Wake up and smell lack of coffee in your instant fix

Those of us who have credit agreement payments to honour every month may have got a tiny bit of good news last week with the interest rate drop, but for many, the money will remain too little and the wait for pay-day way too long.

If there’s no way to earn more, the only solution is to spend less – downsize the home and the car if possible, and then get serious about separating your wants from your needs; consciously choosing to buy for function rather than style.

Standing in the tissue section of my local supermarket the other day, a perfect example of what I’m talking about was staring me in the face.

I wanted to reach for the square box of Kleenex tissues, for my desk, because, well, the packaging appeals to me far more than the pragmatic plastic pack of Pick n Pay’s No-Name brand tissues.

The Kleenex box contains 56 tissues and sells for R26.45, while the No Name pack has 90 tissues and sells for R11.99.

Thanks to the fact that Pick n Pay displays unit prices on its shelf labels along with the retail price, I didn’t need my calculator to see what that worked out to – the Kleenex tissues cost 47c each and the No Names just 13c.

But am I comparing like with like? Well, the Kleenex tissues are a square 20cmx20cm and the No Names are 20.5cmx19cm, so size-wise, there’s not much to separate them.

But the Kleenex tissues are three-ply and the No Names are two-ply.

So the question is – do you need to blow your nose on an ever-so-slightly thicker tissue, having pulled it out of a visually appealing box, or would the ones in the functional plastic dispenser do the job at almost a quarter of the price?

If your purchasing decisions, big and small, are currently based on marketing hype and style rather than function, and you mindfully start applying the tissue test to everything you buy, every month, the savings you’ll make will be massive.

Not to be sneezed at!

A Facebook post drew my attention to the fact that the Enrista 3-in-1 coffee product is described as “100% pure coffee” on the front of the pack, when its ingredients list on the back reveals it to comprise mainly of creamer (main ingredient of that is a form of sugar) followed by additives, and then sugar, and lastly, coffee.

So I asked the company how it justified the “100% pure coffee” claim when, in fact, coffee makes up the smallest proportion of the product, and in terms of labelling regulation, the word “pure” should only ideally only be used on a single-ingredient food to which nothing has been added.

Initially, managing business head of Enrista manufacturer Naturefoods André van der Westhuizen insisted that “our labelling is correct”.

“We are not implying the sachets only contain 100% coffee but that the coffee contained is 100% coffee and not a blended product.

“It is important to clarify this point to consumers as most are being deceived by products, thinking it is coffee when, in fact, it only contains a very small fraction of coffee and mostly chicory.”

Asked if he was willing to divulge what percentage that “100% pure coffee” makes up of the Enrista 3-in-1 product, Van der Westhuizen said: “We have no problem revealing the % or grams of coffee and other ingredients per sachet if legislation requires.

“This would mean all manufacturers in this category of ‘all-in-one’ products, including cappuccino, would need to comply.”

In the end, he undertook to put the amended claim “made with 100% pure coffee” on the product’s proposed new packaging.

That is considered acceptable in terms of the regulation.

lVan der Westhuizen’s comment about “pure coffee” versus a coffee/chicory blend had me checking out the labels of instant coffees Frisco and Ricoffy.

Frisco contains “glucose, quality roasted coffee beans and chicory”.

Ricoffy, a Nestlé product, contains “chicory, dextrins, coffee, maltose, dextrose”.

Asked why the main ingredient of Frisco is glucose, a form of sugar, consumer liaison manager for Frisco maker AVI Limited Tric Stone said it served two purposes – sweetening and bulking.

“You will appreciate that this product is sold at a price point that reflects the lower coffee and chicory content compared to a true ‘pure’ coffee product,” she said.

Asked to reveal the percentages of the ingredients of Frisco Original, she obliged: glucose, 55%; coffee, 24% and chicory 21%.

The dextrins, maltose and dextrose are also sugars which are part of glucose syrup, Stone said.

“If labelled as glucose, the ingredient lists on our competing products would also be obliged to list glucose first.”

Right, so instant coffees contain more sugar than coffee. And that’s before the consumer adds their own sugar to the mug.