Coffee is one of the fastest-changing consumer markets, and the options for a cup of instant joe at home are growing.
A big innovation in the coffee at home market has been instant Americano-style.
We’ve come a long way since Nescafe Gold Blend was the most sophisticated instant on the market.
The most prevalent brand in the premium instant category is Nescafe Azera Americano, though there are many others from manufacturers such as Kenco and Lavazza.
Azera is pitched as a high-end product, described by Nescafe as “loved by urban millennials”, and the price reflects that.
It’s made of blended Arabica and robusta coffee beans and manufactured to have a layer of crema on top, just like a barista-made Americano.
But prices might make you wince. While a 100g jar of Nescafe Gold Blend is £3.45 in Tesco, it’s charging over 90% more for a smaller, 90g container of Azera at £6.50.
However, Tesco is offering the bumper 140g jar of Azera for £5.75, so that’s a significant saving.
And Co-op is hot on Tesco’s heels, also selling 140g of Azera for £5.75.
So if you’re shopping in either of those locations, don’t get caught out buying a 90g jar and check if the 140g offer is still on.
Sainsbury’s does match Tesco on price for its 90g jar, but its 140g tub is 42% more expensive at £8.15.
Co-op is charging 25p more for its 90g tin, at £6.75.
Dunnes had the highest price for 90g of Azera of the three large supermarkets we’ve surveyed at £6.80, though that’s not significantly more than the others.
However, at £8.75, Dunnes’ 140g tub is over 50% more expensive than the Co-op and Tesco offer.
Of all the retailers, Spar charges the highest price for 90g of Azera, at £7.40.
It didn’t have a 140g jar on sale when we visited.
And the prices of Azera and other coffee products, whether to drink at home or when you’re out and about, aren’t going to be dropping.
The chairman of Lavazza, best known for its coffee beans and ground coffee, has warned that the industry is reeling from “unprecedented” supply-side shocks.
Raw material costs, disappointing harvests and a security crisis affecting shipping through the Suez Canal are among the factors that have driven up prices.
Robusta beans recently hit an all-time high of $4,667 (approximately £3,612) a metric ton on the London-based ICE Futures Europe market.
Giuseppe Lavazza predicted that trend was likely to continue throughout the year, thus driving up prices of on-the-shelf coffee.
Speaking at Wimbledon earlier this month, where the company was a sponsor, Mr Lavazza said: “The coffee supply chain has been dramatically under pressure for the past three years because of the price of raw materials.”
He added that this would increase the price of coffee for UK consumers between 20% and 25% higher in the period from the start of 2023 and the end of 2024.
“People are going to have accept that the price of coffee is going to get more expensive in the short-term,” he said.
We can expect premium instants to reflect that.