#277 When was instant coffee invented?

I learned this today. Instant coffee was technically invented in 1771, but this wasn’t really instant. Instant coffee that we would recognize today was invented in 1890.

These days, instant coffee is coffee that has either been freeze-dried or spray dried. The two methods differ slightly, and freeze-drying is more expensive.

When coffee is freeze-dried, the first step is to roast the beans in giant ovens. The beans are then ground and dropped into coffee machines. The coffee machines use steam and pressure to brew the coffee. The steam is heated to 175℃ The high pressure means the coffee brews very quickly and a lot of the flavor comes out of the beans. The brewed coffee is heated even more to evaporate a lot of the water and it condenses into a thick extract. This extract is then passed along a conveyor belt through a freezing room. The temperature is usually about -50℃ so that the coffee freezes very quickly. If it is slowly frozen, the water forms ice crystals. Rapid freezing avoids this problem. This is the “freeze” part of freeze-dried.

Then the frozen coffee is broken up into small granules and passed into the drying chamber. At this point, the brewed coffee is merely frozen. If it were returned to room temperature, it would simply melt. The coffee is dried using a process called sublimation. This is the transition of a substance directly from the solid state to the gas state, without passing through the liquid state. It happens when the temperature or the pressure is very low. In the instant coffee process, this low pressure is created in a vacuum. The granules are placed in a strong vacuum and the frozen water in the coffee turns instantly to steam. The steam leaves the coffee and is removed by a condenser. If the ice turned to water first, the flavor would wash out of the coffee. Turning it straight from ice to water allows the water to be removed and the flavor to remain. The dried coffee is then bottled. It will stay dry at room temperature for about 20 years.

So, when was instant coffee invented? Well, first, when did coffee become a common drink? Coffee was first drunk in the regions around Ethiopia. It is said that it was drunk to keep mystics awake when they were praying. It was carried from there by traders up into Egypt and Arabia. Coffee houses boomed during the Ottoman Empire. It spread to Italy from the Middle East in 1529 and the first coffee house opened in England in 1652. Coffee was taken to the New World and the first coffee house opened in Boston in 1676. Coffee was popular, but not as popular as tea. It was only after the Boston Tea Party and the War of Independence that Americans started choosing coffee over tea. Coffee was more popular than tea in the UK until the East India Company managed to increase the supply and the price dropped in about 1720 and it didn’t really become popular there until the 1770s.

The popularity of coffee in England makes the invention of instant coffee there understandable. A man called John Dring invented a “coffee compound” in 1771, which he then patented. He was a grocer, but he styled himself coffeeman and his patent is No. 984. He roasted the coffee beans, ground them into a flour, mixed in butter and suet, heated it over a gentle fire, then pressed it into a solid cake. People who bought it would break pieces off and dissolve them in hot water. I guess they would have had to sieve the bits out and I’m not sure if it can be called instant coffee.

The next attempt at making instant coffee was during the American Civil War in 1861. From about 1830, American soldiers had been given a daily ration of coffee in bean form. That meant they had to grind the beans before they could make their coffee. The US Army started researching condensed coffee. They came up with a mix of coffee powder, evaporated milk, and sugar that was concentrated and dried into a powder. All the soldiers had to do was add water. Apparently, it had the consistency and taste of axel grease and was widely loathed.

Instant coffee that we would recognize was invented by David Strang in New Zealand in 1890. He was the owner of a coffee and spice works factory. He realized that brewed coffee could be heated by blowing hot air over it until it became a powder. This powder could then be bottled. He marketed it as Strang’s Coffee.

A Japanese chemist, Sartori Kato, is said to have made the first stable instant coffee powder in Chicago in 1901. He was given a patent for his process. Then, in 1910, George Washington (not the president) came up with a way to mass-produce instant coffee.

Like many things, it was war that had the most significant impact. In World War 1, soldiers were given instant coffee in their rations. Unlike the Civil War version, this one was palatable and they grew to like it. Then, thanks to research done in the Second World War on freeze-drying and sublimation, the modern technique of making instant coffee was invented. And this is what I learned today.

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