S3 Episode 3: The Impact of Instant Coffee

What this episode covers

This episode is all about the product which makes up over half of the global coffee market: instant coffee. As it turns out, instant coffee has more than earned it’s status as a mainstay in hotel rooms and grocery store aisles across the world – it may have even helped the U.S. win a war. This week’s episode is brought to you by My Espresso Shop . Use offer code “BoiseCoffee” at checkout to receive 10% off your order containing an espresso machine or grinder. Colin Episode transcript: This episode of The Boise Coffee Podcast is brought to you by My Espresso Shop – a leading online retailer of espresso machines, grinders and related accessories. Use offer code “BoiseCoffee” to get 10% off your espresso machine or grinder today at MyEspressoShop.com I spend a lot of time on this show talking about the “specialty” side of coffee. On this end of the spectrum, usually we’re interested in taking each step of the coffee-making process and maximizing the taste we can get from each bean. No step in getting the bean from the ground to the cup is left out – we’re interested in making every aspect of coffee production better, in terms of flavor profile, as well as in terms of bettering the livelihoods of those picking and processing the coffee. Occasionally on this show, I’ve brought up what I tend to call “commodity coffee.” That is – coffee that is bought and sold as a commodity, rather than a specialty item. Commodity coffee is nearly always stale, having sat pre-ground, in plastic containers and on the shelf at a grocery store for weeks, or perhaps months. You know the names of these companies well – Folgers, Maxwell House, Yuban, and Chock full o’ Nuts, to name a few. If we’re looking at coffee as a scale from “specialty” to “the opposite of specialty,” you might be tempted to think commodity coffee is at that far end. And in some way’s you’d be right – in terms of normal brewing processes, this scale is about as complete as you’ll get. In terms of total coffee produced, however, this scale is only half the picture. About 50% of the world’s green coffee market goes towards producing coffee that’s brewed in a standard pot, Keurig machine, or by manual methods like a pour-over cone. The other 50%? That’s used to make instant coffee. I’m Colin Mansfield, and welcome to The Boise Coffee Podcast. The history of instant coffee dates back to the late 1800’s, and was most influenced by World War I. Before we get into all that, though, I want to take a second to talk about what instant coffee actually is. Basically, in a nut shell, instant coffee is made of coffee flavor crystals that only require hot water to dissolve into. There is no brewing process or filter needed, just a tube or baggie of the coffee crystals. Usually this feat of science is accomplished through a somewhat complex process of preparing green coffee beans as you usually would – roasting, then finely grinding – before hitting them with extremely hot, pressurized, liquid water (around 350 degrees F). After this unconventional “batch brew,” the liquid coffee’s concentration is increased, usually through evaporation. Finally, the concentrated brew is freeze-dried, then broken into small pieces, referred to as “coffee crystals.” Add hot water to these crystals, and you’ve got yourself a cup of instant coffee. Instant coffee was independently created by three people in three different countries between 1880 and 1901: Alphonse Allais from France, David Strang from New Zealand, and Satori Kato from Chicago. Kato introduced his early version of instant coffee at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo,

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