Tree To Cup: It All Begins with the Cherry on Top

While espresso and cappuccinos and dark roasted coffees conjure up an aura of the European sensibility about coffee, it may come as a surprise that instant coffees are hugely popular throughout Europe. One reason is convenience, and the other is the strong presence of Nescafé, one of the world's leading food producers, and the predominant manufacturer of instant coffee who first introduced the beverage to Europe in Switzerland in 1938. Its gourmet quality instant coffees, Alta Rica and Carte Noir, are popular throughout Europe. Another is the presence of DEK (Deutsche Extrakt Kaffee GMBH) which produces 14,000 tons of instant coffee for Germany each year alone. (America consumes 40,000 tons.) In Asia, where the idea of boiling water to serve tea is as common as breathing, instant coffee remains very popular, where 93% of the coffee consumed in Korea is instant, and more than 50% in Japan. Down the globe a bit, 90% of coffee consumed by Australians is instant and slightly more, 93% is prepared in the homes of the British.

WHO INVENTED INSTANT COFFEE?
The honor goes to still-nameless inventors in Great Britain who created versions of water soluble coffees in 1771, followed by the first American version developed in 1853 which was followed by a cake of powdered coffee used briefly during the Civil War in the 1860s. None of these products took off because the products were not yet reliably stable and had a rather short shelf life.

Japanese-born American chemist, Dr. Satori Kato of Chicago, had originally been approached by an American coffee importer and a roaster to adapt his process of dehydration for an instant tea product he had developed and apply it to coffee. His results were the first reliably soluble instant coffee which he presented as free samples through his Kato Coffee Company in the Manufactures' Building at the Pan American Exposition held in Buffalo, New York in 1901. His patent, applied for on April 17, 1901 and received August 11, 1903, was for "Coffee Concentrate and Process of Making Same" (No. 735,777).

In 1906, American inventor George Constant Lewis Washington noticed a powdery buildup of coffee on the family's silver coffeepot and followed this curiosity to create his version of "refined soluble coffee." More importantly, he devised a way to mass produce instant coffee and was an ardent marketer of his Red E Coffee (pun intended) beginning in 1909. He sold the instant coffee both to the public and through the military to the point that soldiers called the beverage, "a cup of George." One soldier wrote, in 1918, that "It takes only a minute to light my little oil heater and make some George Washington Coffee…Every night I offer up a special petition to the health and well-being of Mr. Washington." The company later came to be known as GWashington's Instant Coffee and was sold until 1961.

INSTANT COFFEE GAINS ACCEPTANCE
For the military, instant coffee was packaged as an emergency ration of seven grams (one-quarter ounce) of double-strength coffee packed along with other foods for each platoon of 24 men. Both Washington and Nescafé, were suppliers of instant coffee during World War I. During World War II, instant coffee was again a fixture in army food rations with more than a million cases, produced by the US plant for Nescafé, and reserved for military use alone.

During the 1950s, with the advent of commercial television, other brands became enormously popular following the development of a 100% coffee product; previously carbohydrates had been added to stabilize the product. Soon the airwaves were filled with ads from Chase & Sanborn hawked by the likes of Arthur Godfrey, Maxwell House (Good to the last drop), and a decaffeinated dehydrated version produced by Sanka, along with various choices from Nescafé, Taster's Choice, and many other brands from Europe and in the US.

INSTANT COFFEE TODAY
Today, instant coffee has a taste that is greatly improved from its predecessors, is available in organic and nonorganic versions, and has a small but steady presence on the supermarket shelves, along with the newly popular European-style coffees produced by American and international suppliers. The simplicity of its use (just add hot water) has kept it popular in the military, for those who camp or trek, and for those who just want a coffee that doesn't require elaborate machinery to make, the conundrum of where to dump the grounds, and the speed with which it can be made. Its easy ability to dissolve with no pre-brewing requirements also makes it a popular ingredient in both cooking and baking with coffee, and when a sprinkle of coffee powder makes a perfectly pretty and delicious garnish.