Instant Coffee, what is it? ☕☕

As coffee enthusiast we sometimes look down on instant coffee 🙀🙀 but it was a game changer when it was invented.

No need to roast, grind and brew your coffee. Just pour some hot water in the powder and you’re all set.

It might not have the aroma or flavor that we look forward to but its quick and cheap. We could say that it’s the most convenient and efficient way to perk up for the day.

How did instant coffee come about?

· The very first documented case of someone drinking coffee was in 1771 and was called a “Coffee Compound” and was even granted a patent by the British government.

· In 1851 the first American instant coffee was created. It was used during the Civil war and experimental cakes of instant coffee was rationed to soldiers.

· David Strang of New Zealand invented and patented instant or soluble coffee in 1890, for its manufacturing it used the “Dry-Hot process”

· A Japanese American chemist Satori Kato of Chicago was the first person to successfully created a stable soluble coffee powder in 1901 and it was patented in 1903

· George Constant Louis Washington an American Inventor developed his own instant coffee process and made its very first commercial brand in 1910

· In 1930 due to coffee spoilage; Brazilian Coffee Institute asks the chairman of Nestle company to create a flavorful soluble coffee and possibly increase overall coffee sales and resolve the storage problem

· In 1937, Nestle scientist Max Morgenthaler invents a new instant coffee making method and was called Nescafe

· Nestle begun selling Nescafe in 1938 and it quickly due to the new process and it makes better tasting instant coffee

· In 1986 the very first Decaf instant coffee was introduced in the market

Whew! That was a lot!

Now we know how instant coffee started.

Next, we will discuss the different process in creating instant coffee.

Instant coffee starts from our good ol’ Coffee beans but how does our beans turn in to these powdery flakes?

Well, there are 2 methods of creating instant coffee.

In the first method, liquid coffee is sprayed in a fine mist through a hot dry air (Dry-Hot process). By the time the coffee droplets land they have fried into a powder.

The second method is freeze drying, where the liquid is forced from the frozen coffee through chemical sublimation. This process forces ice to vaporize without going through the liquid phase (Science mga mem/ser). This leaves behind coffee powder that can be dissolve in water.

Both Dry and Freeze process has an effect on flavor, aroma and caffeine content but Freeze-drying leaves more of the aroma compounds intact. In some cases, additional flavor and aroma are added to better stimulate fresh coffee experience.

Instant coffee may not be your first choice but you can definitely keep it in our cupboard/pantry for those emergency lazy days ahead.

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