• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Espresso & Coffee Guide
  • Recipes
  • Countries
    • African Coffees
    • South American Coffees
    • Indonesian Coffees
  • Best Coffees
  • About
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Recipes
  • Best Coffees
  • Guide
  • Contact
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • Recipes
    • Best Coffees
    • Guide
    • Contact
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
  • ×
    Home

    Instant Coffee

    Instant coffee is a product derived from coffee beans through manufacturing processes that result in an extract of either granules, powder, or a liquid concentrate.

    How Is Instant Coffee Made?

    Instant coffee is made by brewing a concentrated liquid solution of real coffee and then removing the water through dehydration. The leftover residue powder is instant coffee.

    Also see: The Top Ten Coffees in the World.

    The History of Instant Coffee Production

    Capturing the essence of good coffee flavor in an instant coffee product has been an ongoing challenge. For more than two centuries, individuals and companies have attempted to make an instant coffee that tastes and smells as good as freshly brewed whole bean coffee.

    Is Instant Coffee as Good as Fresh-Brewed Coffee?

    The results have been mixed. It remains to future scientists to continue to attempt to duplicate, in instant form, the best flavor of coffee when properly brewed.

    In short, it's not a substitute for fresh-roasted, freshly ground and brewed coffee.

    It does have its place however. While today's instant coffees have still not achieved the level of quality that would allow them to replace brewed coffee, the product still has great value - the thing about instant coffee is that, in a pinch when you can't have fresh coffee, it does the trick. Some people even prefer the “instant” taste.

    Instant Coffee Production

    About 40,000 tons of instant coffee are sold in the United States each year, and in some other countries instant coffee is far more popular than brewed coffee.

    It All Begins with the Roasting

    To make instant coffee, first the green coffee beans are roasted to bring out their tastes and aromas. The roasting is typically done in a roasting plant where the coffee beans are placed in a rotating drum with hot combustion gases.

    Roasting the green coffee beans typically takes about 8 to 15 minutes at temperatures up to 165 degrees Celsius. Continuous fluid bed roasting may also be used, and this takes from 30 seconds to 4 minutes and uses lower temperatures. The benefit of the lower temperatures is better taste and aroma retention.

    The Instant Coffee Process - Grinding the Coffee to Powder

    Scored rollers are used to crush (not cut) the coffee beans to a finely ground to a particle size between .020 and .043 inches (.5 and 1.1 millimeters).

    The roasted, ground coffee is then dissolved in water and percolates at 150 degrees to 180 degrees Celsius until the resulting concentrate is between 15 and 30 percent by mass. Then either vacuum evaporation or freeze concentration (e.g. freeze dried coffee) produces the final product.

    Spray Drying During Instant Coffee Production

    Spray-driers or high-vacuum equipment may be used to evaporate water from the extract of brewed coffee in the last stage of creating the powdered soluble (instant) coffee.

    Spray drying involves using hot gas to rapidly dry a liquid or slurry and create a dry powder, and is one of the most economical methods of producing instant coffee (soluble coffee).

    Spray drying is an ideal method for drying thermally-sensitive materials, and utilizes a relatively short drying time, avoids heat damage, and results in very fine, spherical particles about .012 inches (300 micrometers) in diameter with a density of about .22 grams per cubic centimeter.

    Methods of Spray Drying during Instant Coffee Production

    Spray drying includes one of several methods of nozzle atomization, which may include either high speed rotating wheels or spray wheels. The high speed rotating wheels, reach 20,000 rpm and are capable of processing up to 60,000 pounds (27 tons) of solution each hour.

    Spray wheels utilize drying towers with a wide radius that prevents the atomized droplets from collecting on the wall of the drying chamber.

    Nozzle Atomization During Instant Coffee Production

    Nozzle atomization takes anywhere from five to thirty seconds depending on the size of the particles, the diameter of the drying chamber, and the heat applied. The coffee goes into the chamber at about 270°Celsius and 80% moisture and comes out at about 110°Celsius and 3.25% moisture.

    Spray drying produces extremely fine particles which must be converted into larger particles by either belt agglomeration or by steam fusing in towers.

    Making Freeze-Dried Coffee

    To make freeze-dried coffee, the extract is frozen and then the water is removed by a process called sublimation - a solid transitioning directly from the solid to gas phase without the usual intermediate liquid stage.

    Aromatization During the Instant Coffee Production Process

    Aromatization is the process of adding aromatic flavor materials back into the soluble coffee (instant coffee) after these materials are lost during the brewing or drying process, and before the product's conversion into a soluble form.

    Packaging Instant Coffee

    The instant coffee (soluble coffee) is then typically packaged into cans, vacuumized sealed jars, or other sealed, airtight containers.

    How to Prepare Instant Coffee

    To prepare instant coffee powder or granules for consumption, just add hot water - the fancy word for this is rehydration. If the instant coffee is a liquid concentrate rather than granules or powder, then it is kept refrigerated or in aseptic packaging until it is reconstituted by adding hot water.

    Specific ratios will vary between brands, but instructions typically call for 1 teaspoon of instant coffee per cup.

    Now that you know how instant coffee is made, check out the History of Instant Coffee.


    Buy Gourmet Coffee Beans

    Buy fresh roasted coffee from Canada
    Buy fresh roasted coffee from the U.S.
    • ✔️ Fresh roasted to order
    • ✔️ 100% high qualtiy Arabica coffee
    • ✔️ Custom grind (or whole bean)
    • ✔️ 1-way valve, laminate bag (for freshness)
    • ✔️ Bulk discounts


    Why do you want to sponsor this page?
    Loading

    Sharing is caring!

    • Facebook
    • X
    • Email

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Alyce Larson

      October 15, 2012 at 1:18 am

      Where can I buy an INSTANT decaf coffee?

      Reply
    2. Darlene Ford

      March 11, 2012 at 2:30 am

      I recently purchased a jar of Maxwell Instant Coffee (original roast) at our local Sobey store. When I opened it, it did not smell like coffee. It has a motor oil or chemical smell to it. Thinking it was just my nose I made a cup anyway. It tasted like oil and still smelled like chemicals. The top of the coffee has an oily blobs on top. The expiration date on it is November 1, 2012. The code is HA 12:03. At the high cost of coffee I hope someone else did not have this experience too.

      Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    Primary Sidebar

    Instant Coffee

    • Freeze-Dried Coffee
    • History of Instant Coffee

    Search

    specialty coffee association logo

    Guide to the Top Coffees

    • Kenya Coffee Beans
    • Sulawesi Coffee Beans
    • Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans
    • Sumatra Coffee Beans
    • Harrar Coffee Beans
    • Costa Rican Coffee Beans
    • Brazilian Coffee Beans
    • Mocha Java Coffee Beans
    • Tanzania Coffee Beans
    • Guatemala Coffee Beans
    • Ethiopian Coffee Beans
    • Colombian Coffee Beans
    • Honduran Coffee Beans
    • Hawaiian Kona Coffee Beans
    • Geisha Coffee Beans
    • Espresso Beans
    • Best Coffee Beans

    Footer

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    ABOUT ESPRESSOCOFFEEGUIDE.COM

    Find out more About us and what we're doing.

    Information is pulled from a number of locations including official sources ICO, SCA, as well as proprietary third party databases. Beginning circa 2006, we've compiled data and written about coffee and continue to revise and add as new sources come to light. If you have any recommendations or suggested revisions please contact us!

    Information on single origins is updated over time and only reflects the data we have at the time of writing on current crops. All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. EspressoCoffeeGuide.com reserves the right to all its own content.

    COLLABORATE WITH US

    We're always looking to team up with individuals and companies doing awesome things in the coffee industry. If you'd like to contribute please reach out to us with a proposal!

    Contact us

    Privacy Policy

    Disclosure: We may earn commission at no cost to you from some links on this website. However, the content, opinions and analysis are 100% objective and editorial objectivity is our priority.

    Copyright © 2023 EspressoCoffeeGuide