Instant coffee was probably designed to compete with traditional brewed coffee with lower overhead production cost and more appeal to a high speed consumer in mind. There may be some good Instant coffees out there, but to compete with premium gourmet coffee is difficult because of the way the two are differently manufactured, delivered and presented to the consumer.
Despite being thought of as an underdog to brewed coffee, one can assess instant coffee by looking for the same great features used to distinguish premium brewed coffee. Premium brewed coffee has many tell tale characteristics that a seasoned coffee drinker knows to look for. Thus, to assess instant coffee look for the following things; if an instant coffee has the better of these aspects it is a top grade instant coffee.
1. Color. If it is a light brown and you can see the bottom of your cup it is either too weak or dilute. The color of many robust coffees is a thick rich dark brown.
2. Aroma. Great coffee smells as good as it tastes, if the scent of strong flavored coffee beans does not present itself in a mellowed form when placing your nose in the coffee’s rising steam, is is most probably low grade coffee or too weak.
3. Taste. When you take that first sip of coffee does it fill your taste buds with a deep penetrating flavor or strong ‘full bodied’ taste? If it tastes too acidic or bitter the best coffee beans may not have been used to make the coffee.
4. Compatibility with cream and/or milk. Good coffee will taste very smooth with cream and/or milk. A not so good coffee will just taste like coffee with cream or milk in it.
5. Texture. Thicker looking and feeling coffee is representative of a higher grade coffee. Thin, lifeless, and watery looking coffee is just that.
Finding a great instant coffee may not be as easy as finding a premium ground coffee as ground coffee has an edge because of the preparation. Instant coffee is just mixed with hot or boiling water whereas ground coffee is either brewed, percolated or steeped. What’s more the ground coffee is just that, finely chopped coffee beans where the degree of fineness is specific to the method of preparation used i.e. espresso uses a finer ground than percolated. Instant coffee is not this sophisticated and consequently does not have the same opportunity of variation as ground coffee as there is generally only one way to prepare it.
However, instant coffee is still coffee and also comes from coffee beans. The difference is usually in how they’re made and what beans are used to make them. With fresh brewed coffee the argument can be made the drinker gets more of what’s in the bean itself and the beans might be of a better quality since the consumer often knows more about the type of bean (s)he is drinking. Although this gives fresh ground coffee a noticeable advantage over both canned coffee and instant coffee, it does not exclude the possibility a really good instant coffee is out there somewhere hiding amidst the bounty of coffee products waiting to be discovered. Perhaps some manufacturers of instant coffee have discovered how to preserve the same good features that make premium coffee as wonderful an experience as it is. But lets not me deceived, the real secret to assessing instant coffee is how long it takes to become a drink after the water is hot!
Disclaimer: The ideas and opinions in the above article are for contemplation purposes only and do not necessarily represent true facts, ideas and/or beliefs of the author.
