To ask why Brits drink instant coffee?

[mediumbrownmug]

I’m an American and am genuinely curious. Every British TV show and article I’ve seen so far seems to imply that instant coffee is far more popular than whole or ground beans. Is it too nosy to ask why?

Some instants aren’t bad. Forget standard Nescafe though. That is grim!

I drink black coffee so an Aeropress with ground coffee is just as easy/quick as instant.

@annacondom

When I was a child, it was the norm. No one used beans/ground. Then there was huge investment in TV advertising, and you picked your team (Red Mountain, Mellow Birds, Gold Blend) and it became part of the culture. So I think drinking PG Tips and certain brands of instant coffee are part of our fabric.

Ground coffee was certainly used when I was a child in the 50s and 60s. One of my earliest memories is of the very strong - and then unfamiliar -smell from a shop that sold it, and v likely beans, too.

I’m not saying it was commonly used, though. Pre maybe 1970s coffee was only occasionally made in our house, mostly for my DF - made with grounds in a large ceramic coffee pot plus boiling water, and left a few minutes to settle, or maybe a tea strainer was used - I can’t remember.

My DM only liked it with around 50% hot milk added! 🤮

Turkish coffee bets everything and it comes with all sorts of fun gadgets and beautiful pots. They also wisely acknowledge the need to have water for afterwards to kill aftertaste.

We have electric kettles here which boil very quickly. My understanding is they're few and far between in America (something about the voltage being lower in the US and it therefore taking longer to boil an electric kettle as far as I understand. Correct me if I'm wrong). So I've seen a lot of Americans with coffee machines instead.

So the short answer is, convenience.

It's easier, quicker and, if you buy a decent brand tastes perfectly fine. Also, don't forget, every British home will have a kettle which reaches 100° C. Until fairly recently, we were a nation of tea drinkers anyway and many of us still prefer tea to coffee. The water for tea has to be boiled in any case and an electric kettle is a convenient way to achieve the purpose. We could just as well ask why so many Americans, who are discovering tea, murder it by heating the water in a microwave.

It's easier I suppose. Sometimes it is absolutely vile!

I buy Starbucks Columbian sachets of instant and they taste like fresh. I also use individual filter coffee sometimes. I'm on my own though.

Instant coffee is very quick and connivant when your on the go! Easy at home and while at work

I don't, I'm a coffee snob

*Off-thread, but just to say you are living my dream of an alternate life grin I always thought when I was a teen I would move abroad and live in a flat above a cafe, and pop down for an espresso on a table outside in the sun. Sigh.

A sensible three-bed in suburban Essex isn't quite the same...*
@whatswithtodaytoday That's so funny! I grew up in Essex and actually do sometimes have a hankering for a nice house with a garden there instead of my tiny balcony. Oh well, at least I have the coffee!

@NewPapaGuinea

Some instants aren’t bad. Forget standard Nescafe though. That is grim!

I drink black coffee so an Aeropress with ground coffee is just as easy/quick as instant.

The worst is L'or or whatever it is now. Used to be lovely before rebrand🤢

@BrozTito, tea bags were first on sale in the fifties but were far more expensive than loose leaf tea until the mid seventies so most people used loose leaf tea for that reason. Tea strainers were indeed used to stop accidental swallowing of leaves, which is not a pleasant taste. Many older people, including me, still leave a little tea at the bottom of the cup. When I am in the mood, I still like a pot of "proper" tea, made with leaves.

It's much less common now than a few years ago.
If guests come to see me, instant is the only option. I'm not going to buy a coffee machine when I'm not a coffee drinker. Some have chosen to have tea instead because I can't offer proper coffee. Coffee drinkers have definitely become more discerning in the last 10 to 15 years.

Yeah i love going to the tea shop in town and looking through the loose tea types. Russian caravan and earl grey are bloody lovely if i can be bothered.

I grew up with instant coffee and tea bags.

As an adult we've had various leaf tea and coffee beans - tea bags and instant coffee are quicker though when we have time we do ground coffee either Espresso or in cafetiere.

I have found though that not all ground coffee is equal and find some of the cheaper bands can be bitter so when we can go mid range.

The offering of coffee tea thing is normal hosting almost automtaic reponse - I have a family member and a friend who drink neither and it does cause consternation when they say that - mild panic about what else you can offer them.

It's the tea bag coffee equivalent.

Because instant coffee is less of a faff to make and to clean afterwards

Tea spoon & cup in the dishwasher

No filters or jugs to clean which contain brown gunk

"Ground coffee was certainly used when I was a child in the 50s and 60s."

I didn't see anything but instant growing up in the 80s and 90s. Also, coffee was very much a secondary option - the vast majority of people took tea.

I like instant but only certain brands of better quality instant. Not like your gold blend or whatever. In the USA their coffee grows on you and things like their coffee mate creamer instead of milk. I quite fancy one now but will have to wait to go back there. Tastes very different here but not in a bad way, it just is.

I didn't see anything but instant growing up in the 80s and 90s. Also, coffee was very much a secondary option - the vast majority of people took tea.

Wasn't my experince of the 80s and 90s - coffee was common ground was known in our house and DGP house though rare and a treat.

We'd have it on rare meals out in 80 we'd have cafetiere in 90s I had a waitress job and I gave out cafetiere - did decafe in them as well - or tea pots - both were common.

We have real coffee every day, because I love it. Never have instant in. As a child my parents drank real coffee, probably because they both lived abroad as young adults.
I really, really don't like instant.

The correct name for 'Brits' would be Britons, I think @mediumbrownmug

I remember a big hopper full of coffee beans in the grocer’s shop my mother used when I was a child in the 1950s. We were a tea drinking family and never bought any but occasionally someone would while we were there and I remember loving the smell as the beans were ground. When instant coffee (other than Camp) became widely available my mother started drinking that, and I remember how disappointing it tasted compared to the smell of those beans. So I was really happy when I first had a cup of proper coffee in France. It tasted like the beans smelt. On the same trip I ate Côte d’Or chocolate - so much nicer than Cadbury’s - and smoked a Gauloise. It was bliss.

Why havnt coffee tea bags taken off? Surely theres a market for them

Because the are revolting.

Why havnt coffee tea bags taken off? Surely theres a market for them

Haven't ever tried them just never seen them to buy just seen the adverts.

However reviews say taste is good but they are expensive per 100 g of coffee - beans/ground are better value and instant is cheaper again. Plus they are inflexible - you can't adjust coffee amount to taste.

"you can't adjust coffee amount to taste."

Can't you do what you do with tea, which is adjust the amount of time you leave the bag in?

I tried some M&S one thinking it would be a good option for guests, by my friend said they were too weak.