Best value
Waka Coffee & Tea
Medium Roast Premium Instant Coffee (Colombian, 3.5 oz pouch)
8.0Great
Freeze-dried single-origin Colombian instant at about 43¢ a cup: clean and balanced, a big step up from supermarket jars.
3$0.43 / cup
Starbucks
VIA Instant Italian Roast
Starbucks' darkest everyday roast in single-serve sticks: strong and convenient, but roasty and expensive per cup for instant.
6.5
Fair
Coffee Reviews score
See the breakdown →
Community
—/10
- Roast
- Dark
- Format
- Instant
- Caffeine
- Regular
- Price per serving
- $1.46 / cup
- Dark Chocolate
- Marshmallow
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Last reviewed October 17, 2026 by the Coffee Reviews editors · How we score
Starbucks' darkest everyday roast in single-serve sticks: strong and convenient, but roasty and expensive per cup for instant.
Single-serve sticks of Starbucks' Italian Roast, a multi-origin Latin American and Asia/Pacific dark roast described as slightly darker than Espresso Roast without French Roast's smoky edge. Starbucks lists the ingredient as 100% arabica coffee and tasting notes of dark cocoa and toasted marshmallow. It is a convenience pick for Starbucks fans; specialty-coffee drinkers on Reddit tend to rate VIA poorly.
Best for
- Starbucks dark-roast fans who travel
- Hotel rooms and offices without a brewer
What we like
- Familiar Starbucks dark-roast flavor in a pocketable stick
- Sealed single-serve packets travel well
- 100% Arabica per Starbucks' ingredient list
- Easy to find in US grocery stores
Watch-outs
- About $1.46 a cup, expensive for instant
- Roasty, bitter edge that specialty drinkers dislike
- Only region-level origin disclosure
Flavor profile
What it tastes like.
In the roaster’s words
“A dark roast with sweet undertones that leads to a depth of flavor. Notes of Dark Cocoa & Toasted Marshmallow.”
- Dark Chocolate
- Marshmallow
- acidity
- body
- sweetness
- bitterness
LightMediumDark
How it scored
The breakdown.
6.5Fair
Cup score out of 10, weighted across five factors.
- Flavor & cup quality30%6.6
Bold and roasty as promised; a Reddit taste test kept it as the most palatable of four instants, but specialty drinkers on Reddit dislike VIA.
- Quality & freshness20%6.9
Consistent, sealed single-serve sticks of 100% Arabica, but no roast date or freshness detail.
- Value20%6.3
Roughly $1.46 a cup at the checked price, high for a supermarket instant.
- Sourcing & transparency15%6.2
Region-level origin only (Latin America and Asia/Pacific) and no certification listed for this product.
- Community love15%6.4
Popular for travel and camping, but recent r/Ultralight threads were openly negative about VIA's taste.
Creator video reviews
Watch it in action.
Independent creators, verified with YouTube and TikTok. We don’t pay for reviews and creators don’t pay us.
What people are saying
From the forums.
Verbatim from Reddit, forums and long-term owner write-ups — linked so you can read the full thread.
“I will admit I do love a good Starbucks VIA Italian Roast (Instant Coffee).”
“I’m a coffee enthusiast and the Starbucks Via instant coffee is surprisingly good and requires no effort.”
“The Via is garbage and for the life of me I can’t figure out why.”
“Starbucks Italian Roast moves on to round two!”
Details
The particulars.
- Species
- Arabica
- Format
- Instant
- Caffeine
- Regular
- Ingredients
- 100% arabica coffee
- Best brewed as
- Just add water, Iced / over ice
- Typical price
- $11.68 for 8 packets (0.11 oz / 3.3 g each) (checked October 2026)
- Servings
- 8 single-serve packets, one cup each
Community
Member tasting notes & discussion.
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Discussion
No discussions yet.
Own Starbucks VIA Instant Italian Roast? Ask a question or share your recipe — you’ll be the first.
FAQ
Good questions.
How dark is Italian Roast compared with other Starbucks roasts?
Starbucks describes it as slightly darker than its Espresso Roast but without the smoky edge of French Roast. It sits in the Dark roast tier.
How many packets are in a box?
The common retail box holds 8 single-serve packets of 0.11 oz (3.3 g) each, one packet per cup.
Sources (8)
- athome.starbucks.com/products/italian-roast-instant
- vitacost.com/products/starbucks-via-instant-italian-roast-coffee-microground-dark-roast-8-packets-0-11-oz-3-3-g-each-158251
- amazon.com/dp/B0050K4DQW
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks
- news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6263875
- reddit.com/r/Ultralight/comments/y6kjgq/i_went_way_too_deep_in_the_search_for_the_perfect/istcl17/
- reddit.com/r/CampingandHiking/comments/1qt9tc1/favorite_instant_coffee/o34bqj8/
- reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/13yruyn/instant_coffee_taste_test_results/
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