UCC CAFFE LATTE

UCC, my beloved! I’ve had nothing but good coffee from UCC and I’m excited to make this the last review. Well, it was the last review, but then I found one more. Tomorrows and todays both came from International Fresh Market, which I don’t believe we’ve had an appearance from quite yet. I found this place sort of by accident, I had a summer internship nearby and went here on a lunch break. When they were making them, their chushu pork bao buns were quite good. This is sort of an H-Mart situation I think, cleaner and more put together than Li-Mings while having a few small restaurants and a cafe inside. Of course, nothing can ever match the glory of Li-Mings, it’s being built in an old circuit city is what gives it all its charm. It’s local!

I decided to look a bit further into UCC’s product line for this review, like I did for illy and Pokka. I’ve found an American website that hasn’t had a style update since 2010 (good!) and a more contemporary Japanese website. Apparently in Japan you can get UCC original in a tetra-pak juicebox? Wish I could have that, I’d chug those. UCC’s offerings stateside don’t go far beyond what I’ve talked about and a matcha latte, but in Japan they’re a leader in the market. Along with cans and bottles of concentrate, they also sell ground coffee and pods for instant coffee makers. I don’t know much about the world of Japanese fresh coffee, but UCC certainly has a lot of offerings.

This is no plain milk coffee like UCC original, though, this is a latte! Rich and creamy coffee with milk, the can boasts. It has this smell and faint taste of almonds, I reckon that’s the maltodextrin in the drink? Maybe having these in storage for a month before drinking them isn’t the best for flavor, but they’re sold as shelf stable. It’s rich, and it’s creamy, but I don’t know if this ones as much of a home run as original. It slightly edges out Kona, though, so points for that. The more I drink it the more it grows on me, but I think I’d still choose UCC. In my testing it’s a little more expensive total, but gives you a better value through more liquid.

FLAVOR SCORE-7/8

VALUE SCORE-6/8