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?

Doit - in my defence, I do know Earl Grey is a bit of a shock (or, as one person put it to me, revolting) if you were expecting normal tea.

YANBU - it's your house.

I don't think it would occur to anyone who drinks normal coffee, Happy - and I mean instant, cos it is normal. I am fully aware that my dislike of it is not usual. Though I do think that the poster who is accusing me (and others) of being sad middle class pretenders with no manners is being a bit harsh.

SwedishEdith it was visiting clients that made me start drinking tea with no milk or sugar too. I still have the heebies about what was in one bag of sugar that got spooned into my tea!

If you told me up front it was instant I'd take that over tea as I'd assume if instant coffee was the norm that pgt teabags were also the norm. Instant coffee is miles better than cheap tea.

I never drink coffee so it's a stale(ish) jar of instant available in my house. At least it's never nestle though.
I also don't know anyone who actually has a coffee machine at home or who makes anything other than instant at home. And I'm very middle-class.

I'd be very happy to get a Lapsang Souchong!

MN is full of people who would be amazed at my slatternly house, sluttish past and slack parenting. Let me reserve a higher ground of poncery in this one area!

It's all about expectation

I would expect that the default position for tea and coffee in 2013 is ordinary tea and cafetiere coffee.

If someone then gave me camomile tea or fennel tea or instant coffee I'd expect to be told. To me instant coffee is as different from other coffee as camomile tea is as different from regular tea.

I'm genuinely surprised to hear that for a lot of people instant coffee is the default position.

I think it's not the same drink. Just like teas are different, so are coffees

Oooh, I love Earl Grey but even better a pot of tea made with an earl grey/indian tea mix. Tis luvverly but probably contravenes some beverage drinking rule I am not aware of.

of being sad middle class pretenders with no manners is being a bit harsh.

Who said that?

To be fair, when I lived in the states, everyone I knew (myself included) had a coffee maker, so if I just had instant for some reason, I would mention it before making it. But here in the UK, it seems that everyone I know uses instant coffee so I don't worry about it.

I got rid of my coffee maker here, as I found that when I made a whole pot of coffee... I DRANK a whole pot of coffee. jitter jitter jitter...

I would be slightly gutted if given instant after being offered coffee. My mil serves instant in a cafetiere, an awful thing to do.

It's only snobbery in the sense of liking a real rather than an ersatz foodstuff!

Psst Laurie - it's 2014 these days

Oh fuck, so it is

Who has made you feel that you might BU OP and need to ask a bunch of randoms on t'internet?

Personally I much prefer freshly coffe and even grind my beans right before using them, but if I am someone else's house I accept their hospitality.

I've never tried using a cafetiere. Now you all have me curious....

It was visiting clients that made me never take the tea option. Black coffee with no sugar is the one least likely to get wrong - as long as you assume you'll get instant

I was brung up on instant coffee and I like it! I don't care if that makes me a philistine. If I offer people coffee amd they say yes, I put the kettle on and sometimes then say 'it's only instant I'm afraid' and they say 'fine'.

However, if I was giving a dinner party, I would make proper coffee afterwards.

I cannot believe I've tapped all this nonsense out on my phone - soooooooooo MN!!

5am, dcs all over the place... I don't care what form my coffee comes in... I have days I'd just spoon the granules into my mouth and swig some water if I got that desperate... I Just. Want. Caffeine.....

What tea snobbery? I like good quality tea. The stuff that goes in tea bags is the stuff that is left over once the good tea has been packed for loose leaf.

It's a bit like the difference between a free range organic chicken and the centrifugally processed stuff that goes into cheap chicken nuggets or the difference between bread baked by a proper baker compared to the cheapest supermarket sliced white.