Jot is a coffee concentrate brand that describes itself as convenient and affordable "Ultra Coffee." One tablespoon is added to water or milk to make a standard coffee drink, and no bean grinding or other prep is needed.
But what's actually in Jot Coffee beyond coffee concentrate? Does it contain any unhealthy ingredients? Is it overpriced? And is Jot Coffee better or worse than popular coffee concentrates like Chameleon Cold Brew?
In this article we'll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in Jot Coffee to give our take on whether or not it's healthy.
We'll also compare its cost to other popular coffee brands on a per-serving basis to give our take on whether or not it's overpriced, share our honest experience purchasing and testing it, and compare Jot Coffee to other popular coffee concentrates to pick our winners (and losers).
Key takeaways:
- Contains natural flavors
- We tried it and strongly disliked the taste
- We currently recommend Jot Original but not flavored versions
Ingredient Analysis
The ingredients in Jot Coffee are shown below:
These ingredients are currently only available on one of the brand's "Help" articles, but not on the product page or even the FAQ page.
We consider it to be a red flag when a brand fails to clearly publish ingredients on their product pages, as this is a consumer safety issue.
Based on these ingredients, we would recommend Jot Original which seems to be unflavored.
Natural flavors are included in Jot Coffee, and this is a broad categorical descriptor that we recommend consumers be wary of, for reasons cited from a medical review in our article on Javy Coffee:
"In reality, ‘natural flavors’ are a far cry from what consumers might expect, as they can contain both artificial and synthetic chemicals (often used as processing aids).”
We don't expect there to be any health differences between coffee concentrate and regular coffee, because the active chemical compounds are the same. The only difference is the degree of concentration before water or milk is added.
Overall, we do not currently recommend Jot Coffee due to the inclusion of natural flavors.
We Tested Jot Coffee
As the author of this article, I wanted to try Jot Coffee myself to share my thoughts on the taste, convenience and overall product experience:
I bought Jot Coffee Original from the brand's website because I typically drink black, unflavored coffee.
One of my favorite things about a morning coffee is the routine of preparing it, smelling the beans being ground and pressed, and having a hot fresh coffee right out of my French press.
I miss that whole product experience with Jot.
The temperature is an issue, too. The bottle is cold but my filtered water is room temperature, so the default setting for Jot Coffee is slightly colder than room temperature which is odd.
Surely I could microwave my coffee, but that doesn't sound appealing either.
The taste of this product is not nearly as robust and flavorful as freshly-made coffee in my opinion. It's not bad, it's just mediocre.
I'll give Jot credit that the shipping material and product packaging is totally plastic-free, and the product packaging is very sleek.
I wouldn't ever buy this product in the future, because the convenience of saving five minutes in the morning making coffee is not worth a sensory experience that's much worse in my opinion.
Overall, I'd rate Jot Coffee 4/10.
Is Jot Coffee Overpriced?
Coffee concentrate brands often market themselves as cheaper than buying coffee, but their price isn't always cheaper than buying coffee beans or grounds.
Here's a per-serving price comparison between two popular coffee concentrate brands and a popular coffee grounds brand, at the time of updating this article (prices do not factor in shipping):
Jot (concentrate): $1.90
Javy (concentrate): $0.71
Starbucks Dark Roast (grounds): $0.55
Making coffee at home from grounds or whole beans is often cheaper than making coffee at home from concentrate.
While many coffee concentrate brands like Jot market themselves on price as one value driver, the primary value driver is actually convenience.
And it's worth noting that Starbucks is marketed as a premium brand.
There are companies selling coffee grounds which are much cheaper per-serving on Amazon.
Jot Coffee vs. Popular Concentrates
Here's how Jot Coffee compares to other popular coffee concentrate brands in terms of healthiness, in our opinion:
Pop & Bottle
This brand's coffee concentrate is certified organic, which is clinically shown to be richer in some health-promoting compounds like chlorogenic acid.
However, it's packaged in plastic, and the health risks associated with plastic packaging (particularly for acidic drinks like coffee) greatly outweigh the organic certification.
Jot gets the advantage from a health perspective, because we consider the brand's glass packaging much less likely to result in endocrine-disrupting microplastics in the coffee.
Winner: Jot Coffee
Super Coffee
Packaged in plastic, and contains unhealthy additives like phosphates and natural flavors, as we documented in our Super Coffee review article.
Jot Coffee is the healthier choice from a packaging and formulation perspective.
Winner: Jot Coffee
Chameleon Cold Brew
This brand's coffee concentrates are bottled in glass, certified organic and free of natural flavors.
Chameleon is the healthier choice.
Winner: Chameleon Cold Brew
Our Clean Coffee Pick
MBG Clean Coffee+ is our top coffee product, because it’s ground for convenience, organic certified, and third-party lab tested for purity (which is highly uncommon for coffee).
This coffee has no ingredients that we consider to be unhealthy.
Jot Coffee Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Convenient
- Cheaper than coffee shop
- Unflavored versions have no natural flavor
- Packaged in glass
- Healthier than some competitors
Cons:
- Flavored versions contain natural flavor
- Expensive for DIY coffee
- We tested it and strongly disliked the taste
- We tested it and disliked the product experience
