For some reason I think of it as an older concept. Now Starbucks and coffee chains are popular.
Seinfeld on instant coffee https://youtu.be/uDrh5pujB9I?si=VdlVEREjMTNd2Bs7
Highlighting carlcook’s advice:
dissolve in cold water, ONLY THEN add hot water. The rationale behind it is that aromatics evaporate too quickly when the instant powder is infused with too/boiling hot water.
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Starbucks tried to modernize it with these little packets a few years back, under the name “Via”. The older brands still exist too, such as Nescafé, which, as a Nestle product, I assume is made from the blood of indigenous people.
The production actually is pretty cool really. They basically brew giant vats of coffee and then freeze dry it into a powder that can be easily rehydrated.
That actually made me like insta coffee a tiny bit more just for being so cool
i bet the blood of indigenous people would taste better… not that im condoning such an aberration.
When you drink the coffee, you can really taste the iron deficiency.
The biggest difference is that starbucks via doesn’t start with awful coffee.
Starbucks isn’t good coffee compared to some fancy pants third wave coffee, but It’s not nescafe either.
Freeze drying and rehydrating might not do anything to hurt coffee flavor, but it’s not going to make bad coffee suddenly taste good.
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Via was godly for festival mornings.
It’s all I drink. But I only drink coffee for the caffeine, it all tastes like shit. If I want to enjoy it I have a cup of tea.
Put a little salt in it! It helps a lot especially with the cheaper brands.
The link literally has “joke” in it so I’m not sure if I should be taking this seriously.
A tiny pinch of salt actually dulls the sharpness of a bitter coffee. Something something chemical reactions when salt mixes with coffee. Try it. It’s great!
Based on experimenting with flavours but not this particular one yet, it doesn’t hurt to try. Balancing the different flavour groups is an easy way to elevate meals (well, easy once you’ve calibrated your taste to be able to figure out what’s “missing”).
Just tried it and I’d say it’s a positive difference, though I didn’t spend much time searching for the “right” amount. With salt, I find it’s better to err on the side of too little. Things tend to be ok with too little salt and yuck with too much.
It’s for real. But make it a small pinch. You don’t actually want to taste salt.
You do you I guess but… surely a good cup of proper coffee tastes less-shit and has more caffeine?
I drink both instant and real.
I drink french-press rocket fuel in the morning, a strong cap at lunchtime on office days, and I wouldn’t compromise on either.
But afternoons at home, or in the evening… I dunno, it’s just too much drama. I want something in the background that isn’t going to make any demands on my attention. It’s the equivalent of watching garbage TV at the end of a long day. You don’t want hard-hitting incisive social commentary, you just want a couple episodes of Ow, My Balls.
I’ve found a brand that doesn’t taste like toner; it’s not real coffee, just Brown Drink. But it’s entirely acceptable Brown Drink, and it does what I need it for.
What brand is it?
https://huckleberryroasters.com/collections/frontpage/products/huck-instant-blue-orchid
That is legitimately good instant coffee. Given the price, I’d hope so. I take that camping.
It’s Australian, so probably not much use to you, but this
Same. French press for work, instant for home where I don’t know how long I can keep a given activity going.
It’s a bit more common in the UK. Everybody’s got 230v electric kettles practically in every room (/s) so having coffee that just takes hot water has extra appeal. I’m also lead to believe that their instant coffee is a bit better quality than what is common in the US.
this is so odd for me to read. instant coffee is treated like literal dirt over here. so the idea theres a good kind of drinkable dirt sounds hilarious.
90% of what I “know” about England is from panel shows. It’s a small and warped window.
UK here, and yeah, this is my experience.
I’ll drink instant most days (right now in fact) and proper coffee when we have guests or if I’m not pushed for time.
Quality of instant varies wildly, but there’s at least a few versions that are very decent indeed IMO.
I love coffee. I am a coffee snob. Instant coffee is easy to pack and travel with. If you have access to hot water it’s still coffee which is better than nothing. If you don’t have access to hot water then it’s a tastier caffeine pill.
When camping, never otherwise.
I was recently on holiday where most of the other guests in our hotel were 50-70 year old Germans.
The breakfast buffet at our hotel had a large scale coffee maker which could do some surprisingly good freshly ground coffee. What it could also do is spit instant coffee into your mug and pour hot water on top.
In two weeks I never saw someone (other than me) draw anything but fucking instant coffee from that thing.
But why??
If only I knew…
For me instant coffee is for backpacking, because when you’re busting your ass on the trail for a few days literally anything you can eat or drink tastes amazing
One of the best feelings in the world is a morning hike up the mountains, reaching a stopping soot and boiling some hot water for some tea/coffee.
I do. What’s the problem with it?
It’s too fast! Where you goin at that speed?
I still do. Most of my coffee consumption is instant, but I am not particular about coffee so long it doesn’t taste bad.
In college, I used to drink Starbucks’ Via. That instant coffee hits different.
Nowadays, I make either an espresso or a pour over. But I still crave Vias sometimes.
Revenue in the Instant Coffee market amounts to US$30.3bn in 2023. The market is expected to grow annually by 5.03% (CAGR 2023-2028).
In global comparison, most revenue is generated in Japan (US$4,741m in 2023).
In relation to total population figures, per person revenues of US$3.95 are generated in 2023.
In the Instant Coffee market, volume is expected to amount to 1.6bn kg by 2028. The market for Instant Coffee market is expected to show a volume growth of 3.5% in 2024.
The average volume per person in the Instant Coffee market is expected to amount to 0.19kg in 2023.
https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/hot-drinks/coffee/instant-coffee/worldwide
I drink it. It’s cheaper and quicker to make than anything else I’ve found.
In the UK it’s still very common for people to have instant coffee at home. Companies will sometimes have their own fancy coffee maker (e.g. Nespresso) but not always.
Unless you work in tech, then the offices have £5k Italian espresso machines that only five people know how to operate.
Have solely or in addition to ground coffee?
Solely.
It’s kinda like asking “why don’t more Americans own electric kettles?”.
UK: Kettle for tea. US: Coffee maker for coffee.
We generally drink more tea than coffee and so kettles became the norm. Some people do own their own coffee makers or cafetieres but it’s less common. One is a nation coffee-drinkers and the other tea drinkers. Each has settled into using different machines and therefore different products.
I used to because I am single and it didn’t seem economical to brew a pot for one cup. Then I found out about the “4 cup” machines like the ones they put in hotel rooms.
I grind enough for a big cup, pour water in it, and decant it to another cup using a fork as a filter. Seems to work fine.
