Death Wish Coffee Dark Roast Instant Coffee (8 packets) edges out Starbucks VIA Instant Italian Roast, 7.0 to 6.5. It wins on quality & freshness, value, sourcing & transparency.
Flavor
How they taste.
Death Wish Coffee Dark Roast Instant Coffee (8 packets)
Starbucks VIA Instant Italian Roast
Side by side
Every detail, compared.
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- Dark Chocolate
- Cherry
- Dark Chocolate
- Marshmallow
- • High-caffeine mornings on the road
- • Iced coffee with milk
- • Fans of Death Wish's ground coffee who travel
- • Starbucks dark-roast fans who travel
- • Hotel rooms and offices without a brewer
- About 300 mg caffeine per packet
- USDA Organic and Fair Trade certified beans
- Single-serve packets for travel, camping and offices
- Familiar Starbucks dark-roast flavor in a pocketable stick
- Sealed single-serve packets travel well
- 100% Arabica per Starbucks' ingredient list
- Far more caffeine than many people want in one cup
- Some tasters find the aftertaste harshly acidic
- About $1.46 a cup, expensive for instant
- Roasty, bitter edge that specialty drinkers dislike
FAQ
Quick answers.
Which is better, Dark Roast Instant Coffee (8 packets) or VIA Instant Italian Roast?
Death Wish Coffee Dark Roast Instant Coffee (8 packets) edges out Starbucks VIA Instant Italian Roast, 7.0 to 6.5. It wins on quality & freshness, value, sourcing & transparency.
Which costs less per cup?
Death Wish Coffee Dark Roast Instant Coffee (8 packets) works out to about $1.50 / cup and Starbucks VIA Instant Italian Roast to about $1.46 / cup, based on typical retail prices when we last checked.
How do you score them?
Both are scored on the same five-factor rubric — weighted for flavor or performance, quality, value, sourcing or build, and community sentiment — using public specs, verified creator reviews and community consensus.