In February 2024 this website crashed for no apparent reason. Despite using professionals at GoDaddy.com it was impossible to restore anything after October 2021 (over 100 posts). I do have many of those post in draft form (no final edit or photos) and I have decided to repost them in that manner. I apologize for typos and other errors. How do I feel about losing all of my original work? Life goes on.
In the house on Francisco Avenue on the battered Crown gas range sat an old aluminum percolator. The pot took twelve cups of water that when raised to a boil, would force the liquid up a metal tube and saturate the basket full of coffee below. This infused suspension would drip back into the pot until the coffee was deemed done. My father insisted that the perfect percolation time was exactly seven and one half minutes. It wasn’t clear if he actually managed such precision.
Growing up there was always a pot of coffee on our stove in the morning, and frequently in the evening. Sometimes my mother bought Eight O’Clock coffee, at other times it was Maxwell House, but her most frequent purchase was Folgers in a big red tin can. I’m not sure if she thought that it tasted better, or perhaps she was influenced by Virginia Christine’s long-time depiction of Mrs. Olson, the pitch person for Folgers Coffee. Mrs. Olson reminded her audience that Folgers Coffee was “Mountain grown, the richest kind.” As far as I know all coffee is grown on mountains, so I guess all coffee is the richest kind. However, her pitch must have worked as Folgers kept her as their spokesperson for over 20 years.
Then, there was a rumor that Christine was the heiress to the Folgers fortune, and to keep her inheritance she had to work for the company. This seems wholly false as I could find no support for that claim when I researched it for this post. In reality, she was a veteran actor who performed in over 400 movies. However, most of us will remember her as the aproned Mrs. O, who was glad to be typecast as that gig allowed for a very nice retirement.
Coffee was such an integral part of our lives that it was always offered to guests who visited our house. Likewise, whenever we went visiting we were given a cup, usually accompanied by a sweet. I remember many visits to my maiden aunts, Mary and Lill. I was the youngest in my family so my parents took me along as they sat around the kitchen table talking, or sometimes playing a game. Often, my Aunt Mary had baked something, but at other times we would be offered packaged cookies from their apple-modeled red cookie jar. My Aunt Lill had a special fondness for packaged Windmill cookies, so they were always in plenty.
At a very young age, I was offered a cup of coffee that consisted of about 25% coffee mixed with 75% milk, and dosed with a heaping teaspoon of sugar. Having a cup of coffee when I was eight seemed perfectly normal to me.
We moved to a new home in the 1970s and the percolator was replaced with brewing’s latest technology, a Mr. Coffee coffee maker. Ours was molded in a sparkling white plastic and featured a yellow gingham faceplate. Making coffee was as simple as pouring in the water, adding the coffee, and pressing a button. Marvelous!
I was away at college, my siblings were married, and my parents’ coffee needs were on the decline. They still loved their coffee, but after the morning pot, they switched to instant, specifically a new type of instant coffee, freeze-dried Taster’s Choice. An instant so confident in itself that it claimed to taste as good as the traditionally brewed stuff.
Instant coffee has been around since the turn of the last century, and it gained popularity as it was included in soldier’s MRE meals during WWII. This original instant was made by spaying brewed coffee into hot air which evaporated the water and left a coffee residue powder. Taster’s Choice was made differently, it was freeze-dried where the water evaporated under a vacuum. This method claimed to be superior to the older method and created instant coffee granules instead of powder. I never tasted much difference between the two methods, and the resulting liquid didn’t taste much like coffee to me. However, the more you drank it the less objectionable it was, and after a while it tasted good enough.
After I left my parent’s home I stopped drinking instant coffee; it was easy to brew my own. The only times that I would drink instant was when I used a hotel’s in-room coffee service, or occasionally when I would go camping. Even then, I usually brewed coffee. My impression remained the same, instant wasn’t very good, but the more you drank the more acceptable it became.
Four of us are morning coffee drinkers in Kunaland, and I have been grinding my own beans for decades. I would never call myself a coffee expert, but I do know a good cup when I drink one. However, I also know that coffee is extremely subjective. If you watch videos of people doing taste tests it is not unusual to have one person like a brand that another thinks is disgusting.
It should be noted that more people are making coffee at home; it is convenient and much less expensive to do this than buying coffee at a local shop. With automatic drip pots, the French press, pour-over systems, cold brew, Nespresso pods, and K cups you would think that the days of instant coffee are over. However, you can still find many brands on the grocer’s shelves, and it isn’t uncommon for me to see a jar in someone’s basket when I check out.
It surprised me to find that many countries prefer using instant to regular coffee for homebrew. These countries include Great Britain, China, Russia, Mexico, Turkey, and many others. Asian countries prefer to buy sachets that they call Triples, which contain instant coffee, creamer, and sugar combined in a packet.
In the United States, brewed coffee is preferred, but instant coffee was still a 5.8 billion dollar industry in 2022, and it is expected to grow into an 8 billion dollar industry by 2030. Based on the above information I thought it was time for me to revisit instant coffee.
There are more than a dozen instant coffee brands available in the US. Some premium brands, like Starbucks Via can cost almost a dollar a cup. Starbucks’s claim to fame is that they also include some finely ground regular coffee which adds a bit more flavor and aroma. I have used Via on hiking adventures in the past, and in those situations, its expensive sachets may make sense. However, at around a dollar a cup you would be better served using any brew method at home. You can buy bulk K cups for as little as 40 cents each and brew ground coffee beans for less than that.
Many instant coffees are significantly less expensive. Costco sells a 16 oz jar of Folgers Instant for $9.69 which makes 240 cups (6 oz each) of coffee. That is four cents a cup. Double the cost to eight cents and you can have a big 12 oz mug.
I decided to do a little experiment and purchased three jars of instant coffee. I deliberately purchased store brands and avoided high-end expensive instants based on my logic listed above.
Brands Purchased:
Aldi Beaumont Coffee at 3 cents for a 6 oz cup
Folger Classic Roast at 4 cents a 6 oz cup
Cafe Bustelo at around 6 cents for a 6 oz cup
The smell test
None of these coffees have a coffee aroma once the jar has been opened for even a short amount of time. Coffee aroma adds to its taste, but it has been impossible for manufacturers to incorporate coffee oils that wouldn’t turn the coffee rancid.
Free-dried or spray-dried?
In past coffee use, I could not tell much of a difference.
First experiment
I tried Folgers made per instruction with boiling water. Result: The same taste that I remember from drinking Taster’s Choice in the day, Blech!. Bland, processed, flat. Not good.
The problem
The lack of coffee aroma is a definite negative for instant coffee. Additionally, instant coffee seems to be less acidic, which makes it taste flat.
Masking
Adding something to mask the coffee flavor can make drinking a cup of instant coffee much more palatable. I always add some whole milk to my coffee and this moved the cup of Folgers from blech to drinkable. I think any type of milk would do, as would sugar, a flavoring (like a dash of cinnamon), or a combination of cream and sugar.
A better rehydrating method
I read about several methods used to improve the taste of instant coffee. Two didn’t seem to make much of a difference, but the third surprisingly elevated the coffee several notches, and it is simple to do. Add a couple tablespoons of tap water into your cup and mix in your coffee granules. Heat water just below boiling (stop when small bubbles break the surface). Add this hot water to your cup and stir. Add your masking agent (in my case a splash of milk) and enjoy. This coffee wasn’t as good as the real thing, but it was surprisingly acceptable. If this was the only coffee that I had I could drink it without problem.
Which coffee tasted the best?
This is a subjective opinion. The Folgers was a bit better than the Beaumont and the Cafe Bustelo was a bit better than the Folgers. All of the coffees were brewed using the “better rehydrating method” and whole milk was added. The difference between the various instant coffees was slight and none (as expected) were as good as the regular coffee that I brew at home. However, all were acceptable.
Why drink instant coffee?
Instant coffee delivers caffeine (you can buy decaf too) for your morning jolt. You make exactly the quantity that you want, so there is no waste. It is very easy to make a cup or two. There is no coffee grounds mess. Instant is less likely to go stale in the jar, as the volatile oils are already gone. It is incredibly inexpensive to make a cup if you stick with standard brands. Lastly, if you drink it on a regular basis you will adjust to the taste, which will appear normal.
Alternatives
Of course, you can buy a cup of coffee, but even McDonald’s coffee has gotten expensive. Here are some homebrew solutions. All will give you a more realistic cup of coffee at a higher price than instant, and likely with less convenience.
Percolator coffee
You can still buy percolators. Some are electric and automatic. I think these pots produce the best coffee aromas. However, the brew can sometimes taste a bit cooked or even slightly burnt. With that said, there is nothing as good smelling as percolator coffee on a cold morning while camping.
Home drip coffee
From automatic pots to pour-over systems. The quality of coffee can be quite good. It can be more time-consuming to make. Cleanup may be slightly more work.
French Press
Fast and easy. Can produce an excellent cup of coffee. Cleanup can be messy.
K cups
Very convenient, no waste. Coffee can be a bit insipid. Additionally, you can have a lot of unnecessary plastic waste.
Nespresso
Another pod system, but I have not tried them so I can’t rate them.
Coffee Tea Bags
Made by several companies. Folgers is the most reasonably priced, and the most available. At around 60 cents a “tea” bag this coffee only requires a cup and some hot water. It is super fine ground coffee so you get some aroma and you can adjust the strength of the coffee by controlling your steep time. Cleanup is easy and the bags are very portable.
Other methods
There are many ways to make coffee. Each method has its own time commitment for making, monitoring, and cleaning up. Making coffee will always be less expensive than going to a shop.
I’m not against buying coffee at a shop, I do it myself. However, I prefer this as a treat as it can be unnecessarily expensive to buy a cup or two every day. It is inexpensive to make homebrew, and it is downright cheap to use instant. Instant will still give you the caffeine that you crave in a nice warm beverage. If you use the brewing method that I outlined above and add a masking agent, like milk or sugar, a cup of instant coffee can be quite acceptable.
Bone appetite!
Mike