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?

Trouble is, if you don't drink it, chances are that the coffee in the jar will be horribly stale, and so will taste even worse.

YANBU to not like coffee, but if you're going to offer coffee a) you need to make it clear it's instant (I hate the stuff) and b) you need to make sure it's not stale

It isn't that it's not coffee but when you've only drunk real coffee for 20 years, instant doesn't taste like coffee any more.

I've not bought instant for 20 years and I suspect that I would find it undrinkable now.

I also think that given the proliferation of coffee shops no one else is used to drinking instant now - apart from my mother who's 67.

I think it's quite unusual to drink instant now unless you're elderly?

Don't feel under any obligation though to buy any other type of coffee though if you don't drink it - there's loads of drinks I don't have in my house and I only offer what I have.

It is awful stuff. Please don't offer it to your guests, as they would think you were offering proper coffee and then be obliged to drink it.

Er no mother I won't thanks. I will continue to offer common instant coffee (Dowe Egberts don't ya know)

Funny enough my guests keep returning so either, their all common or they have been brought up to have manners and never be an ungrateful guest.

The vast majority of coffee sold is instant

Really?!?

I have never in 20 years been offered instant. Nor do I know anyone my age who buys it.

And I'm not posho in any way.

Oh god now I'm old as well as possibly common

This thread is doing little for my self esteem

The vast majority of coffee sold is instant

Yes, absolutely. If you go by volume (servings sold/consumed) rather than £££ spent. Not sure on the £££ front to be honest.

my dh and I hate coffee, so I have a instant jar in for my mum, who knows its instant as its what she buys

any other guest gets told its instant and offered if they want it or not, tea/ hot choc or cold drinks also available

I would expect to get instant so real coffee is a bonus.

Happy, no one who prefers real coffee would/should accept a cup of coffee when visiting. We all know who amongst our friends are also real coffee drinkers and just assume no one else is.

I never drank coffee as a kid , it was Dad's, not for kids, we just weren't allowed it.

As an adult I had the good fortune(?) to work in a hotel that was part of a a coffee and wine importing chain. So I started on the real stuff, taken black (Blue Mountain cost a week's wages for less than a pound of beans and Chocolate Macadamia was equally expensive).

The first time I had instant I was momentarily floored by it. Luckily we did eventually get a telly, so I had at least seen the adverts for instant. I didn't spit but I could take another sip. I was about 21, so that was mid 80s right at the height of the instant coffee 'wars'.

I am coffee spoiled. I know!

Elderly or Polish perhaps?.... All Polish family prefer instant and ask for it especially.

"I also think that given the proliferation of coffee shops no one else is used to drinking instant now"

That's quite an assumption to make

"I have never in 20 years been offered instant. Nor do I know anyone my age who buys it"

Really! My work provide free tea and coffee, but the coffee is instant. Are you suggesting that all workplaces now offer coffee machines/cafetieres instead of jars of instant coffee?

I only drink proper coffee so do use a cafetiere & ground coffee at home but for work I use coffee bags. They are similar to tea bags but with ground coffee instead & it's lovely.

lyonscoffeeuk.com/

i think it's polite to mention that you only have instant, but it's not usually an issue in the uk i think.

According to this article 77% of the coffee that we buy to drink at home is instant.

We use Millicano instant which is more like coffee than some. We do usually have what we need to make a cafetiere for guests though.

Only on MN!!!!!

I have not drunk instant coffee for about 6 years now. I ask for tea unless I know it will be real coffee. Better to play safe.

YANBU.

I drink coffee from beans and earl grey, and I promise you, that is the best way ever to alienate anyone who comes to do work for you - choice between something that resembles engine oil and something that tastes of perfume.

I think offering instant coffee is fine though if it's me I'd rather know as I'm not keen on it. But don't you do that anyway if you think someone is fussy? You end up asking how many spoons, milk or no milk, sugar, etc., so it's just one more question and if they don't want instant they can say and have something else.

There are sane, rational people who like instant coffee. Don't be so presumptious you coffee lovers!

Come to think of it, I have been given instant in a cafe and I was most miffed!

I hate instant coffee and I have 1 cup of filter coffee a day.

If I'm in someone else's house, I wouldn't ask for coffee unless I knew it's filter, I'd have tea instead

Bun - there's filter at the school I work at - last office I worked in was 10 years ago and it was filter coffee there too.

I genuinely haven't seen a jar of instant anywhere out a shop for years