About Hills Bros.
Hills Bros. traces back to 1878, when brothers Austin and Reuben Hills started roasting coffee on San Francisco's waterfront. The company was an early mover on packaging technology, among the first roasters to pack coffee in a vacuum-sealed can at the turn of the century, a shelf-life innovation that helped turn a local roaster into a national name. The brand has changed hands over the decades and is now owned by Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA, which continues to produce it under the original Hills Bros. name.
The current lineup spans ground and whole-bean coffee, K-Cup pods, instant cappuccino mixes, and frappe blends. In our own testing for this site's instant coffee roundup, the Cappuccino Mix, White Chocolate Caramel stood out among the flavored mixes we tried: it froths into a real foam cap when stirred hard into hot water, rather than settling flat the way most cappuccino mixes do, and the coffee character underneath the sugar reads as better than the category average -- a mix that still tastes like it has real coffee in it.
Brand website: hillsbros.com
What Hills Bros. makes
Hills Bros.'s range runs wider than the products we review. The lines we know best from our own testing are marked with a star:
Ground & whole-bean coffee
Original Blend, House Blend, and 100% Colombian roasts
K-Cup pods
Keurig-compatible pods across the core roast lineup
Instant cappuccino mixes
flavored spray-dried mixes including Classic, Double Mocha, and White Chocolate Caramel -- our featured pick is from this line — featured on Brew Gazette
Frappe mixes
blended iced drink mixes including Chocolate Espresso varieties
Why we recognized Hills Bros.
The Brew Gazette Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose products consistently stand out in our hands-on category reviews. Hills Bros. earned it on the strength of the products below, evaluated the same way every product on this site is: bought, brewed with daily, and judged on what lands in the cup.
Hills Bros. products we rated highly
Hills Bros. Cappuccino Mix, White Chocolate Caramel, 16 oz
In our testing this was one of the strongest flavored mixes in the category: it froths into a genuine foam cap rather than the flat sweet liquid most cappuccino mixes settle into, and the coffee note underneath the sugar reads as better than average for the format. The sixteen-ounce canister runs about sixteen servings, the longest-lasting of the flavored mixes we tested, and it doubles as a flavoring stirred into hot chocolate or ice cream. It carries a deep review record for one specific flavor variant -- over five thousand ratings at a 4.6 average -- which is unusually well-proven for a flavored instant mix.
Read the Best Instant Coffee of 2026 guide →What earned Hills Bros. the recognition
- One of the strongest flavored mixes in our instant coffee testing, producing a genuine foam cap when stirred into hot water instead of settling flat like most cappuccino mixes.
- A coffee character underneath the sugar that reads as better than the flavored-mix category average, backed by a roasting history that goes back to 1878.
- A sixteen-ounce canister that runs roughly sixteen servings, the longest-lasting flavored mix in our roundup, and one that doubles as a flavoring for hot chocolate, ice cream, or milkshakes.
- Over five thousand reviews at a 4.6 average for this specific flavor variant, an unusually deep and consistent review record for a flavored instant mix.
- One of the oldest continuously produced coffee brands in the country, with a product line that now spans ground and whole-bean coffee, K-Cups, instant cappuccino, and frappe mixes.