Coffee: Instant or not

http://www.coffeereview.com/article.cfm?ID=181

Computing Costs for Instants

Presumably, one of the appeals of instant coffee, in addition to convenience, is price. And on a pure price basis most instants are standouts. Instants not packaged in single-serve envelopes like Starbucks’ VIA typically recommend one “rounded” teaspoon per 6-ounce cup. In computing our price-per-serving listed in the notes sections of this month’s reviews, we figured 3 grams of instant to about 7 to 8 ounces of water. Three grams by volume is roughly a (very) heaping teaspoon. We used approximately the same strength of solution for our reviews, though modifying it for a smaller cup size: 2.5 grams of soluble powder to 5 ounces of water.

Much Too Cheap vs. Considerably More Expensive

Our analysis of cost per serving dramatized two points. First, ordinary supermarket instant brands are very cheap: 9 to 15 cents or so per serving. Second, they probably are too cheap. The fact they taste so bad is likely driven by a need to contain costs by squeezing every last bit of soluble material out of the roast and ground coffee, including some pretty ugly stuff that ought to get composted with the coffee grounds rather than dried and put into a jar for human consumption. Ordinary brewing takes about 20% solubles out of the coffee, mostly the good stuff. Instant coffee production takes out considerably more; if I understand my technical references correctly instant production extracts 30% or 40% solubles. And the processes necessary to get the additional 10% to 20% solids out of the coffee do not sound pretty, and can’t have a particularly benign influence on flavor.

But all of that is theoretical assuming. We prefer to taste and report, and on that basis most instants in the North American market today are, for whatever reasons, barely drinkable to terrible. You do get what you pay for here, however; the decent-tasting, top-rated Nescafé Taster’s Choice 100% Colombian cost around 30 cents per serving, as opposed to an average of about 12 cents per serving for competing instants.

Except, of course, for the Starbucks, which costs an amazing one dollar per serving, or eight to ten times as much as most competing products, and three times as much as the top-rated Nescafe Taster’s Choice 100% Colombian. I am not complaining about the price. I only wish the Starbucks VIA instants justified that price in the cup. For us they flat out did not.