3‑in-1 coffee drinks: Convenience at a steep health cost

We like quick and simple solutions, and instant products cater exactly to these preferences. They are undoubtedly convenient and useful in specific situations, but reaching for them every day is not a good practice.

In reality, 3-in-1 coffees (and also 2-in-1) are coffee drinks because the coffee content in such a "coffee" usually reaches only a few percent. Due to the additives, which are mostly simple sugars, this drink not only won't stimulate you but can also cause a sudden drop in energy. Of course, consuming such products occasionally is not harmful, but regularly reaching for a sachet of a 3-in-1 coffee drink is not the best practice.

Convenience is most likely the only advantage of 3-in-1 coffee. This product replaces the need to add sugar and milk to your cup. It also works well during camping trips, short excursions, and situations where you crave coffee but don't need to buy a whole package of beans. It's OK if 3-in-1 coffee remains an emergency coffee. It's worse if it becomes a mandatory part of every morning. Why?

First, it's essential to distinguish between instant coffee and 3-in-1 coffee. It's inaccurate to say that 3-in-1 coffee is the same as instant coffee, only with added milk and sugar. Instant coffee is a product made from 100% coffee, so it has a similar composition and properties, although with less caffeine. Thus, when you pour a teaspoon of instant coffee, you get coffee that you can later sweeten and lighten if desired. How is it with 3-in-1 coffee?

The composition of 3-in-1 coffee contains only a few percent coffee (in the example below, less than 10%). So what fills the remaining 92% of the drink? As seen on the label of a popular 3-in-1 coffee:

"Sugar, glucose syrup, coconut oil, coffee [instant coffee (8.95%); roasted, finely ground coffee (0.05%)], milk proteins, acidity regulator: potassium phosphates, flavor, emulsifier: mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids."

3-in-1 coffee is primarily sugar, appearing several times under different labels. In this case, we are dealing with sugar and glucose syrup. They occupy the first and second places in the composition, making these the most abundant ingredients. Following that are coconut oil, milk proteins, acidity regulators, and emulsifiers—in short, ingredients that don't normally appear in coffee and that we wouldn't add to our cups. That's what differentiates 3-in-1 coffee from instant coffee with milk and sugar.

Coffee doesn't need chemical additives to taste good. Most would even say that 3-in-1 coffee doesn't boast the best taste and aroma. In addition, its stimulating properties are also questionable because instant coffee has a low caffeine content. If the drink contains only 10% coffee, one can conclude that the stimulating effect of 3-in-1 coffee practically doesn't exist. It's also worth mentioning that glucose syrup suddenly and significantly raises blood sugar levels.