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Starbucks and Nescafé lock horns in the stick packet battle
The sticks are out and the coffee duel is heating up. The duel pits Starbucks Via Ready Brew stick packets against Nescafé Taster’s Choice instant coffee sticks. The latter has been touting its brew as tastier and four times cheaper than Starbucks Via.
Nescafé launched its attack on Starbucks instant coffee in the second week of June, with outdoor advertisements in Chicago and Seattle. A subway train wrap in Chicago proclaimed, ‘Starbucks makes great instant. We make great instant. So why does theirs cost 400% more?’, while a billboard in Seattle said, ‘Four times our price, a fraction of our flavours’.
Nescafé can be found for $3.89 for 20 packets at a supermarket (19 cents a packet), while Starbucks is $9.95 for 12 packets (83 cents a packet).
The Chicago Tribune ran a blind test with six panellists of both brands of Colombian instant, along with a pot of Colombian brewed coffee. Not surprisingly, the gold star went to the brewed coffee – it offered the most complex notes. But Starbucks’ Via instant trailed close behind in second place.
Most tasters thought the Nescafé Taster’s Choice was thin, weak or ‘cardboardy’, but at least one liked the Nescafé Taster’s Choice best and thought the Starbucks Via was too bitter and sharp. Still, all were impressed at how far instant coffee has come in the taste department.
Source: Chicago Tribune
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