Starbucks goes back to the ’80s with Via

​Starbucks is hoping that a product from the past can bring the coffee chain into the future. Yesterday, the Seattle-based company rolled out a new instant coffee product — Starbucks Via — that it’s been test-marketing for nearly eight months. 

If this were 1989 instead of 2009, I’d be excited about the prospects for Starbucks. But in reality, the age of instant coffee — at least in the United States — is likely well in the past. In addition, the cost — nearly $1 per packet ($2.95 for a package of three) — suggests that there is such a thing as premium instant coffee. That feels like a tough sell.

Initial reviews indicate that the flavor is somewhere between instant coffee and a cup of brewed coffee:

“I tried the medium and bold blends first black and then with milk, which is how I usually take my coffee. I found them both to have a decent normal coffee taste mixed with a funny taste that is not pleasant on the finish. The funny taste was worse with milk than black.”