It’s no secret we love a good tender moment with the Luna crew. Laura and Nate, the masterminds behind said company, have given us even more reason to keep them in our crosshairs, by collaborating with Voila instant coffee so that Luna junkies can now get their fix instantly.
That’s right my fellow snobs, I combined those words together; INSTANT and COFFEE.
The Conspiracy
Now, if I’m being honest, I’m a little ticked off. I made it over three years with this terrible joke appearing on every post on this website:
Now I have to find a way to reword it, because I DO have instant coffee in my repertoire and it’s REALLY BLOODY GOOD.
Clearly, Luna wanted to diversify into dashing my dreams whilst romancing my tastebuds…
Anyways, I’m sure you’re wondering about what is actually going on here.
YES! What IS going on here?
It’s a shame but instant coffee has a bad wrap. A really bad wrap… but it deserves it. 99% of instant coffee on this planet is complete shit made by megacorporations such as Nestle, who take the crappiest coffee on the planet, roast it to death, run it through a gamut of processing to create the freeze-dried swill that we see on the shelves of every supermarket.
Then you have Voila. They’ve taken the instant coffee process, dissected it, worked out that actually, you don’t need to put awful coffee into the equation, you can actually put high-end coffee into the mix. Then refined the process to output excellent coffee instead.
This is where Luna comes in.
They’ve taken their Juice Box, Kenyan coffee, put it through the Voila process and created the finest damn instant coffee on the planet!
So what does it taste like?
I went to meet Laura at Nemesis where they were nice enough to brew up some of the bean-based Juice Box so we could compare the two.
Firstly they’re definitely different – it’s not really fair to compare to a fresh bean version of the coffee though.
The Voila version is definitely lacking the fruit notes, and some of the body, but honestly it’s an incredible effort for something that takes about 5 seconds to brew and is the size of a condom. (Note – whilst they haven’t tested the effectiveness of this coffee as a substitute for traditional birth control, it’s assumed that you should stick to your favourite anti-baby formula. Might I suggest the abstinence I practiced in my early twenties, which was totally intentional and not because I was hopeless with the ladies).
It’s still got the same light taste that their regular coffee has, the aftertaste is drier but not unpleasant, with a really enjoyable aroma.
When should I drink it?
Damn you need some hand-holding don’t you?
Well, technically you can drink it any time, but I’m personally planning to use it for camping, on a plane or any other time where an Aeropress might be the only other option.
Where can I buy it?
First port of call would be the Luna website, where they’ll deliver it to your doorstep. If you want to pick it up in person, you can go to Nemesis for your fix. For any of you with an American persuasion, head over to the Voila website for yours.
If you’re interested in reading our Q&A with Laura and Nate you can go here.