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?

It's like if your mate offers your some soup and bread for lunch

It would be rude to burst into tears of disappointment when you heard the can opener coming out of the drawer

Do guests ever expect anything other than instant coffee? Since when is nescafe not good enough??

Op Yanbu I do the exact same as you.

How about the opening of a carton Worra

I often work in the Middle East and there you are offered a horrible 3-in-1 sachet of instant coffee, powdered milk, and sugar, all together. It is grim. I agree with the upthread poster who said that if you haven't had instant coffee for 20 years (I hadn't) then instant doesn't even taste like coffee anymore.

With a slection artisan breads of course non of this white roll bollocks

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

Now that is a snobbish assumption.

I don't drink coffee but my DH has the occasional cup of instant, and my parents who are our most frequent visitors both like instant. So the only coffee in our house is instant, but because DH and I are keen tea drinkers, we have Earl Grey tea, Lady Grey tea, Darjeeling tea, English breakfast tea and a box of Tetley teabags for my aunt who likes "builder's tea". That's before I even start listing the half-dozen or so fruit and herbal teas.

I was brought up that coffee = instant but then I'm working class and Northern, so even instant coffee was "posh" when I was growing up when compared to the usual acceptable local drink of dark brown tea with sugar from a tannin-stained mug. My mother obviously had ideas above her station, weaning my dad onto [gasp, horror] Nescafe's finest when they were married.

My family has instant coffee - my mum drinks it by the gallon. I've got a lovely little jar of Douwe Egberts Flavour Collective Caramel - mmm lovely :)

I've only ever known people to have instant, so I just assume it's instant if someone offers me a coffee.

I can offer instant or ground coffee.

But no tea.

Nobody in this house drinks tea and neither does any of our family or close friends. After a box of tea bags had lain in a cupboard for 4 years without being touched it was unceremoniously dumped 2 years ago and nobody since then has asked for tea.

Do those folk who dislike instant coffee also hate tea bags and insist on proper tea, made in a pot? As the mere smell of tea makes me feel ill I am clearly no expert, but do those folk who hate the taste of X instant coffee will probably also hate the taste of Y tea bags?

Before this thread I have always considered myself to be achingly middle class. Even my parents are mc, ffs. I live in a horribly middle class bubble and feel quite embarrassed by that most of the time (as in all my friends, all my children's friends, everyone I work with, everyone I socialise with - all text book mc how very dull!).

And yet, I still drink instant coffee and visit mc people who will offer it to me as an option.

I just cannot imagine what kind of world Laurie lives in where she hasn't been offered instant coffee in 20 years.

Perhaps she means a different kind of middle class.

Instant donkey piss or am I supposed to build a stable in the garden?

Worra

This thread is amazing. I'm 43, I'm from the south and live in the north and have never, ever been offered 'proper' coffee at someone's house. Get over yourselves!

It's dealing with the grounds that put me off using a cafetiere or a stovetop machine, they're always messy to get rid of and clean up afterwards, end up all over the sink. I also don't think cafetiere coffee tastes all that nice compared to steam pressure methods.

I hate instant coffee. It is vile. And not allowed in my home. Revolting stuff. I'd rather have tea and I don't like tea either.

But if someone offered a coffee I'd say yes , if it was instant I'd still drink it. I might be a coffee snob but I still have manners.

I don't think this is about class. I grew up working class and we drank builders' leaf tea, and instant coffee. Conversion to real coffee happened after the first family member to travel abroad, came home :) We changed to tea bags more gradually. I still like real coffee, and tea bags. I take English tea bags on holiday as they are nicer. Abroad tea = lousy, abroad coffee = good; vice versa at home.

On the other hand I keep tea bags in my home for guests- regular and the one brand my mum likes. I never touch them.

Such hospitality...

Drink donkey piss or get over yourself!

A hospitable nation speaks...

I buy real coffee for guests, why not? Everyone ( almost everyone) who likes coffee prefers real coffee, so why would you serve donkey piss other than out of meanness/cannotbearsedness?

I always wondered about hot drinks and fussiness.. I'm not British and drink any old tea with or without milk and/or sugar/sweetener. Really not fussed (lol at Earl Grey being revolting), whereas Dh is British and ridiculously obsessed with tea..

I don't really like coffee unless it has cocoa and lots of milk in it (like a ready Nescafe Mocha sachet), but will drink any coffee offered. Maybe not what I would prefer (almost never get offered diet cola - fecking inhospitable people!), but not a big deal. I will live.

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

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

Huh?

I always have both in and offer guests both, some prefer instant but most love to have coffee from the machine.

I wouldn't expect people to even mention it was instant at their houses, I don't actually drink instant as don't really like it much but will have a cup of it if I am someone's house as I don't drink tea.

An alternative is to keep in coffee bags, they smell amazing and you make it like tea but just leave the bag in longer.

None of my friends would worry about this at all, we are all clearly very working class

Fine as long as you tell your guests you only have instant when you offer. I would choose tea over instant coffee and proper coffee over tea!

I also keep in decaff tea and coffee plus earl grey tea, also sweeteners as I love being a 'host' and like to be able to offer stuff to my guests, again I wouldn't expect other people to offer this though.