Instant Coffee. Is it an offence now?

[CrazyBoo]

...or I would have thought so this morning in the staff tea room. There I am, making my coffee, when in sashays a female colleague i barely know. "Oh! You're not drinking THAT are you?" she sneers, making hers with the machine that produces coffee that tastes extremely strong for me like monkey shit mixed with diesel oil.

So, my question is, is instant coffee a BAD THING now? Do you drink it? Has anyone commented on your caffiene intake preferences in this pretentious twatty way?

Because MN isn't real life

Are you saying no one here is telling the truth?

I haven't read the full thread. Next time be ready with "I like good coffee too but that machines coffee makes for stinky breath" with a meaningful look

Bet she runs for the tictacs

considering the amount of cofree I drink I can't afford real coffee all the time, so drink a lot of instant, but hav discovered how to make cold brew in a French press. 1 cup of ground coffee to 3 cups of water, give it a gentle stir, cover and leave for 12 hours. Slowly press the handle down and pour off the lovely coffee and put it in the fridge.

Have it hot or over ice, diluted a bit. Half and half with milk over ice its gorgeous with no trace of the bitterness that you get with hot brewed coffee.

I prefer instant coffee as it's less bitter.

If your coffee tastes bitter (in a bad way; there is such a thing as 'good' bitter, IMO) you've picked a bad 'un or you're making it wrong.

For all we know the people posting about their 'proper coffee and everything else tastes shit' are sat there with a big mug of Mellow Birds.

All I know is that in the coffee department MN is not representative of my RL. i obviously move in the wrong circles.

I don't really get the 'It's MN, not RL' stance.

Maybe there is some bias on here, but not THAT much, otherwise everyone on every coffee thread would be a 'snob' about only drinking real coffee.

I live in RL as well as on MN and I don't like instant coffee. Nearly all of my friends and people I know also prefer real. I don't move in particularly exalted or snobby circles.

I only said it was my RL Only. Coffee is just one of loads of subjects on MN that doesn't match my personal experience.

I'm drinking this coffee stuff at the moment have no clue what it's called but it's a 3 in 1 sachet the packet is bright red.

I don't even take sugar and this stuff has it in. But I don't care, everybody else loudly proclaims it to be disgusting but still I don't much care.

It's hot it's wet and the nice lady who guards my office door sends one in for me at routine intervals, she's nice she is,I think I love her.

I love a mug or 3 of Alta Rica

Yes, Sparkling, I wasn't responding to you specifically –sorry.

I put instant coffee in my milk because I don't like it white and prefer it with coffee to chocolate.

I'm fine with instant coffee at home and ground coffee elsewhere.

I do know some people my sister who basically just drink ground coffee.

Regarding the "only on mumsnet" phenomenon, I'm sure this comes about because of people's reluctance to justify their stance when they may leave themselves open to smugness or criticism. It's not that they are wrong, they just don't feel the need to justify it as much as the other camp who (not all, but some) see it as an opportunity to show how much better they are than the other camp.

There must be a fairly similar amount of people on Mumsnet who drink instant coffee as there are in any other cross section of society. It might be slightly skewed due to demographic, its just the instant coffee drinkers, or the don't really give a shit either wayers, don't really feel the need to justify their preference.

Take a toilet brush thread. The vast majority of homes in the UK will have a bog brush in a toilet setting for when it might be needed or when its time to clean the toilet. But mainly those who for some reason feel the need to make out they are somehow cleaner, and therefore superior, will pipe up to say how utterly revolting toilet brushes are, and how easy and preferable it is to clean a toilet using alternative methods and I can't believe you think it is somehow acceptable to have a bog brush in your toilet, for goodness sake, you mouldy peasant.

Someone will come along now and say just why they couldn't possibly have a bog brush in their house when surely a squirt of bleach will do the trick and WHAT ARE YOU EATING THAT YOU ACTUALLY NEED TO CLEAN BELOW THE WATERLINE etc etc. Unless their desire to prove me wrong outshines their innate need to shame Tatty Devine, who has a bog brush in EVERY TOILET IN THE HOUSE AND OCCASIONALLY DRINKS INSTANT COFFEE....

"Only on MN" to me shows one of the ways an on-line community is valuable.

Because it takes you beyond your limits, and it shows a world beyond just your own family (whose habits you are quite likely to share from common upbringing) and friends (who are people you chose who are rather like you and have qualities you admire and seek out).

So yes, it might be strange to be faced with accounts of views that are just not yours.

But it doesn't mean they aren't real or valid.

I can't stand most of the old-style instant coffees, I prefer black coffee and without milk they have a distinctly Bovril-esque taste. Some of the newer whole bean ones are fine. I'd never pass comment on someone's choice of hot drink though, that way wankerdom lies. Also, I actually don't care

The coffee-snob crowd make me laugh though. I used to own an old (and I mean ooooold) Gaggia and for rid of it in favour of a shiny Nespresso machine. I know that's one step away from instant in the eyes of one of DH's friends (who bought a premium burr grinder instead of a car) but I don't care. I like it.

Your colleague has only made herself look like a twit, OP.

Drip coffee is very nice if you have the time, but I can't be arsed with that faff at 6am. Just pop in a pod, press a button and voila! Coffee. That's what I need.

Just making my second cup of delicious instant Nescafé Azera coffee as we speak.

I am having a cup of Millicano if anyone wants one.

In skint. Instants cheaper. That's all there is in this house.

There are coffee preferences and then there is coffee snobbery.

If you just have a preference then you just say you prefer fresh or instant and that's it. No judging and no caring what other people are drinking.

If you are a snob then taste doesn't really enter into it (I think). You are generally really commenting negatively on the class/fashion connotations of drinking instant coffee.

I cannot stand people who do this. It really is very bad manners.

I'm having a cup of tea with a tea bag, floating in it for a few minutes, I drink instant coffee during the week and save ground coffee for the weekend when I use the cafetière. Sometimes I even grind the beans with a coffee bean grinder. Sometimes I drink fruit teas or even hot squash.

I used to drink tea from leaves made in a teapot, using either a strainer or a mesh globe, but now I can't be bothered with the faff of tea leaves as the waste disposal unit has broken down.

However, these are my choices and I wouldn't care a jot about having a co-worker sneering at my beverage choice. I'd wonder why she felt the need for one upmanship and worry about her feelings of self esteem being linked to a hot drink

Greenhill Whittards do brilliant teabags for you to fill with your own choice of leaves. Saves all the faff of cleaning out the pot and strainer.

Never ever have a tea in Starbucks. It is vile. Tastes like someone has put a squirt of anti bacterial hand gel in it.

Agree with spatchcock.

Instant coffee is disgusting but being rude is worse.