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?

Feather12
I am in the US and my DH thinks instant coffee is hilarious.

Your OH needs to travel and expand his world a little if he is so amused by something so common that happens all over the world.
People in different countries drink all sorts of beverages, instant coffee in the norm in any countries. Has he really lived such a sheltered life?

Probably for the same reasons that Americans eat shite food - they like it ?

You can make tea or coffee (instant) from the kettle, so different family members can have whichever they prefer without causing more work. Pluse if most people want tea and you only have one coffee drinker, you get stuck with a jug left over coffee, whereas in America everyones drinking coffee as default, so it gets used up. We also tend to drink a lot of hot drinks, like easily 6-8 cups of tea a day, if you replaced that with real coffee you'd never leave the bathroom.

Instant coffee isn't nearly as popular in the U.K. as it used to be or at least not here in London/South East. You can tell from looking at the supermarket aisles. I've drunk 'real' coffee for decades and I used to be restricted to a choice of maybe 6-10 products in a large supermarket. 90% of the shelf space was instant coffee. Nowadays the choice and range of ground coffee, beans and vastly overpriced pods is at least as large as the instant range.

And as for people saying that they can't make coffee as well as a barista - that surprises me. I use a coffee cone or a filter machine and make much better coffee than any local coffee shop. My adult DD prefers an espresso style and her £150 De Longhi machine also makes excellent coffee. It was a big investment for her initially she wouldn't be without it now.

Maybe we have better quality instant coffee in the UK? I don't know (instant is never as good though!)

I much prefer real coffee. But keep instant in for when I can't be bothered.

It’s much quicker and more convenient. I don’t drink it because I’m a coffee snob, but if you’re just looking for a quick and pleasant hit of caffeine it takes a fraction of the time to make instant coffee.

I mostly drink tea, but when I fancy a cup of coffee, I have the real thing, freshly ground and made in a mokka pot (or a cafetiere if at work). And I like it at a ridiculous strength, much too strong for most coffee drinkers.

I can't abide instant coffee. My MIL, otoh, won't drink anything else. She makes a crap cup of tea, too, and you only get a small mug, not a half-pint of it.

One of the nicest revelations of my life was real coffee, having grown up in an “instant house”. I vowed then to never drink instant again if I could help it.
Having said that, coffee in America is often thin and fairly tasteless IMO.

I only like instant coffee. I dont like any other sort, its too strong and bitter.

We have a filter machine and only drink real coffee now. No waste as all grounds go in the compost. Just don't like the taste of instant anymore

[quote habibibibi]I mean, look at this and then wonder why anyone would criticise us drinking instant coffee:

[/quote] My God. WTH was that? Instant tea?

Because as a nation we have the palate of fools. We put baked beans on top of pizza. There isn’t a sandwich in the country not covered in mayonnaise. Cauliflower cheese is a main course. Of course we proclaim instant coffee is nice. We’re idiots.

[quote habibibibi]I mean, look at this and then wonder why anyone would criticise us drinking instant coffee:

[/quote] WTF!!!!!! That's not tea, that's some milky, watery sugary concoction. And I have no idea what the second one is, or even claims to be.

We put baked beans on top of pizza

Speak for yourself! 😳

I live alone and real coffee goes tasteless if it isn’t kept in the freezer. I buy a good quality instant though not mellow birds (looking at you mum)

I like a real coffee but that requires faffing. I also like a properly brewed loose leaf tea. Also requires faffing. Both require patience which I lack for most of the time. So a spoonful of instant coffee does the job. I want caffeine. It'll do.

Cauliflower cheese is a lovely meal. Low carb, delicious.

Because we didn't know any better?
I had a friend with a Belgian mother and she had to go and get ground coffee sometimes on the way home from school. She would tell them which beans she wanted, and they ground them for her and put them in a bag. I had no idea there was an alternative to Nescafé. My mother dismissed it as 'foreign'

I find it tastes just as good and is cheap and quick to make. The real question is why aren't kettles commonplace in the US?

Because instant coffee in this country is better quality than America, there is more of a range and our electricity is better so kettles boil very quickly compared to in America.
We don't have the space and time to faff about with coffee machines. We don't have large houses we have tiny box houses.

Everyone has a kettle for tea or coffee and it takes less than a minute or two to boil so why wouldn't you have instant coffee?
To reiterate it tastes more appealing to the British palate, we like weaker, sweeter beverages rather than strong bitter beverages and a lot of "authentic coffees" are much higher in caffeine and taste stronger.

Cauliflower cheese is a main course.

Now I have to take issue with objecting to cauliflower cheese as a main course. Cauliflower cheese in a properly cheesy sauce, nicely browned, served with boiled new potatoes and broad beans is one of my favourite dinners. And I’m not even a vegetarian.

God, the banality.

I prefer it.

Very good marketing from the 70s onwards. Something that could be used as a text book for marketing students.

@borntobequiet

Cauliflower cheese is a main course.

Now I have to take issue with objecting to cauliflower cheese as a main course. Cauliflower cheese in a properly cheesy sauce, nicely browned, served with boiled new potatoes and broad beans is one of my favourite dinners. And I’m not even a vegetarian.

Cauliflower cheese, chips and tomato sauce 😋😋😋