What exactly is instant coffee?

Thirty years ago, I went to a coffee shop for the first time with mixed feelings and expectations. The waiter in a Japanese maid's apron brought me a cup of instant coffee! What a pity! When I was taking the college entrance examination, I had already drunk several packets of Beijing Royal Jelly and cod liver oil.

When we went there again later, we changed to drinking beer. After all, it was a student party, and drinking beer from bottles was both exciting and affordable.

The cafe is called the Log Cabin and is located inside Peking University.

At that time, I thought coffee was made with milk and sugar, sweet but bitter. It had to be the three-in-one, just like medicine powder had to be put in a capsule before taking, otherwise it would be too bitter.

Later, after I came into contact with fresh coffee, I stayed away from instant coffee.

So, is instant coffee really coffee?

Let’s first talk about the most complained about coffee-mate (here it refers to the creamer that goes with coffee in all N-in-one products. “Coffee-mate” is a registered trademark of Nestlé, and other companies are not allowed to use this name).

Many articles have mentioned the potential health risks of creamer or coffee creamer:

Coffee creamer or non-dairy creamer is a vegetable protein substitute for milk. If you look carefully at the ingredient list, many of them contain hydrogenated vegetable oil , which is produced during the processing of non-dairy creamer. Hydrogenated vegetable oil contains trans fatty acids, which increase the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular sclerosis.

However, it would be a hooligan if we don’t talk about the dosage. The safe dosage of trans fatty acids set by WHO and FDA is 2 grams per day. It is difficult to drink so much in one day. Moreover, nowadays, many businesses have adopted the production process of creamer without hydrogenated oil. Therefore, the author is very kind and will not talk about creamer and say "stay away from instant coffee".

What is the "coffee" in instant coffee? Why do other coffees have coffee grounds, but instant coffee does not?

Instant coffee is made by first extracting the coffee (the extraction principle is the same as that of hand brewing and espresso machines, using water or pressure to separate the drinkable substances in the ground coffee beans, and there are coffee grounds at this time). Then what? The water in the extracted coffee liquid is removed (the spray drying method or freeze drying method is the same as making milk powder), and the powdered substance that comes out is instant coffee powder.

(The powder will clump together, this is normal)

If milk powder mixed with water is called reconstituted milk or reconstituted milk, then instant coffee should be more accurately called reconstituted coffee.

Since reconstituted milk can be called milk according to regulations, then instant coffee is indeed considered coffee, or strictly speaking, it is reconstituted coffee .

So, if you don't add mate and sugar, will instant coffee taste good? Many people will definitely say that it's like breaking open the capsule and eating the powder inside, and you still have to smack the taste?

To this, I just want to say: you get what you pay for. Your three-in-one product only costs one dollar a bag (which also includes a considerable advertising fee), and you still expect it to taste good?

In fact, if you use high-quality coffee beans as raw materials and control the degree of roasting and extraction process, instant coffee can also be made to taste better. I have drunk instant coffee that is no less delicious than Starbucks Americano, without sugar or milk. However, I will not leave the delicious fresh coffee undrinked to be a guinea pig for everyone to taste and recommend.

So why is most instant coffee so unpalatable and bitter?

In fact, this topic is very complicated, it is like a textbook of "Business". Let me briefly explain a few points. First, they studied people's potential consumption needs, considered the scale and benefits, and chose the low-price route. Then, they thought of various ways to reduce costs, and finally, they used some tricks to make you feel that "value for money".

How to reduce costs? In addition to large-scale industrial production, the raw materials are replaced by non-dairy creamer for milk and the cheapest coffee beans, such as low-quality African Robusta coffee beans. Then, the coffee powder is over-extracted, trying to squeeze out all the cost of each coffee bean, even if it is just plant fiber, which makes instant coffee bitter and unpalatable.

Why do so many people drink it even though it tastes bad? This is the trick used by international companies:

Make the non-dairy creamer fragrant (I used to like to drink coffee creamer directly with water);

Infiltrating sales channels like cancer cells, if your supermarket doesn't sell my instant coffee, then I won't let you sell my dairy products or chocolate either.

There are also killer products, with huge amounts of money spent on advertising, with slogans like "every drop is so fragrant that you'll never get enough", coupled with beautiful women and various suggestive backgrounds.

(Haha, the truth is – instant coffee is the favorite of singles)

• Some manufacturers even add caffeine directly to instant coffee to highlight its refreshing effect...

Having said so much, if you still want to drink instant coffee, I won’t stop you. After all, instant coffee still occupies the largest share of the global coffee market, and its manufacturers are also among the top 500 companies in the world.

However, if you have the conditions, I recommend that you try to drink fresh coffee: freshly brewed, freshly ground, and freshly roasted. If you are on a business trip, you can bring some freshly ground coffee drip bags.

over

About the author: Starbucks Beijing’s first financial director, accountant, and coffee expert.

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