Soldiers enjoying some instant coffee
Amongst third wave coffee consumers and retailers instant coffee has a negative stigma attached to it. It is often thought to be poor quality and a quick fix for our rushed mornings and afternoon crashes. When I think of instant coffee I tend to think of the American industrial era and the introduction of highly processed foods, but instant coffee dates much further back than that. Instant coffee was a product of the civil war. It was a way to fuel troops efficiently without using large amounts of brewing equipment and it was a product with a long shelf life. There were larger advancements made with instant coffee during the 1930’s involving Nestle (sound familiar?). Nestle technicians worked with Brazilian coffee officials, who had vast quantities of coffee stock piles that needed to be utilized. Nestle had developed a a spray drying technology that they were using to powder milk and this same technique was used to powder coffee beans. During WWII instant coffee was directed more heavily towards troops and less toward a consumer’s market, but post war production and consumption of the product increased rapidly. Instant coffee was an expanding market. In the 1950’s the U.S. was the largest consuming market for instant coffee. Some of the larger instant coffee manufacturers include Nestle, Borden, and General Mills (Maxwell House). These three players were also competitively buying shares for the rapidly growing and capital intensive market.
image: thevintagenews.com
Written by Valerie. Edited by Ashley.