I remember a while ago seeing Nescafé instant coffee on the shelves. I loved the idea + bought it a few times. By instant, of course, I don’t mean “just add water”, I mean just press a button on the bottom. Two chemicals mix together and you instantly have hot coffee inside the can.
So when ... Read review
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A review by C_W_Monkey on Rocket Fuel Self Heating Espresso Power Shot October 11th, 2004
Author's product rating:
Value for money
Very poor
Product Quality
Satisfactory
Product package
Poor
Taste
Quite nasty
How loyal are you to this brand?
Not at all
Advantages:
it'll get you hyper
Disadvantages:
there's very little of it
Recommend to potential buyers:
no
Full review
I remember a while ago seeing Nescafé instant coffee on the shelves. I loved the idea + bought it a few times. By instant, of course, I don’t mean “just add water”, I mean just press a button on the bottom. Two chemicals mix together and you instantly have hot coffee inside the can.
So when they stopped selling it, I was rather disappointed. But yesterday my mother came home from shopping (I’m a lazy teenager and so didn’t help her) claiming to have found a similar product. I was happy. Going to Reading Festival next week, I was very happy to find something I could drink in the mornings without firing up our gas stove.
But upon testing the product I became rather disappointed. Because everything that Nescafé got right about their coffee, everything I liked about it, was lacking in this version.
---------------- Espresso ----------------
Firstly, this is an espresso shot. It’s got Guarana extract in it and a hell of a lot of caffeine. It’s more designed as a medicine style product. A “wake you up” kind of thing. Not really a drink to enjoy.
Though I would barely call it a shot. It’s listed as 40ml. I’m not entirely sure if that includes the chemicals used to heat it up because when I drank it there was about 1 mouthful. It wasn’t even a full mouthful.
Perhaps it appears to be less product because the size of the container in full is about 5 times the size of the serving of drink. This is down to the chemicals needed to heat it up.
----------------- Instructions -----------------
If I remember correctly, the Nescafé was clearly labelled and easy to figure out what to do. When I see a foil lid I naturally peal it back, expecting it to be shielding something below that I must operate. This was a bad judgement.
It turns out that you’re supposed to press the bottom of it first and shake for a bit. Somehow, despite being technically clearly labelled, my instinct wasn’t to do this. Somehow, it just wasn’t labelled in a way which made my brain think “don’t open the foil yet”.
So, although by examination it is very clearly instructed, I would argue that it isn’t.
------------------- Heating -------------------
Being the physicist I am, I replaced the plastic lid and was careful with the shaking when I heated it. Firstly, I know that the tiny bit of silver foil would make only minimal difference to the heating. Plus, I have since tried the second shot that my mum bought and done it properly. The result was the same.
You press the bottom and shake for 40 seconds. This bottom doesn’t look like a button, it isn’t marked very well. But you’ll know when you’ve pressed it because the cup gets boiling hot!
I can just see kids going into supermarkets and pressing all the buttons. It’s so easy to do without buying the product (thus why I assumed the foil would be protecting the mechanism). You wouldn’t know till you got home that a meddling child had spoilt your heating mechanism.
However, that wont matter too much. Because the actual coffee inside doesn’t seem to heat far beyond room temperature. After 1 minute (perhaps the extra 20 seconds allowed it to cool down again) of shaking, the coffee was barely luke warm inside.
I did, however, almost have second degree burns on my hand. But I’d continued shaking through the pain in the interests of science. The cup gets extremely and very uncomfortably hot very quickly.
Nescafé coffee was always hot out the can. Ok, it wasn’t as hot as coffee normally is but it was still quite warm. And they had a cardboard covering on the outside which stopped the heat getting to your hand. It worked!
I would warn anyone to keep this cup away from any surface that heat may damage. Then, of course, there’s children. For about 2 minutes the cup should be avoided by all adults and children!
Then, after just 2 minutes (I’d drunk the coffee after 1 minute so this wasn’t why it was cold) it becomes freezing cold. It’s amazing that such heat can disappear so quickly and that it fails to heat the product inside.
--------------------------- The Coffee ---------------------------
Ok. So the coffee is cold and there isn’t much of it. But that doesn’t matter right? I mean, it’s still tasting good isn’t it?
Well. I’m sorry but I don’t like espresso. Furthermore, my body isn’t used to such a caffeine and guarana (whatever that is) kick in such a short space of time. It gave me a headache.
But as espresso goes, it’s not too bad. It’s the same coffee you get with the rocket fuel coffees from percol I believe. Although I think it’s slightly stronger. So the basic idea is that they’ve tried to include all the ingredients in the same portions of a full, proper, cup of black coffee into the small portion they give you.
This is bad, bad stuff. It don’t taste too bad but everything about it sucks. There’s no innovation, there’s no thought.
It’s basically just trying to get into a niche market as quickly and cheaply as possible. I’ve been told it costs a lot as well. It’s certainly not worth it. You’re not paying for hours of research and lots of thought. You’re paying for a hastily designed cup with a hastily (probably bought) thought up chemical process and a very small amount of actual product.
It’s the old Nescafé self heat coffees, but smaller, badly designed and badly implemented. They should have a look at what Nescafé did and do something similar if they’re going to do anything. But evidently, there is no market for self-heating coffee.
Advantages: Hot coffee wherever you are Disadvantages: A bit expensive
...just come across Percol's great Rocket Fuel coffee in an ingenious self heating cup. Granted, a small cup, but with power like this, who needs more?
The coffee: Finest Italian espresso coffee mixed with 0.9% Guarana. This combination significantly increases the stimulating effect, as Guarana is more consistent in its energy supply to your body than caffeine alone. It also fuels you for a longer period of time, so avoiding the hit-and-slump regularly ... ...considering how popular their instant Rocket Fuel is, but it is produced by Malgara Food of Italy for Food Brands Group Ltd. 9/10 Calico House, Plantation Wharf, London SW11 3TN, the parent company and address for Percol.
The technology: When you click the base of the cup, a membrane inside breaks, allowing water in the base of the pot to mix with calcium chloride in the double wall of the cup. The chemical reaction causes heat, and shaking the ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: tastes good, not too expensive and gives you a massive kick, ethical company too Disadvantages: really will keep you up, don't drink before bed
...a dilemma. Then I found ROCKET FUEL in my corner shop, it promised to give me a kick start and did it. I had quite a strong cup, 2 teaspoons from my newly bought jar. I was off, buzzing, awake and on top form ready for what the night was going to throw at me.
I just wanted to let you know of this awesome product. They also have self heating cups, so need for water or kettle! Perfect when in a rush, just push the buttom and ta da hot coffee in just ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Totaly great energy rush Disadvantages: Cost and not quite enough
What is going to float an engineer's boat more than technology and coffee combined?
The answer is technology, coffee and stimulants combined which is provided by this nifty contraption. This is a self heating cup of espresso combined with gurana. Operating the technology is simplicity in itself you turn the cup upside down and press the button then shake vigorously for 40 seconds once that is complete you remove the top and your espresso is ready……
... ...rich bitterness you would expect from a good espresso, which is excellent, more importantly though the rush of caffeine and gurana is superb as is testified by this review. Infract as energy drinks go this stuff beats red bull hands down.
Unfortunately at £1.09 from my local garage for 40 ml it is a tad pricey but it does save queuing in poncy coffee shops and having fello0w engineers point and laugh at you. ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: buy a cooker for a pound! Disadvantages: It's a one-time micro cooker
Shaking for forty seconds is the fun-est part of this experience. the container gradually gets hotter and hotter in your hand. This cup is an elegant waisted shape with a red label, which looks as if could contain a regular size coffee, but you'll be disappointed unless you think one shot of Italian style expresso is a regular coffee.
It's just the thing if you are halfway up Everest and don't want to build a fire to heat a cuppa. In the big city, ... ...proper shot of strong Italian expresso. The idea is good. A combination of three stimulants, caffeine, sugar, and guarana, a South American herb, which is supposed to give the lift that caffeine gives, but without the disadvantages. So it's a three-way trip to the stars. But I couldn't taste the sugar and there just wasn't enough of it to feel I had had a drink. The high was rather mild. The taste was like strong-ish instant coffee.
Obviously I ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
