I am trying to cut down on both sugar and milk intake with my coffee during the day, so will be going black with water only.
I don't have the facilities at work for filter or ground.
So, what decent, nice instant coffe do you recommend? Is kenco millicano any good?
Buy a coffee press mug, gotta to be better than instant muck. I have these for work.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smartcafe-Hot-Cafetiere-Mug-Platinum/dp/B0007MTNJ0
you can get via in a 24 portion pot now too which works out a little cheaper.
I have a one mug caffitiere (Sp?) I have a bag of decent ground coffee and laugh in the face of all those bulk buy "coffee flavoured granual" suckers in the tea fund!
Starbucks via is essential, if you don't want a press. Presses work well but if you don't drink a lot then ground beans go stale fairly quickly. To keep it as fresh as possible, put a clip on the bag (or wind the tabs down if it has them) and then put the bag inside an airtight container - NOT in the fridge. Squish all the air out of the back when you seal it, this is important.
Starbucks Via comes in individual sachets so storage is not an issue. And it's pretty much as good as using a coffee press.
all you need is a kettle, this takes no longer to make excellent coffee than it would a cup of tea.
http://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/Aerobie-AeroPress-Coffee-%26-Espresso-Maker.html
kenco millicano is a very nice compromise.
millicano is the best instant i have tried.
Aeropress FTW. Friends were using them in Afghanistan so you are hard pushed to find less convivial brewing conditions in the UK!
where does the starbucks stuff come from in sensible numbers like 24s, stoner ? (can find either a "proper van delivery" from online grocers like ocado or else amazon wants to sell me 72 - it's only as a pressie for a laugh really and even a dozen would be more than enough)
Edit: Is it like the kenco stuff then ? - I really didn't like that, seems weak
Millicano is as good as starbucks via IMHO
get it from the shop. They sell it in 4 sachet, 12 sachet, 24 sachet packs and a 24 loose pot with a dosing scoop.
A shop ??!! 10111!!lol
I don't leave the house
ever
Ill get one for you tomorrow and post it to you then you agoraphobe! 
They're £6.95 in the shop.
29p per coffee. TBH I'll prob go back to sachets after finishing this pot as they pack better in my "London trip" bag even if they are a few pence more expensive per dose.
molgrips...why do you say not in the fridge? I thought it was widely accepted that the best way to store ground coffee was in the freezer.
all you need is a kettle
And the press, and somewhere to store the grounds...
Starbucks Via is actual ground coffee that's had the insoluble husk removed so the rest dissolves (mostly) in hot water. So it is actually brewed real coffee in a manner of speaking. Instant coffee is real coffee that's been brewed and freeze dried.
It is indistinguishable from filter coffee; although slightly less detailed than the stuff they serve in the shops, it's a lot better than many filter or cafetiere coffees I've had.
Re storage - cold temperatures help stop the oils from evaporating and degrading, this is true - however freezers and fridges are very humid and that is worse for the coffee. What you need to do is reduce the amount of air surrounding the coffee - hence squeezing air out of the bag. The less contact the beans have with fresh air, the better. Opening the bag frequently is one of the worst things you can do, so if you use the coffee slowly and want it to last, divide it up into four (or however many) bags which remain sealed until you use them. These can then be placed in the freezer until you use them - cos they aren't being opened and closed.
second the smartcafe mugs, brilliant things.
+1 Aeropress
Starbucks Via is actual ground coffee that's had the insoluble husk removed so the rest dissolves (mostly) in hot water. So it is actually brewed real coffee in a manner of speaking. Instant coffee is real coffee that's been brewed and freeze dried.
Molgrips mate you are wrong. Starbucks and milicano are both freezdried coffee, but they have a small amount of very finely ground roast coffee bean added. You post above shows you have been sucked in by the marketing bollox. I bet you believe that oakleys really offer thermonuclear protection too. 
Id be surprised if you could tell milicano from nescafe its **** vile
Via isnt bad , 1 cup press and grind ( even stale 3 month old grind ) is better than milicano or via
I donated my millicano to the bulk buy coffee flavour granules lot at work
Only thing that kept me going during 6 months in equatorial guinea was my supply of java lava - which i just made into coffee by tipping intomcup adding water stirring and letting it settle 
Now have a bodum travelpress for working away
You post above shows you have been sucked in by the marketing bollox
A bloke in a shop told me what I told you. Does that count as marketing bollx? Plus I bought some and tried it with an open mind. I guess that makes me a right old sucker, doesn't it!
moll's: wasnt having a dig. But the guy in the shop is wrong, or at least hes right in that starbucks is coffee with the insoluble husk removed...thats freeze dried coffee just with a misleading description.
However like you I use my tastbuds. If you like the taste better then carry on!
More importantly..where is TJ to tell us what coffe is best to drink in a post colonial scotlandshire.
He failed to mention the instant component, which I guess makes him wrong on that count.
I should add that I don't drink the stuff - I continue to pay for the real thing. If I had absolutely no choice I would probably drink Via rather than any other instant. I might even choose Via over a coffee press, depending on how much of a faff it was in that particular office. Plus I'd rather have Via than the 'real' stuff on offer in IBM Staines (which is actually brewed from actual beans in front of your eyes but the beans are so poor it's not so good), so you have reminded me I must get some more Via for the laptop bag now that I am a travelling man
EDIT actually, at 29p a go it's a hell of a lot cheaper than £2.30 for an Americano...
If i can't have nice coffee then i just stick to tea until i get home.
Lyons coffee bags are perfectly acceptable. I don't drink instant coffee at all, but took these on a boating holiday and enjoyed them.
Recently bought an Aeropress. It's brilliant.
It makes really quick coffee and its damn good too.
A bloke in a shop told me what I told you. Does that count as marketing bollx?
I'd struggle to find better definition of marketing than being told something about an item by somebody who wants to sell it to me
I don't think I've tried the starbucks stuff, but if you're cutting out milk and drinking black then the millicano stuff will probably disappoint. To me, as someone who doesn't drink instant anymore it tastes like instant with some additional insoluble dust.
Don't over complicate your coffee making, you don't need 'facilities'. A cafetiere is no more hassle than a teapot, pick up something in TK maxx and put a bit of thought and effort into making. Its easy to make bad coffee with a cafetiere, but its easy to make good coffee to, you just need to be methodical. Put a splash of cold water in the kettle after its boiled, and and time it, plunge at about 4 mins or it'll get bitter ( i keep a little wind up egg timer next to the kettle). You don't even need a cafetiere to be honest, a tea pot and a strainer would suffice.
But what I do usually when I'm out working - is make a nice big flask of coffee in the morning.
Just get some Gold Blend and worry about important things.
Bodum do a good press which keeps my coffee warm for a couple of hours and is relatively leak proof.
"Real" coffee is almost the same cost per cup as instant.
My camping stove, stove top espresso pot and Lavazza rosso in the back of the van. Mmmmm 
Molgrips... If the bag is sealed, surely no matter that a fridge is humid? my freezer can't be humid, its one of those frost free ones that make your ice cubes shrink!
Just to back up the aeropress comments, had mine over a year and using it nearly everyday. just let the kettle cool for a few minutes before pouring as it makes a noticeable difference to the taste, I use to just leave it a minute which is too hot.
surely the temperature difference of opening and closing and heating and cooling all the time is what causes the condensation inside the sealed bag ?
Dunno, out of freezer, scoop, reseal and back in the freezer within 30 seconds normally.
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