POKKA MILK COFFEE

Shout hallelujah, come on get happy!

That’s the tune I’ve been singing for the past two or three days waiting for this coffee to come down the schedule. I’ve been looking forward to it so much, in fact, that I’ve gone against my random order and pushed this up a day in the schedule so I could have it before I go on a two day vacation. Pokka has always been on the shelves at Li-Mings, but because it’s that little bit more expensive I always got Tasco or Highlands instead of it. In fact I tried UCC and BOSS Rainbow, two far more expensive options, before getting to this one. Suffice to say, I’ve been very excited to try the last contender in this lowest of price brackets. For what it’s worth, Pokka also makes a brand of canned / bottled oolong tea I quite enjoy, so there’s that!

Pokka is 20 cents more expensive than Highlands, but the extra 5th an ounce (or 5ml) puts them sort of in price parity, with Pokka being only 2 cents an ounce more expensive. It’s also cheaper than the 8 ounce can of Tasco per ounce, though Tasco does sell a 6 ounce can that, while being more expensive per ounce than any of them, is as cheap as highlands overall. Less liquid, though. Enough price comparison, how does it taste? It’s maybe five percent less good than Highlands, not quite as smooth, but it’s everything I’ve ever looked for in a canned coffee. It’s cheap but doesn’t sacrifice flavor to get there. It doesn’t taste like real coffee like UCC does but for the same price as gas station coffee it doesn’t have to. It has to be accessible and easy to transport, and this is. And hey, the pull tab didn’t come off when I was trying to get it open!

I went to Li Ming to pick up some groceries earlier this week, and I saw Highlands smaller can of black coffee but not the milk coffee. This could obviously be an issue of stocking, but they were doing a lot of reorganizing of the drink section so it’s not impossible that Highlands milk coffee isn’t carried anymore. Pokka, however, still is. It’s been there and I imagine it’ll stay there for a long time. If you have the option of both I suggest Highlands still, but Pokka is strong competitor and no second-rate compromise. I can’t recommend enough you try this one out if you see it, and I can see me talking about the other Pokka coffees at some point, Li Mings also has a black coffee and a cappuccino. Also, as mentioned earlier I will be going on vacation for two days, so don’t expect updates until Tuesday the seventh of this month.

FLAVOR SCORE-8/8

VALUE SCORE-8/8