stand on its own, still have impact with plenty of milk, and give your standard coffee some extra depth.
No strange aftertaste: A clean finish without metallic, burnt, or chalky notes.

Seriously, whether you own a fancy espresso machine or not, you gotta give these a shot. Pun intended.

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Best Value

Nescafe Gold Espresso Intense

Walmart

Amazon

Nescafe, the instant espresso you’re most likely to see at a motel continental breakfast, gets a bad rap in my opinion. For spray-dried beans, the deeper roast in their Intense Gold Espresso is pretty solid for its affordability. It has a full-body flavor that leans a little closer to a regular medium-dark roast brew than a true espresso shot, but you still get a mild espresso acidity and it even froths up at the top with a thin layer of crema. For me, this mainly loses points on the aftertaste, which is slightly more bitter and burnt than the other two we recommend here. With cream, you really can’t tell, though—you just taste that pleasant, velvety roast, which honestly puts most cheap ground coffee to shame.

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

7/10

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Runner Up

Café Bustelo Espresso-Style Dark Roast

Walmart

Target

Freeze-died instant espresso is hard to come by, and that’s the beauty of Café Bustelo, which is one of the most accessible freeze-dried instant coffee brands on the market—with the rich, chocolatey, smooth flavor to back it up. This stuff is all-around great, with the one caveat being: It doesn’t taste as strongly like espresso as our current frontrunner. The underlying nutty and cocoa notes have universal appeal, complementing just about any coffee beverage that strikes your fancy, but it’s not as punchy or concentrated as an espresso shot. Still, the flavor has real depth, courtesy of those freeze-dried beans; I took this one home to use for iced coffee, and I’ll never be the same. (It’s so easy! Literally just add it to cold water! What have I been doing this whole time, brewing hot coffee and cooling it myself?! Shame on me…)

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

8.5/10

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Best of the Best

Medaglio D’oro Instant Espresso

Amazon

Walmart

This Italian-style instant espresso uses double-roasted beans to lend a distinct smokiness to its deep flavor profile, contrasting with the subtle sweet maple aroma of the powder itself. To be clear, the flavor is not sweet at all—it’s easily the most savory of all the instant espressos I tried. Given how crisp and dark it is, I actually hesitated giving this first place, but… well. Not only does it taste incredible, it also tastes the most like true espresso. (Plus, that crisp, roasty finish is perfect for an espresso martini.) It froths to a thin crema on top and comes in a nice glass container, too. What more can you really ask for? Medaglio D’oro, you’re the best instant espresso out there, and I won’t be told otherwise.

Credit: Merc / Amazon

Rating:

9.5/10

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