Now a few months back I blogged on their sneaky new "Hidden Truths" campaign that talked about coffee and antioxidants. The infered message was that Nescafe coffee contains antioxidants and this was not supported by any specific evidence.
Their new product is just bizarre.
It is a blend of roasted and unroasted coffee beans - green beans. I can hardly imagine the process you would have to go through to do this - soaking, pulping, boiling and then mixing the resulting liquor with brewed coffee before freeze drying the whole mess to get the instant coffee-based granule.
It is marketed as having 70% more anti-oxidents than green tea, and they list the key "nutritional benefits as:
- Delivers 70% more antioxidants than green tea*
- Made from 100% roasted & unroasted coffee beans
- Coffee is low in calories
I'm wondering why "Made from 100% roasted & unroasted coffee beans" is a nutritional benefit, but however. . . What they don't state is WHAT antioxidants are present.
This is crucial as not all antioxidants have a beneficial and some have no measurable effect at all. In addition roasting to coffee bean actually changes it chemically giving it both the flavour and aroma that we have come to love. How are they covering for the bitterness of the green beans?
Here is their promo blurb:
"Through the careful combination of roasted and unroasted coffee beans, NESCAFÉ Greenblend has a full coffee taste and aroma delivering your body 70% more antioxidants than leading green tea brands.
Studies show that although an average serve of green tea contains similar levels of polyphenol antioxidants, the body absorbs 70% more antioxidants from a serve of NESCAFÉ Greenblend.
Boost your antioxidant intake today by trying a cup of NESCAFÉ Greenblend!
Prepare it as you would your normal coffee, whether you enjoy it black, with milk or with sugar."
Note - there is no link to the 'Studies' mentioned and no footnotes provided on their website.
This seems like a desperate grab for market share - and not for a further share of the coffee market but a chunk of the tea market instead. Note to Nestle - tea drinkers drink tea because they prefer tea.
It seems fairly pathetic and a cynic would suggest that labelling the product 'Green' may be taken as a reference to 'environmentally friendly' by some rather than the 'green beans' that I am sure Nescafe would state the branding really refers to. However in my opinion, in the current climate of major shifts to environmentally friendly and ethical coffees, labelling a product as 'green' mislead many buyers into thinking they are buying environmentally friendly coffee - still, Caveat Emptor!
I'm tempted to try it just to see what it tastes like but I don't want to encourage them by increasing their sales - for extra antioxidants I'd rather eat Goji berries!
Nescafe are a bad, bad company on so many levels. Apart from the standard knowledge things they're also caught up in financially entrenching the human rights abuses happening against palestinians in gaza and the west bank.
ReplyDeleteI guess the use of the word 'green' is up there with the word 'lite' and 'light' used in food. It does depend on a person's ability to read the label where the truer reflection of the product is held. Most produces rely on the fact that people in supermarkets don't bother to read that part. Love how they are now labelling it 'low' in calories and don't mention how that is reliant on what you add to it!
ReplyDeleteI think the next step would be to add a full spectrum of vitamins and minerals to the mix. It would then be a health drink... one cup every morning and you can then live on prepackaged food produced by Nestle and you will live to 100...or your money back. Why would you want to drink unroasted coffee anyway? Could it be because it's much cheaper for Nestle than roasting it? If you want antioxidants, try this crazy new thing called 'fruit juice'.
ReplyDeleteKam
Hello Mrs Grendel,
ReplyDeleteI noticed from your Cafe Grendel blog about recent Nestle marketing activities, you mentioned amongst other concerns a lack of references from Nestle about the studies into the Greenblend coffee.
Today the website was updated with a release that includes more specific footnotes, that you might - perhaps - be interested in looking at: http://www.nestle.com.au/nescafegreenblend