Instant coffee, crime or convenience?

[Exit Stage Left]

We've been drinking Brazilian Nescafe for a long time. Poundstretcher do it for £2.59 for 200gm. It's recently lost the Portuguese language label and is called 'International Roast'.

[hellymedic]

I try not to buy anything Nestlé. Since I liike my instant coffee (called 'brown liquid' by my partner) I take Sainsbury's Gold Roast and its decaf double.

[CAMRAMan]

I fell somewhere between 2 & 3, so went for 2...

[Pancho]

...
I've just run out of instant (it's only Tuesday!) and so having a proper coffee instead.  As above, it's a different drink.  Both are nice, both are good.
...

Seeing that Gold Blend was £6.50 in the shop, I decided to go for supermarket own brand at £2 for a change.

 

Whoops.

You get used to it.

Nothing instant is real coffee so you might as well go for the cheap stuff.

[teethgrinder]

I'm currently getting through a 200g jar each working week 

 

Are you a professional coffee drinker? That'd last me at least a month at home, maybe 2 months.

[teethgrinder]

Needs must, so I learned to *accept* the stuff, but I've now been in Canuckistan for 3+ years and have yet to been offered a cup of 'instant' and I think it's really only in the UK that it's in any way or form popular.

I remember when I was in a touristy part of Turkey. The Turkish coffee I tried was the worst coffee I've ever tasted. Didn't tase much like coffee to me. Instant was much better. Maybe that's why a lot of the cafes were boasting that they served Nescafe coffee? I don't think the Turks really get coffee. I made do with beer.

[teethgrinder]

and people over-estimate the amount of effort required to make a drinkable cup of filter coffee

Dunno?
I've tried using a cafatiere, but got fed up with cleaning it out afterwards. Not a great effort I admit. But with instant, you just put two (I have a pint mug) spoonfulls in the cup and add boiling water. No waiting and no faffing and no addidtional washing up. Coffee from my cafatiere does taset better, but it's not worth the extra bother IMO.

But I can see why people (especially those who go for sugar and/or quite a lot of milk in their coffee) might go the other way.

I add milk and sugar to coffee, but if it's real good coffee I don't add sugar. I don't add it to espresso. The worse the coffee tastes, the more sugar I add, up to a point.

[teethgrinder]

Seeing that Gold Blend was £6.50 in the shop, I decided to go for supermarket own brand at £2 for a change.

 

Whoops.

You get used to it.

Nothing instant is real coffee so you might as well go for the cheap stuff.

IMO, some instants taste better than others. I'm running on Sainsburys Gold at about £6.50 for 500g at the moment. That's good enough but not the best instant. I usualy have Fair Trade which is about £7.50 for a similar sized tin and IMO tastes a bit better and is still pretty cheap. (I like Fair Trade stuff) But the gits at my local Sainsburys seem to have stopped selling Fair Trade. Tesco don't seem to sell it either.
Some of the more expensive ones do taste a bit better IMO, but if I really wanted a good coffee, I'd not bother with instant.

[nuttycyclist]

I've remembered why I have drunk Gold Blend for so long.  It tastes like coffee.

This other stuff has the all too familiar taste of "something and bovril" that instant coffee has.

[teethgrinder]

I maintain that there are two broad classifications of coffee:

• Good, honest fresh coffee, made fairly quickly in a French press, pourover or whatever.  Could be Nespresso, or some other expedient device.  Can even be made whilst camping - coffee bags are surprisingly drinkable.  I'm happy to have my coffee made from supermarket or bulk-bought beans as long as they've been well kept and freshly ground.  Packets of ready-ground coffee might just suffice if they've been opened within the last day or so, but it loses its pizazz so quickly that it's way easier to just grind some every time.  You don't even need a very good grinder for this sort of coffee.
• Coffee made from freshly roasted (i.e. between one and four weeks old, no less, no more) beans, sourced from a reputable roasting house, ground finely and made in an espresso machine, Aeropress or possibly a stovetop moka pot. Obsess about the weight, grind, tamp, temperature, extraction time and crema. Enjoy.

Instant coffee *is* an abomination and I have no idea why people put up with it.

Oh good. A real coffee Nazi!

Sounds like too much faff to me. Buying all those machines and stuff. Pffff


No doubt that I'd do the Pepsi challenge with your coffee and yours would be very good. Probably the best I've ever tasted. I just CBA. Plenty of other nice drinks around that come out of bottles.
There is, of course, the satisfaction of creating something. I'd rather not have special machines and stuff if I don't need them, but if you're really into good coffee, then it's the way to go for sure. If I want to create something nice to eat, I'll bake a cake or some bread, not that I bother very often.

I don't put up with instant. I like to drink it. Milk and sugar helps, but the only coffee I drink without milk is espresso, unless there is no milk and I really want coffee. I wouldn't add sugar to real good coffee and spoil it's taste.

[Canardly]

With trepidation...........Macdonalds serve a decent cup of coffee......sits back and waits...

[hellymedic]

IMO, some instants taste better than others. I'm running on Sainsburys Gold at about £6.50 for 500g at the moment. That's good enough but not the best instant. I usualy have Fair Trade which is about £7.50 for a similar sized tin and IMO tastes a bit better and is still pretty cheap. (I like Fair Trade stuff) But the gits at my local Sainsburys seem to have stopped selling Fair Trade. Tesco don't seem to sell it either.
Some of the more expensive ones do taste a bit better IMO, but if I really wanted a good coffee, I'd not bother with instant.

I think 200g Sainsbury's Gold Roast + 200g Sainsbury's Decaf Gold Roast (I drink a 50/50 mix) lasts me two months. I don't really know; I just buy more when the old jars run down.

[nuttycyclist]

With trepidation...........Macdonalds serve a decent cup of coffee......sits back and waits...

Agreed.

[Domestique]

Some coffee is worse than others, but all is better than tea.
One thing I have never understood is the Starbucks thing though. Perhaps I have just never earned enough money or always been lucky enough to work somewhere that you could make your own.

[RJ]

To quote the Bard:

If I can't have a proper cup of coffee in a proper copper coffee pot --

 -- I'll have a cup of tea.

... which is why I've finally caved in and got myself a mug-sized french press for work, and am now working my way along my local coffee-merchant's jars of beans 

[nuttycyclist]

Some coffee is worse than others, but all is better than tea.
One thing I have never understood is the Starbucks thing though. Perhaps I have just never earned enough money or always been lucky enough to work somewhere that you could make your own.

I have never got the Starbucks/other phenomenon either.   Coffee is coffee and no need to give it fancy names.

They also don't make nice coffee.    I'd rather have instant than that.

[Domestique]

Some coffee is worse than others, but all is better than tea.
One thing I have never understood is the Starbucks thing though. Perhaps I have just never earned enough money or always been lucky enough to work somewhere that you could make your own.

I have never got the Starbucks/other phenomenon either.   Coffee is coffee and no need to give it fancy names.

They also don't make nice coffee.    I'd rather have instant than that.

I was going to make a comment about you legendary fettle'ing skills, hospitals and whats on offer now the WI has gone 
Not so good when you visit 
 

[teethgrinder]

Some coffee is worse than others, but all is better than tea.
One thing I have never understood is the Starbucks thing though. Perhaps I have just never earned enough money or always been lucky enough to work somewhere that you could make your own.

I have never got the Starbucks/other phenomenon either.   Coffee is coffee and no need to give it fancy names.

They also don't make nice coffee.    I'd rather have instant than that.

Probably a fashion thing. They're handy for meeting up with people, especially in the daytime or if you aren't really into pubs. Very handy on a long bike ride too, especially if it's cold/wet/you're tired or whatever. Not just a big mug of hot coffee, but a sit down in the warm, a sofa if you're lucky, where you can get an hour or so of sleep if you're tired.

With trepidation...........Macdonalds serve a decent cup of coffee......sits back and waits...

They are excellent value. I don't rate their coffee very highly for taste, but there's plenty of it for the money and it's certainly not what I'd call bad. Pretty much the only reason I go to a Mc Donalds, often on a long ride, especially if it's cold and wet.

[Euan Uzami]

Possibly heresy but I've discovered starbucks actually do pretty nice coffee, but you've got to ask for filter coffee - if you just ask for normal coffee you get americano which is absolutely foul. In fact most places are incapable of doing proper filter coffee, instead only being able to do espresso topped up with water, which even the best of can only go so far in terms of how nice it is.
I once tested it out at costa and asked if they did 'filter coffee' and they said 'yep, sure' but then blithely produced me an espresso topped up with water.

[Euan Uzami]

Some coffee is worse than others, but all is better than tea.
One thing I have never understood is the Starbucks thing though. Perhaps I have just never earned enough money or always been lucky enough to work somewhere that you could make your own.

I don't get why people go out from work/home just to go to starbucks but to me it has a useful purpose namely for when travelling, either a long train journey, long car journey, or staying in a travelodge.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I know people who prefer instant coffee. So they drink it even though it is, in that place and time, more expensive.

Myself, I'm not a coffee drinker, but on the rare occasions I do have a cup of coffee, I'll have something "real". Whether it's espresso, cappuccino or whatever I've no idea or much care, though no sugar please, but I don't like instant. Perhaps if I was a coffee drinker I would? 

[teethgrinder]

Possibly heresy but I've discovered starbucks actually do pretty nice coffee, but you've got to ask for filter coffee - if you just ask for normal coffee you get americano which is absolutely foul. In fact most places are incapable of doing proper filter coffee, instead only being able to do espresso topped up with water, which even the best of can only go so far in terms of how nice it is.
I once tested it out at costa and asked if they did 'filter coffee' and they said 'yep, sure' but then blithely produced me an espresso topped up with water.

That's true, they do just add espresso to water and milk, depnding on what you oredered. I've never thought of it like that. I'll have to try to remember to ask for a filter coffee.

[MikeFromLFE]

With trepidation...........Macdonalds serve a decent cup of coffee......sits back and waits...

...and waits for agreement - £ per £ McD's coffee is about as good as you can get, but 1) it's a pity that they don't do decaff' and 2) the 'ambiance' is often lacking 

[Martin]

With trepidation...........Macdonalds serve a decent cup of coffee......sits back and waits...

...and waits for agreement - £ per £ McD's coffee is about as good as you can get, but 1) it's a pity that they don't do decaff' and 2) the 'ambiance' is often lacking 

sitting on the roundabout at Wandsworth Bridge watching the world (and a lot of bikes) go by with a piping hot McD coffee Philly bagel and a hash brown all for a lot less than £3; what's not to like?

I'm a bit of a rebel at work because I eschew Costa Bomba in favour of my industrial strength Aldi and a Woolies plunger; bit of a ritual having to carry all of it into the tea room and back as it gets pinched/used otherwise    but still worth it over instant

[Euan Uzami]

Possibly heresy but I've discovered starbucks actually do pretty nice coffee, but you've got to ask for filter coffee - if you just ask for normal coffee you get americano which is absolutely foul. In fact most places are incapable of doing proper filter coffee, instead only being able to do espresso topped up with water, which even the best of can only go so far in terms of how nice it is.
I once tested it out at costa and asked if they did 'filter coffee' and they said 'yep, sure' but then blithely produced me an espresso topped up with water.

That's true, they do just add espresso to water and milk, depnding on what you oredered. I've never thought of it like that. I'll have to try to remember to ask for a filter coffee.

It's 'second hand' otherwise... when I drink coffee I want ALL the water to have touched coffee, not just touched other water which has in turn touched coffee