Is Instant Coffee Really Worse Than Freshly Ground?

Instant coffee sits at the bottom of an informal coffee hierarchy: pour-over drinkers look down on Americano drinkers, who look down on milk coffee, while instant occupies the last rung. But the drink began as a convenience product, and freeze-dried versions differ from freshly ground beans mainly in aroma retention, oils and body rather than in whether coffee is legitimate.

Basic coffee knowledge helps here. Freeze-drying preserves more volatile aroma compounds than spray-drying, and freshly ground beans still hold oils that oxidize once opened. Most people drink coffee to wake up or quench thirst, so the choice between instant and specialty coffee comes down to occasion and budget, not status.

More and more people love drinking coffee, but an invisible "chain of contempt" has emerged along with it: those who drink pour-over look down on those who drink Americano, those who drink Americano look down on those who drink milk coffee, and instant coffee seems to always sit at the very bottom. So some people wonder—wasn't coffee originally just for waking up and quenching thirst? Why has drinking it somehow created a hierarchy of high and low? This article starts with the history of instant coffee, discusses the real differences between freeze-dried coffee and freshly ground coffee, and explores what mindset we should actually have when choosing a cup of coffee.

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Recently, a netizen posted about a phenomenon that is both amusing and frustrating: in coffee circles, those who drink estate auction beans look down on those who drink Yunnan small-batch beans; those who prefer light roasts look down on those who like dark roasts; those who play with pour-over look down on those who drink Americano;

those who drink Americano look down on those who add milk; those who drink milk coffee look down on those who use drip bags; those who drink drip bag coffee look down on those who eat freeze-dried; those who eat freeze-dried look down on those who mix 3-in-1 instant... But interestingly, the instant coffee crowd actually thinks everyone else is just pretending.

This netizen mentioned that most people drink coffee simply to wake up and quench thirst, occasionally using it as a social prop—taking photos and posting to their social circles—but in the end, the result is the same: it all goes into the stomach. How did drinking coffee somehow spawn this "coffee contempt chain," with instant coffee pinned at the very bottom?

Thinking back to those years, many households in China had glass jars printed with Nescafé or Maxwell House on their shelves, and the classic red-and-white Nescafé coffee cup was a staple on the table.

Back then, people didn't value instant coffee for its ability to wake them up, but because coffee itself—this rare thing—represented a trendy, high-end lifestyle. The invention of instant coffee even sparked the first wave of modern coffee. So why is it that today, drinking instant coffee makes people think you're cheap...

Does coffee have to have refined flavors to be considered good? Do beans only deserve to be called good coffee if they score 80 or above on SCA? Of course not—after all, not everyone pursues coffee with such extreme dedication.

Admittedly, today's specialty coffee culture does give consumers a chance to rediscover coffee, to understand the stories behind the entire supply chain, and to realize that a good cup of coffee, from origin to cup, relies on professional supervision, monitoring, and craftsmanship at every step. These aspects indeed bring consumers a great sense of experience and participation.

But then again, not everyone has such deep knowledge of coffee, nor does everyone need that kind of professional and ritualistic service all the time. There are still many people who drink coffee just to wake up; and quite a few consumers feel that various freshly ground coffees are too expensive to be a daily staple.

Although the coffee market has been expanding downward in recent years, in many places, it's still not convenient to grab a freshly ground coffee on the go. So instant coffee remains the most consumed coffee category by the masses, and still the first cup of coffee in many people's lives.

In fact, if you think about it carefully, without instant coffee introducing coffee to the public, without chain brands letting everyone try freshly ground coffee, without affordable chains penetrating the market with freshly ground coffee, how many people today would be willing to try specialty coffee or pour-over?

Being willing to try specialty coffee and pour-over only shows that these consumers want to understand coffee more deeply, but that doesn't mean other consumers must also know how to appreciate and taste it.

Choosing what coffee to drink is ultimately a personal preference and need—there's no reason to look down on others for drinking something different. If you want to learn more about coffee's stories and unique qualities, you'll naturally seek out different types of products.

There's no need to care too much about others' opinions—just drink what you like~ Coffee itself is incredibly inclusive; it can appear in exquisitely decorated cafés, carefully interpreted from a professional angle; or you can tear open a packet, add warm water, stir, and down it in one gulp.

Only the preparation method changes; what never changes is that it's always a cup of coffee.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.