Nabob's flavour from around 1980.

by Chris Marquardt
(Rockyford, Alberta, Canada)

Some Nabob coffees.

Some Nabob coffees.


QUESTION:

Why did Nabob change the flavour of the many coffees they have now but, none of the new coffee flavours taste anything like the old flavour from around 70's or 80's.


ANSWER:

Chris, hi

Interesting question. As you can see from the links below, others have been asking the same question about Maxwell House, Folger and Yuban coffees.

The simple answer, I believe, is that along with the others, Nabob has been cutting costs by buying cheaper coffee beans.

The simplest way to cut costs is to use a lower proportion of Arabica beans, and more Robusta beans. And even with Robusta beans, some are of higher quality than others.

One thing to check for is the words on the label.

It used to be that household coffee brands declared, “100% Arabica”, or “100% Arabica Beans”.

These days it’s more common to find the phrase, “100% Coffee”.

What that means, of course, is that they are adding Robusta beans to the mix, and the flavor changes and suffers as a result.

Thank you for raising the topic! I’ll be interest to see if other readers have had the same experience.


Related information that might interest you:

Has Maxwell House coffee gone bad?.

Did Yuban Original Medium Roast Formulation Change Its Flavor?

Are Maxwell House and Folgers coffees making people sick?

Comments for Nabob's flavour from around 1980.

Click here to add your own comments

Climate change effects food
by: Anonymous

Not really such thing as cheap beans , but there is low and high quality crops , like wine , they sometimes have 1 year in a decade that has exceptional quality they find hard to match, due to weather condidtions, ie grapes need 3 to for months of consistand weather every day, my teachers from Highschool all now invested in growing grapes for Wine, They beet Califoria in Quality in 2013 (Sandbanks Wine)ontario, but have not come close since. same goes for coffie beans. different weather and farms ran by different people,so many variables.
So the chances of getting the same quality of beans you had in the 80' is still possable but more rare and so many more people in the world drinking coffie today, earth had 4 billion people in 1980, 2022,8 billion.
Nabob coffee has changed for the better
by: Burge

I just got the columbian and its good coffee. 60% rainforest 100% aribica beans. I go to starbucks and in the corona virus been sampling different coffee. Last time I had nabob was in the 80's and this stuff is much better. Out of the grocery store blends they had the best coffee over Maxwell house foldgers etc this to me anyhow matches a coffee shop. The presidents choice coffees are quite good as well and now will gladly get the Nabob. This is a step above
Maybe not a mystery
by: Nick (Coffee Detective)

Pistachio, hi

Good to hear from you!

My guess is that the Arabica beans are finding themselves in the hands of decent coffee shops and roasters, and the low end big brand coffees are making do with more of the Robusta.

Nick
mystery....
by: Pistachio

so then..... where are all the Arabica Beans.....?

Obviously nowhere you can find them....

It used to be that you chose your coffee from a lot of pretty good brands.... now... any you choose,,, not so good....

Impossible to find a good coffee on the store shelves......

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Questions about Coffee.

Before you go, sign up to receive the Coffee Detective Newsletter...

Sign up for occasional newsletters about the best coffees and brewing equipment. Plus special updates from the Coffee Detective Coffee Store…