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?

I much prefer instant. Sometimes enjoy a cup of real coffee but drink instant most of the time. Real coffee nor thirst quenching and in many coffee shops is like sludge

I like real coffee, flat white style, and I like instant - many decent quality brands are absolutely fine. Surprised no-one has mentioned the abominations that are flavoured lattes, which are not coffee, but more like coffee flavoured milkshakes.

But I think that generally I prefer tea and that the OPs colleague was being rude and ridiculous.

However, making tea in mugs, or even worse paper cups in coffee shops Is An Offence.

Use a teapot (teabags are fine and not faffy) or don't bother.

Fresh coffee is the original drink. Instant is an attempt to make something that is less hassle but tastes the same. Thus saying instant isn't as good isn't necessarily snobbery. It's more consistent in flavour and less hassle I just don't like it and don't think of it as coffee.

When you all say 'real' coffee what do you mean? Pre-ground coffee in a cafetiere or freshly ground beans in a cafetiere, or the Nespresso pod things which I don't really rate when I've tried them.

Thanks for the Whittards tip MyFavourite

Yes, I drink it when I am feeling lazy, want a quick-mess free cup or when someone offers it to me. I also live in South American and we grow coffee commercially. Is it the best coffee in world ever?.....you bet. But when I come face to face with a coffee snob I do sometimes want to give them a slap!!

Naice, personally I mean the first two. I haven't (to my knowledge) tried the pod things, but feel that they wouldn't be that nice. DISCLAIMER I know this is a groundless statement and am prepared to be shouted at.

When you all say 'real' coffee what do you mean?

Or the unfiltered version, probably the original.

Your colleague is horrendously rude, but I'm another one on the "instant coffee is a completely different drink and I don't really like it" bench. It just tastes weird to me every time I've tried it. There's no particular superiority to preferring either, or liking both - I don't drink filter/espresso because I'm "snobby" or have some desire look down on instant coffee drinkers, I drink it because I like it.

I'm a coffee twat but only in the privacy of my own home, and I don't care what anyone else likes. DH prefers instant so we have a jokey pisstake between ourselves about that (he makes me bourgeois coffee,apparently.) Your colleague is obnoxious, OP.

It's not a crime as far as I'm concerned.
I only like instant coffee. If I was offered coffee from a machine (or fresh coffee or whatever it's called)I would say no thanks. If I'm in a cafe I drink tea or water instead.
Thankfully I couldn't give a monkeys on other people's opinions on my preferences , nor do I care about their preferences. It's the best way to be, OP.

I don't like instant but I would never comment on someone else's choice. I've tried many different brands and even the whole bean ones have an instant taste. Having said that I don't know how anyone can drink lattes flavoured or not but again it's up to them, it's not snobby just preference.

Your colleague was extremely rude.

I prefer instant coffee. I like the speed factor and the fact that it's actually HOT! I've been in coffee shops and had cups of so called real coffee, and a) I'm not keen on the taste and b) it never seems bloody hot enough. They seem to spend an age mixing this and that, squeezing it, poking it and fannying around with machinery to eventually produce a tepid brew. Seems a bit over-rated to me.

My daughter won't be persuaded to drink any hot drink apart from hot chocolate. She says coffee and tea is just "tangy water". I love tea, but she might have a point.

Meh.

The good thing about instant is that you can drink several cups.

Hard core Costa style coffee you are pretty much limited to two americano/filter style cps per day.

But saying that - when I worked in the USA, the idea of a kettle to boil water seemed to surprise them

You can get electric kettles in the US, but they are not standard equipment in most US kitchens. For one thing it takes longer to boil in the US because of lower voltage electricity. I do have a non-electric kettle that sits on the stove top, but I usually boil water in the microwave. For coffee, I have a coffee machine. No instant coffee, ever.

Oh yeah, and your colleague's an idiot.

Instant is perfect for me. Can't stand the whole performance in coffee shops. Mind you I also hate this drinking coffee on the move culture. Give me a cup of instant in a proper cup and saucer sat at a table anyday.

I recently bought a De Longhi espresso machine and it makes fab coffee in only a little time longer than it takes to make instant.

However, I drink whatever coffee is available, be it instant or not. I am not a coffee snob.

Pods are an affront to the environment.

I've reverted to instant, (drink tea really) oh my poor guests!

It was to simplify my life by donating my coffee press thingy to the charity shop. I am never going to buy A new generation machine, I've got my eye on a Japanese teapot instead!

Instant coffee is a DRINK. You can drink it if you like it to quench your thirst. "Proper" coffee makes you all jittery and stains your teeth brown and would be one of my last choices of drink if I was actually thirsty. As for insisting you make tea in a teapot: so far as I'm concerned, tea is just fine as a drink, it doesn't need to be a ceremony.

My granny used to drink Glengettie leaf tea in a teapot with a knitted cover. There wasn't much ceremony with it. Unless you count her cutting you a piece of homemade bread and Anchor butter to go with it (she rarely at biscuits) or some homemade cake. I miss my granny. She used to say that one cup of instant coffee would keep her awake all night, yet had a fresh teapot on the go all day

For some reason Prince Charles and Stephen Fry some to mind when you mention weasel coffee ego