Instant coffee is a convenient way to get a morning caffeine hit. Unlike ground coffee, these granules don’t require brewing. Instead, they’re dissolved in hot water to create an “instant” cup of coffee.
Instant coffee is, without a doubt, much more convenient than whole-bean or pre-ground coffee. However, it has had a long-standing reputation for poor quality — creating a brew with a dull, and often bitter flavor profile.
So, does instant coffee deserve this reputation, or has the quality caught up to the convenience?
How is Instant Coffee Made?
Instant coffee is essentially brewed coffee that has been turned into granules through a drying process. Processing centers brew large volumes of coffee and turn the resulting liquid into dehydrated granules or powder. This dried coffee can then be “rehydrated” at home using hot water — creating a cup of coffee without the need for brewing equipment.
The most common methods used to make instant coffee are freeze-drying and spray-drying.
Here’s how these these processes work:
Freeze Drying
Freeze-dried coffee is generally of much higher quality than spray-dried instant coffee. Freeze-drying preserves more flavors from the brew, resulting in a charismatic instant cup of Joe.
The process of freeze-drying is relatively simple. A strong, dark, brew is made using ground coffee. This brew is then brought to a state of “ultra freezing” — a temperature of -50ºC (-58ºF). Once this temperature is achieved, the frozen coffee is introduced to a vacuum chamber where all moisture is removed through sublimation.
The resulting dried coffee is removed from the chamber, broken into small granules, and packaged for sale.
Spray Drying
Spray drying used to be the most common way to create instant coffee. However, in recent years it’s less common because freeze-drying produces a higher quality product.
It’s this process that may have given instant coffee a bad name — spray drying destroys much of the flavor profile of the coffee.
Some manufacturers still prefer spray drying because it’s a cheaper manufacturing process. Most budget instant coffee is made through spray drying.
Here’s a brief rundown of the process:
- A large volume of coffee is brewed.
- The brewed coffee and an inert, very hot gas are mixed to atomize the brewed coffee.
- This mixture is sprayed out of a fine nozzle into a drying chamber. The heat from the gas and the extremely small size of the droplets allow the water to evaporate rapidly.
- Gravity pulls the dried, powdered coffee down to the bottom of the drying chamber, while the hot gas escapes from the top where it’s reused.
- The coffee powder is then processed to form clumps (granules).
- These granules are packaged and sold to the consumer.
A Brief History of Instant Coffee
The history of instant coffee is rather complex. Who exactly invented it is debated. However, it was birthed for convenience, and a few key points in history influenced the production of what we know as instant coffee today…
1. Early Instant Coffee Innovations
One of the earliest recorded examples of something similar to instant coffee was during the American Civil War. During that time, a product called “Essence of Coffee” was produced for the Union army. It was a concentrated mixture of coffee, milk, and sugar. A teaspoonful of the mixture could be dissolved in a cup of water to make a caffeinated “instant” coffee. However, it was so widely loathed that it was discontinued shortly after production began.
A similar product was invented in Scotland by Paterson & Sons. The product — Camp Coffee — was a thick coffee syrup that could be diluted with hot water to make a cup of coffee. Its intensely bitter flavor made it unpopular.
2. The First Inventors of Powdered Coffee
Several companies claim to be the inventors of soluble coffee. The most commonly accepted inventor is David Strang, from Invercargill, New Zealand. Under patent number 3518, he detailed his “Dry Hot-Air” process. His company used this early spray drying process to produce Strang’s Coffee — “the first” commercial powdered instant coffee. Unsurprisingly, Strang’s didn’t catch on — likely due to its bitter flavor.
Before Strang was widely accepted as the original inventor of instant coffee, the title was accredited to Satori Kato — a Japanese scientist working in Chicago in 1901 [1]. He debuted his invention at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY. Like Strang and Kato, a man called George Constant Louis Washington developed an instant coffee process of his own in 1910 and marketed it commercially.
3. The Widespread Adoption of Instant Coffee
In 1930 Nestlé introduced the first widely adopted instant coffee. At the time, the company was producing powdered milk through spray drying. Nestlé started making instant coffee as a means of preservation. Due to disruptions in the world market, Brazil had a large stock of unsold coffee beans. Brazilian producers needed to sell these beans quickly before they deteriorated and became valueless.
The coffee producers teamed up with Nestlé to preserve the produce by making instant coffee with Nestlé’s milk powder processing plant in Switzerland.
The resulting instant coffee was dubbed “Nescafé” — a famed, and still popular, product. It wasn’t an “instant” hit but it was quickly adopted during WW2 as a way to caffeinate soldiers and provide the European public with a long-lasting coffee drink.
After the war, it was time to rebuild the world and the economy. With the fast-paced industrial lifestyle of people across the US and Europe, instant coffee became widely adopted for its convenience. The advent of freeze-dried instant coffee came shortly after WW2 and manufacturing techniques improved from there.
Why Choose Instant Coffee?
Instant coffee has a number of benefits. It’s affordable, versatile, and ubiquitous. However, it’s not for everyone.
Here’s why you might choose instant coffee over whole-bean or pre-ground coffee:
1. Convenience
Perhaps the most important benefit is the fact that instant coffee doesn’t require any specialized brewing equipment. Instead, you’re free to simply add water, stir, and drink.
For a number of coffee enthusiasts, this might not sound ideal — part of the enjoyment of a good cup of coffee is the meditative quality of careful brewing. However, speed and convenience are important to people on busy schedules.
2. Affordability
Another core benefit of instant coffee is its affordability. It’s common to go to a store and buy a small jar of instant coffee for around a dollar, with single-serving sachets costing even less. This affordability comes about for two main reasons — the production process and the bean choice.
Robusta beans are most commonly used to make instant coffee. They’re generally cheaper than arabica beans because they can be grown in a wider variety of environments and are in lower demand. They also provide a dark, natural bitterness that holds up better after processing.
3. Versatility
Instant coffee is extremely versatile. It can be used to make black coffee, instant espresso, iced coffee, whipped coffee, and coffee cocktails.
It can also be used in baking to add complex coffee flavors to desserts such as tiramisu.
What Are the Downsides of Instant Coffee?
As with everything, instant coffee does have some downsides. These include the environmental impact of the drying processes, as well as the reduced flavor and aroma.
The Flavor of Instant Coffee
The flavor is the most significant downside to instant coffee, with coffee lovers swearing off instant coffee wherever possible.
The fact of the matter is simple — many of the volatile phytochemicals and oils that are responsible for the flavors and aromas in coffee don’t survive the drying process. This means that the final coffee concentrate — while retaining a general coffee flavor — doesn’t capture the complex notes of a specialty roasted coffee.
Additives in Instant Coffee
Most instant coffee products contain a number of additives that are generally undesirable. Preservatives and synthetic flavors are commonplace in large-scale instant coffee production. However, some brands produce natural, high-quality instant coffee.
Check out our instant coffee range.
The Environmental Impact of Instant Coffee
The environmental impact of instant coffee production is greater than whole-bean and pre-ground production.
Per tonne of coffee produced, instant coffee has a far higher impact than ground coffee — it uses double the amount of green coffee beans and between 7 and 11 times more energy [2].
Furthermore, once the grounds are used, they’re typically dumped into landfills [3]. While some companies try to be sustainable by using green energy sources and repurposing the used grounds, these are few and far between, with most companies pursuing the profit margin and opting not to operate sustainably.
FAQs: Instant Coffee
Now that we’ve delved into the world of instant coffee let’s discuss a couple of core FAQs.
1. What Is Instant Coffee Made From?
Instant coffee consists of soluble granules of coffee extract. These granules are made from the concentrated extract of coffee beans (usually robusta variety), which is dried into granules through spray or freeze drying.
2. What’s The Difference Between Instant and Ground Coffee?
Ground coffee is nothing more than coffee beans that have been crushed and require brewing. Instant coffee is pre-brewed coffee. Instant coffee has been processed into granules and can be dissolved in hot or cold water super easily. Ground coffee must be strained or filtered.
3. Does Instant Coffee Have More or Less Caffeine?
Caffeine is a water-soluble molecule, meaning that some of it is lost in the drying process as water is removed. Therefore, instant coffee tends to have around 30–90 mg of caffeine per serving, while regular coffee has 95–165 mg of caffeine per serving.
4. How Do Spray Drying and Freeze Drying Differ?
Spray drying creates minuscule dried coffee particles by spraying coffee concentrate through hot air. These particles are then clumped up to create the granules you might buy in the supermarket. By comparison, freeze drying creates those granules by freezing coffee extract and using a vacuum to extract the water content.
5. Is Instant Coffee Healthy?
Instant coffee does contain a number of the same antioxidants as conventional coffee, but it may have some additives that are used to create an artificially sweetened or flavored beverage. In moderation, instant coffee is perfectly healthy.
6. Can Instant Coffee Be Used for Iced Coffee?
Yes, it can! Instant coffee is easy to dissolve in any liquid, even cold water or milk. This makes it ideal for quickly creating a cooling coffee drink in the heat of summer.
Learn how to make iced coffee with instant coffee.
7. Does Instant Coffee Taste the Same as Brewed Coffee?
No, the drying process tends to remove some amount of flavor and aroma from the coffee, leading to a milder final product.
8. What Are Popular Instant Coffee Brands?
There are many different instant coffee brands, including Nescafe, Starbucks Via, and Folgers. These brands will typically offer a base instant coffee, as well as a number of flavored versions.
9. How Should I Store Instant Coffee?
As with regular coffee grounds, storing the coffee in an airtight container in a cool, dry place is the best choice. The flavor and aroma compounds that have survived the drying process are volatile and can be lost through exposure to moisture, air, heat, and light.
10. Are There Eco-Friendly Instant Coffee Brands?
Yes, there are several brands that use different forms of packaging and processing to ensure they’re as eco-friendly as possible. Nowadays, many brands offer “refill” pouches made from biodegradable material. The idea is that you can reuse your glass or plastic coffee jar at home and recycle the pouch easily.
References
- Carlisle, Rodney (2004). Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries, p.355. John Wiley & Songs, Inc., New Jersey. ISBN0-471-24410-4.
- Gosalvitr, P., Cuéllar-Franca, R. M., Smith, R., & Azapagic, A. (2023). An environmental and economic sustainability assessment of coffee production in the UK. Chemical Engineering Journal, 465, 142793.
- Mayra L. Pazmiño, Medelyne Mero-Benavides, Daniel Aviles, Ana María Blanco-Marigorta, Diana L. Tinoco, Angel D. Ramirez, Life cycle assessment of instant coffee production considering different energy sources, Cleaner Environmental Systems, Volume 12, 2024, 100174, ISSN 2666-7894.
