What is instant coffee?

Instant coffee, also called soluble coffee, is a trendy alternative to ground coffee (and later prepared in a coffee maker) or coffee beans. All over the world, instant coffee is associated with the Nescafé brand, and this is not by chance. Nescafé invented instant (or instant) coffee nearly nine decades ago, in the 1930s, and it is still the industry benchmark today.

We will review the various essentials of instant coffee, a little bit of its history, what instant coffee is, what types of instant coffee exist, and how to buy instant coffee online at Amazon. To begin with, we leave you with some of the main references we can find in the market today:

Before we go any further into this subject, let’s lay the foundations: What is instant coffee? Well, nothing more or less than coffee that dissolves in hot water.

It’s a coffee with a great aroma with many fans and followers worldwide (because of how practical it is or how fast it’s prepared, it all has to be said). It is also an excellent way to make coffee without a coffee maker. Of course, it is the ideal alternative (the only one, in many cases) to drink a decaffeinated coffee in certain situations.

To illustrate the popularity of instant coffee, just one fact is enough: did you know that more than 50% of all green coffee produced in the world is used to make instant coffee?

The best brand of instant coffee: Nescafé

Well, “best” is very subjective because, in the end, it’s all about taste. Still, without a doubt, Nescafé is the brand with the most excellent variety of products and formats of instant coffee and the most popular and consumed in the market. Not in vain, as we have already said, it is the inventor of the product.

When it comes to buying Nescafé instant coffee, there are many varieties. We won’t tell you to try them all, but we will give you a complete list so that you can at least decide for yourself:

Decaffeinated instant coffee, instant cappuccino coffee, in glass jars, in paper packages, in individual sachets without a doubt, the saying “in variety is taste” makes more sense than ever when we talk about Nescafé instant coffee.

Nescafé azera instant coffee

Within Nescafé, we have to highlight the Azera product line. Azera is an instant coffee that is sold in metal cans (not in glass jars), with a capacity of 100 grams and with several specialities to choose from. Depending on how you like one type of coffee or another, in the Nescafé Azera instant coffee range, you will find the right kind of bean to make it. Espresso, American coffee, decaffeinated, in sachets an opportunity that no other instant coffee manufacturer on the market offers.

These are almost all the options available when buying Nescafé Azera instant coffee on Amazon:

Marcilla instant coffee

Marcilla instant coffee is perhaps the second most popular choice on the market. It is another well-known manufacturer in the coffee bean industry, and it is committed to a very creamy instant coffee, more oriented to the gourmet consumer. Its name is Marcilla Crème Express instant coffee.

The most common format for buying Marcilla instant coffee is the 200-gram glass jar.

Kenco instant coffee

Kenco instant coffee is less well known, but it is also interesting to note that it has several specialities in this market of instant coffee. We can find natural instant coffee in their catalogue, decaffeinated, freeze-dried, and agglomerated instant coffee. All of them come in transparent plastic jars of 200 grams in size.

If you want to buy Jurado instant coffee on Amazon, these are the options you have available:

What is the best instant coffee?

The question that the great fans of this type of coffee ask themselves: which is the best instant coffee? Of course, everyone will have an opinion, but if we have to cite a candidate, it would undoubtedly be Nescafé Blend 37 instant coffee.

We don’t know if this is the best instant coffee in the world, but it is certainly among the most appreciated. Overall, the entire Nescafé Gold Blend range is also a good choice if you are looking to buy the best instant coffee in the world.

Instant coffee in sachets

Nescafé and Marcilla’s instant coffee in sachets are the two leading manufacturers. Still, there are also other brands on the market, such as Tamazor, La Barraca. It’s all a matter of trying and finding the one that best suits your taste – or that of your customers.

Today, practically every brand of instant coffee on the market has its version in individual sachets, perfect for buffets and coffee shops. When it comes to drinking instant coffee at home, we understand that the 200- or 500-gram pouches are still the most practical – and the most economical – in the world.

In many cases, these instant coffees are not presented in sachets as such, but rather in small sticks or individual bars (like the sugars in the cafeterias). The difference in format does not influence the product because, in the end, the dose of coffee is the same in each unit.

Whether in sachets or sticks, single-dose instant coffee usually comes in packs of 10, 20, 50 or 100 units.

Decaffeinated instant coffee

When you walk into a coffee shop and ask for decaf, 99% of the time, the waiter will answer with another question: sachet or machine? Because the decaffeinated coffee in a sachet is the maximum exponent of the usefulness of instant coffee.

Here are some candidates for the best decaffeinated instant coffee you can find on the market today. As you can see, each brand has only one variety in its catalogue, except Nescafé, which offers several possibilities: Nescafé Classic instant coffee, Vtalissimo, decaffeinated cappuccino.

After that, the sizes and formats vary for each brand, but we can’t put all of them on there because the list would be endless.

Instant Coffee: Price

It all depends on the range and the format we choose, of course, because there will always be some premium instant coffees that will skyrocket in price, and presentations in pouches will always be more expensive than those in cans. But as a rule, a kilogram of ordinary instant coffee costs around £20/kg.

Is instant coffee bad?

There has historically been much debate about whether instant coffee is right for your health or not, especially if we make the comparison between coffee beans and instant coffee.

The question does not come so much because instant coffee is bad for your health (it doesn’t have to be), but because in the processing, several elements are added that we don’t find in coffee beans. In this sense, coffee beans are purer and have no added sugar.

It must be said that instant coffee doesn’t exactly have all the properties of coffee beans (for example, it loses its antioxidants), but it does preserve many of them; let’s not forget. We could conclude that instant coffee is not bad for your health, but it is not as beneficial as pure coffee beans either.

Instant coffee vs. ground coffee

This question arises from the above, which does not have much foundation because the reasons for drinking instant coffee are often related to practicality and speed, not so much with the benefits that one or another type of coffee may have on health.

How is instant coffee made? Step by step

In essence, instant coffee is a dehydrated coffee from which all the liquid is extracted so that it then returns to its original state when it is dissolved in hot water. The preparation consists of a central spray-drying process (there is then a second process, freeze-drying, which gives rise to freeze-dried instant coffee).

In both cases, the coffee beans are the original raw material, which must be roasted and then ground. So far, there are no differences from the pre-ground coffee sold already packaged and used in espresso machines.

  • To prepare instant coffee, it is first necessary to extract the instant solids from the resulting coffee powder with hot water.
  • The resulting extract is a liquid that is centrifuged, and the water is removed step by step.
  • Finally, it is spray-dried in a special drying chamber for this purpose.
  • The result of all this is the characteristic granules or particles of instant coffee (much thicker and more substantial than those of ground coffee). They are dried coffee crystals.

How do you make instant coffee?

To prepare an excellent creamy instant coffee, we only have to add hot water to the instant coffee, or vice versa (serve the coffee over the water already in the cup). The amount of water and coffee will be according to the taste of each one.

 However, as with everything, there are variations. In some countries of the world, for example, instant coffee is prepared with hot milk and not with water.

One of the most repeated arguments by the detractors of instant coffee is that it does not have the cream or foam of a real espresso made in a coffee maker.

There is some discussion about how instant coffee is made, but almost every point of view is based on particular tastes. For example, it is not proven that the temperature of the water (hotter, less hot) affects the final taste of the coffee. Some people prefer to use hot water straight from the kettle, and some say it is better to let the water cool slightly before using it.

Some users prefer to lightly wet the instant coffee beans (a kind of pre-infusion) before preparing the coffee itself. In this way, a small spoonful of water is poured over the instant coffee beans and mixed well until a consistent coffee paste is obtained.

As always, if it’s the first time you’re going to prepare instant coffee, we advise you to follow the manufacturer’s instructions first. Then, in subsequent preparations, adjust the steps and quantities to adapt the flavour to your taste.

What is instant coffee with Amalaki?

Nothing worth knowing (sorry to be so direct). Amalaki, or AMLA, is a plant that became very popular not too many years ago due to its supposed miraculous properties against all kinds of evils. In theory, they were used to lose weight, to cure illnesses, etc.

As it usually happens in these cases, all this information suddenly comes out to the public without any serious study to back it up, but of course, with a valuable marketing and diffusion campaign behind it.

The instant coffee with Amalaki is not more than a type of instant coffee that came to market; only regular instant coffee with Amalaki extract (as there is also instant coffee with other extracts or flavours, such as ginseng, vanilla or cinnamon).

Can you buy instant coffee with Amalaki? Well, frankly, if you look hard enough, you might find it somewhere. Still, as of this writing, Amalaki instant coffee is not available on Amazon, nor do we know of any physical store that distributes it regularly.

How to make instant coffee at home?

Many people wonder how to make instant coffee at home, ignoring that behind the manufacture of instant coffee, there is an important industrial and technological process. However, it is possible to imitate the process at home if we have the right materials. Here we tell you how:

  • The first thing you need is to have ground coffee or buy coffee beans and grind it yourself at home (much better than the second option).
  • Pour the coffee powder and grind it on a wire mesh or similar. It’s essential to get air circulation above and below the coffee.
  • Next, you will need to prepare your freezer for the process: empty it (you will need space) and lower the temperature as much as your refrigerator will allow.
  • It is not mandatory, but putting some dry ice in the freezer will help.
  • Then put the net with the coffee in the freezer. Leave it there for at least a week. If you have introduced dry ice, replace it from time to time so that it does not lose its properties.
  • Here’s the tricky part: when you take the coffee out of the freezer, immediately put it in an airtight bag (zip-lock bag), and vacuum it (with a hose or vacuum pump) before closing it.
  • If you have done all the steps correctly, the result you will have inside your airtight bag will be a packet of instant coffee. Just open it and pour it over some hot water to enjoy a real homemade instant coffee. Don’t forget always to keep it in a cool place, so that it doesn’t lose condition.

As you can see, it’s not easy to make homemade instant coffee, but with a little practice and the right tools, it’s possible.