Opinion: Instant Coffee Is Good Now, Actually? – CoffeeTalk
Craft instant coffee has revolutionized the way we brew at home, offering unique characteristics and flavors that are not found in traditional pour overs. The revolution began in 2016, when San Francisco’s Sudden Coffee and Swift Cup Coffee, a small-scale producer, entered the market traditionally dominated by industry giants like Folgers, Nescafé, and Starbucks. Sudden Coffee operated like a tech company with some serious coffee pedigree, but they folded in 2020. Swift Cup Coffee in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, started collaborating with small-batch roasters and now works with 150 roasters across the country.
Swift produces instant coffee using a high-extract concentrate that preserves as much nuance and flavor as possible. The high-extract coffee is cooled to a sub-zero temperature, then placed under a chamber to remove all of the air so that it is under a vacuum. This lowers the boiling point, allowing Swift to boil off the water while it’s still in that frozen state. Instant coffee, which is called “soluble coffee” in the trade, is similar to the process that industry giants use, but at a much smaller scale and with much more care given to the beans. Some of the 150 roasters that work with Swift might just produce one kind of instant coffee, usually a blend, or others have multiple coffees, some of which are made with high-end single beans, and they trust Swift to do right by those ingredients.
Swift also produces their own instant coffees, which include four single origins from East Africa, another four from South America including a Gesha from El Salvador, a medium roast blend, a dark roast blend, and a decaf. Right now, Swift’s selections include four single origins from East Africa, another four from South America including a Gesha from El Salvador, a medium roast blend, a dark roast blend, and a decaf. That’s 11 different kinds of instant coffee for those of you keeping count at home.
The best instant coffees are vastly superior to the jarred instant you happily threw back while in college or endured while visiting your grandparents. However, dissolving a packet of instant coffee isn’t the same as brewing coffee from freshly ground whole beans. Some of the aroma is lost, as are the more nuanced flavors. Craft instant ain’t cheap, with a six-pack costing around $15 or more, which works out to at least $2.50 per cup.
To pick the best instant coffees, the team started with more than 50 coffees, sorted into blends, single origins, and decaf. They then prepared them according to the instructions on the packaging and tasted them by pouring the coffee into ceramic “cupping” bowls. Each coffee was assessed using a modified version of the Specialty Coffee Association of American Cupping Form, assigning points for flavor, aftertaste, acidity, body, balance, clean cup, sweetness, and overall. The leading coffees from each category advanced to a final round, and not all coffees on the table made the cut.
Making a coffee recommendation is a little like telling you what brand of jeans to buy: you want a pair that fits you. When it comes to instant coffee, you should find one that suits your palate. If there are roasters on this list that you know and like, you will likely enjoy their coffee. If the names are unfamiliar, you might need to try a few until you find the right one for you.
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Source: Coffee Talk