To serve guests instant coffee

[Drinkingpimmsinmygarden]

DH and I aren't really coffee drinkers (prefer tea)so we just have a jar of instant coffee such as Nescafé. No real ground coffee.

Are we being unreasonable not to have 'proper' coffee in for guests?

Not finishing it is OK as long as you are discreet about your reasons for not finishing it. Not even taking an initial sip after someone has shared something they have with you is beyond rude.

Have I wandered into some parallell (sp?) universe here!

All this pearl clutching that people actually drink instant coffee. Imagine the horror! Oh you poor loves with your super-refined taste buds but much less refined manners you must suffer so! In ways that us lesser mortals can't even imagine

Look, I realise it's somehow incredibly gratifying to construct a fantasy of Nasty Coffee Drinking Snobs. It appears to satisfy page after page of MN invective. I am genuinely unsure why. Like I say, why not just get over yourselves?

And come to that, go and focus on the other rude behaviours that MN wisdom has declared perfectly acceptable? Work yourself into a froth (ha!) over those. There's plenty to pick on. I feel that singling out people on their coffee tastes is really not a rich enough vein to mine.

AS it happens, I drink "proper" coffee. But it wouldn't cross my mind to turn my nose up at instant at someone else's house. Partly because it's really not that bad and party because it would be so rude I would die of shame.

I'm not singling anyone out on their coffee tastes. I like decent coffee too. I'm singling them out for their pretentiousness and rudeness. HTH

350+ posts going around in circles

The simple answer is YANBU to serve your guests what is in your house.

All this talk about preferring one thing over another - it's just not that relevant, is it?

I prefer to sit curled up in a big armchair. But as a preference, it is completely irrelevant to how and where I sit when I'm at someone else's house.

Just as a preference for a particular brand of coffee or tea or juice is irrelevant to what you do when you're at someone else's house.

Dottie, try bandung in a box! ughghgh

Op, I like very strong coffee so might fall asleep on your sofa, :)
Yanbu

X-posts with usual - I think it's fine to only like proper coffee. I don't think it's necessary to have to inform guests you only have instant.

You start down that slope, it sounds like people should explain what every brand of food and drink stuff they are serving is!

"Real coffee drinkers" are no more a definable group than "homemade humous eaters" (hence my mockery).

I love a good coffee and particularly rate Monmouth in Borough Market, Nude espresso (off Brick Lane), Workshop (Clerkenwell) and Caravan (Exmouth Market). I'd be embarrassed though if I let a love of good coffee develop into some of the extreme (but comical) fussiness I've read on here!

There can be a world of difference between a good wine and a cheap plonk but I'm damned if I'm going to start doing a quality check with my host before I accept their kind offer of a glass or three, it would make me look like a pompous prig. The idea that they should feel remotely apologetic about what they are giving me is appalling.

No different with coffee, and to suggest you find the two tastes so different as to find instant utterly in drinkable - to my mind that makes you sound like a fussy toddler rather than an adult. It's an affectation, like saying you can only sleep on Egyptian cotton whilst giving a little apologetic shrug in a "what can I do, it's a trial for me but my body just demands the finer things in life".

Become a gourmet, an expert, whatever, that's great. But in all areas the minute you put on airs about no longer being able to stomach something unless it is of a higher quality you run a very considerable risk of coming across as a pretentious twat!

practice, nescafe makes me fall asleep! The vietnamese instant coffee is very strong.

I would think it odd and a bit rude if having accepted a coffee someone then left it all, but can sympathise as I have the same problem with biscuits. If an innocent looking biscuit turns out to be ginger I have to force it down as I think they are vile but I wouldn't dream of taking a bite and leaving the rest.

I use my cafetiere several times on a morning if at home so it rarely goes in the dishwasher. I just either wash it out under running water in the sink (have never found this messy or difficult and just pour it over the plug hole so it doesn't go all over the sink) or in the summer I put water in the cafetiere and pour the grounds out on the garden round plants to deter slugs.
I dislike instant coffee and haven't drunk it for over 20 years. I don't think it's snobby to not want to drink something you dislike. If I'm offered a drink by people whose coffee habits I don't know I'll usually opt for tea (strong with hardly any milk) rather than go for the coffee lottery.

Sorry I do only drink proper coffee. So if I am offered instant politely ask if I could have tea instead. To me it is the same as being offered a fizzy drink - I don't ever drink those so would be happy with an alternative eg water. No issue.

Wine is wine, there is no such drink as instant wine, made from dried wine powder. If someone offers me a glass of wine all I care about is that it hasn't been hanging around open for ages, isn't corked etc. Price is nothing to do with it

There seems to be a lot of weird prejudice about coffee, I agree with mother inferior.

What bluegrass said. Every word. With bells on! It's all a little bit princess and the pea for my liking on this thread!

I haven't seen over the top fussiness on here. Just that instant coffee is a different drink to 'real', and some people would rather have something different if they knew what was on offer.

If you want real fussiness then the world of espresso making is for you. There it simply isn't a good espresso if you get the coffee ready ground. Oh, and you can't use one of those blade grinders, it must be a proper burr grinder with fine graduations in the grinding level (costing at least £500). And of course you've got to roast the beans yourself to get the proper fresh flavour. To these people Nespresso machines are truly anathema whilst I don't think they've heard of instant, and would probably have a heart attack just at the thought of it.

"Would you like a glass of wine?"
"Is it Chilean white?"
"No - I think it's Spanish."
"No thanks."

"Would you like some mayonnaise with your lunch?"
"What brand is it?"
"Umm... Sainsbury's own, I think."
"Oh, no thanks then."

"Would you like some orange juice?"
"Is it home squeezed or shop juice?"
"Shop."
"Has it got bits in or is it smooth?"
"Smooth."
"No thanks."

Is that really how people think you should respond to offers of something in someone else's house?

Agree absolutely with everything bluegrass said, specially: I'm damned if I'm going to start doing a quality check with my host before I accept their kind offer of a glass or three, it would make me look like a pompous prig. The idea that they should feel remotely apologetic about what they are giving me is appalling.

I don't drink tap water

This is HILARIOUS. I am a bit of a coffee wanker, and this would not cost me a thought. I would no more think less of someone for offering me instant than I would for giving me shepherd's pie instead of filet mignon.

Some of you are weird, and hard work, and I now have a new way of filtering assholes out of my potential social circle, so thanks.

Yes I'm with 2rebecca. I really dislike the taste of instant coffee - to me it's a completely different drink from real coffee. I would feel rude not drinking it if I was given it though.

That's why I really appreciate people telling me if they "only" have instant, then I will happily choose tea! I don't think that's snobbish, maybe a bit fussy...

YANBU as long as you make it clear when offering that it's instant.

It's not about snobbishness, IMO; instant coffee and real coffee taste very different and it's easy to like one and not the other (this works either way round).

But I wouldn't ever think less of someone for having instant coffee in and not real.

Instant coffee is a completely different drink to real coffee. I love real coffee but instant coffee has a bitterness to it that I really do not like at all.

I would never ask but if someone said "it's only instant", I would also try and politely ask for tea. If I was given instant, I would drink it.

I was once served instant coffee masquerading as real coffee in a cafetiere in a Marco Pierre White restaurant. I could tell immediately that what I was drinking was infact instant (decaf). When I challenged the waiter I was assured that I was wrong. I asked for some more coffee cups and poured out all the coffee to see if there was in fact coffee grounds in the bottom. Cue very red faced waiter and an explanation that they hadn't realised that anyone could taste the difference!

Thurlow, you just made all that up.