For coffee lovers - another way to get your fix. Columbian coffee and Columbian RAW (unrefined) sugar, packaged up to look like a standard sugar cube. An interesting idea, but does it work? In this case let me say straight up that I was contacted by Jiva to review this product. All photos are from the Jiva web site.
My name is Natalia, I'm the co-founder of Jiva Cubes, a startup in Miami, Florida. We use high-quality Colombian coffee and combine it with raw, unrefined cane sugar to make a dissolvable cube (think of a sugar cube with coffee mixed in). We also make Hot Chocolate cubes by combining cacao powder made from fine Colombian Criollo beans and our raw, cane sugar - Panela. Jiva Cubes are an alternative to machine systems like K-cups, pod and other brewed coffee. We are also great for those who have sworn against all other instant coffees and is especially useful for people that are always busy or on the go.
Well, coffee is good, so I said OK, and they sent me two boxes of Jiva cubes: one off their 'Classic' coffee and another of all the other varieties they make. There were quite a few.
ARTICLE OUTLINE
- Introduction
- Technical details
- Field Testing
- Classic
- Classic (strong)
- Espresso (experimental)
- Mocha
- French Vanilla
- Caramel
- Hazelnut
- Hot Chocolate
- Caramel Hot Chocolate
- Overall Assessment
# WORDS: 1260
# PHOTOS: 4
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Jiva Coffee Cubes
This sounds quite like instant coffee with sugar. Artisan instant, but still instant.
Too much pre-processing, in my opinion. In the end, we will be fed with food cubes:
1 cube food for salad and 1 cube food for main course.
I just don't like it. Too robotic.
I prefer to see real coffee and, if possible, real coffee beans. And of course, eat real food. Thank you for the review.
What about BPL related use?
Website says one cube weigths .5 oz right?
OK, so each cube weighs .5 oz., and it takes 2 cubes (1.0 oz.) to make a real cup of joe, right? That same ounce will get you 7 packs of Starbucks Via, and they don't have that foo-foo sweet stuff in them.
All comments noted, no problem.
Fwiiw, I drink filtered (ie real) Espresso-blend ground coffee, black, no sugar. Even out back.
Cheers
Edited to clarify what I meant by 'Espresso', and to spell it correctly. :-)
"Fwiiw, I drink filtered (ie real) Expresso, black, no sugar. Even out back."
You haul an espresso machine out there to get the required 10 bar (135 psi) pressure?
Thanks for the review. Looks like Starbucks Via is still the only way to get a decent cup of black coffee without going as far as cowboy coffee.
I'll pass this on to my wife. She like the sweet stuff. I just don't care for any sweetener at all.
Thanks for the review. Nice to know that others prefer coffee for the pure taste of coffee not additives. The Jiva coffee cubes will not be in my backpack.
I was hoping that a block of coffee flavored sugar would at least boast some decent calories as a silver lining but alas, only 30 calories.
"I was hoping that a block of coffee flavored sugar would at least boast some decent calories as a silver lining but alas, only 30 calories."
Try to look at the bright side. Those 30 calories will support the metabolism of ~65 calories of body fat(7 grams). ;0)
Good, just what the marketplace needs. Another mediocre instant coffee with a gimmick.
Like coffee? Here’s a read.
A Beautiful Cup
We use to get articles like that one all the time.
@ Roger Since this product is of no real interest to you, why the review?
"@ Roger Since this product is of no real interest to you, why the review?"
My humble guess is that he thought it might be of interest to others on this site – and I'll bet it is (though not me, I'm a black, no sugar coffee guy myself).
It's easy to forget, but I believe there's a large (relatively) population of folks who visit this site who are not exceptionally weight conscious (I'd be one of those) and who like sweet coffee. They just don't post. Big lurker population, I think.
Edit to add: oh, and they were free….. :-)
Why would anyone go and ruin a coffee with sugar?
Lurkers. Oh yeah, them.
Carry on.
del
"Fwiiw, I drink filtered (ie real) Expresso, black, no sugar. Even out back."
I call BS. Anyone who actually gives a poo about real coffee would call it espresso, not "expresso".
I thought it was Australian slang.
Why? Doug I has it right. I thought some readers might be interested.
Oh – and spelling corrected. :-}
Cheers
While I am normally a black coffee drinker, the best coffee I ever drank was a sweetened coffee in South America. If this coffee is anything like that, I'll be one happy hiker.
Jiva ordered.
Any Australian BPL readers can have the left-overs for the cost of P&P within Oz – say $10. (Postage to USA is ~$25 – may not be worth while?)
There's about 23 standard Jiva packets and at least one of each of the other flavours, if not more.
Cheers
roger@backpackinglight.com
“You haul an espresso machine out there to get the required 10 bar (135 psi) pressure?”
There’s always the Handpresso.
(No, I’m not crazy enough to carry it in my backpack. But it has gone car camping with me.)
Hi Roger, just sent you an email. I'll take them off your hands and give them a try!
"While I am normally a black coffee drinker, the best coffee I ever drank was a sweetened coffee in South America. If this coffee is anything like that, I'll be one happy hiker."
+1. I normally drink coffee as black as my soul but I've had some sweetened Turkish coffee in the Balkans which was pretty dang good.
"Why would anyone go and ruin a coffee with sugar?"
Because there is a lot of swill out there masquerading as coffee, which can only be improved by adding an adulterant.
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