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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask why Brits drink instant coffee?

502 replies

mediumbrownmug · 13/07/2021 04:36

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?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
WutheredOut · 13/07/2021 08:18

I drink instant because my husband makes the cafetière coffee so strong you could stand a spoon up in it. So we have separate coffee and I’m lazy…

milveycrohn · 13/07/2021 08:18

So do you use real loose leaf tea, teapot, etc, or do you use tea bags?
Similar question really.
In our house we have coffee beans, grinder, and coffee pot, and real tea with tea pot!

Elys3 · 13/07/2021 08:18

Most people I know make proper coffee at home and keep a jar of instant in for guests who prefer it. Traditionally there is more of a culture of drinking black tea, but increasingly people are cutting out caffeine entirely.

I’ve had awful watery coffee in hotels and restaurants in the US, and Starbucks is milky and weak. Maybe you have to go to a proper Italian coffee shop to experience the real thing in the US.

Travielkapelka · 13/07/2021 08:19

People with tumble dryers still line dry, though. Tumble dryers are seen as back-ups for when the weather is bad, or you are in a rush. On the first warm dry day of spring, people will start rhapsodising about the joy of line-dried bed linen. Also, lots of clothes aren't really suitable for tumble drying.

Apart from shirts and jumpers everything here gets tumbled. Can’t stand the thought of wet washing hanging around and I hate the smell of line dried clothes

Original poster
mediumbrownmug · 13/07/2021 08:20

@burritofan

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.
I mean, I’m an American. We fry everything in sight and serve it in huge portions with soda. I have no culinary leg to stand on, and if I did it would be obese. 🤷‍♀️
OP posts:
moynomore · 13/07/2021 08:24

I'm Canadian and admits I used to make fun of my DH and his family for drinking instant. Now that I live here I can't drink anything else. I love it! It's a totally different drink though. Just like Diet Coke isn't really a substitute for regular, it's a different beast.

speakout · 13/07/2021 08:25

I hate the smell of line dried clothes

You hate the smell of fresh air?

ChainJane · 13/07/2021 08:25

a) American voltage is half that of Britain. Electric kettles are a waste of time in America. If it takes as long to boil a kettle to make instant coffee as it does to make proper coffee, you may as well make the nice stuff.

b) It's just the way it's always been. I grew up on instant (Nescafe - the lowest of the low instant), I didn't taste proper coffee until I was in my 20s.

c) Americans demand taste when it comes to food and drink. British people put up with poor quality. I don't mean American food is healthier - it's just there's more of it, it's tastier and usually cheaper.

Folklore9074 · 13/07/2021 08:26

I think its something that is dying out. I've not drank instant coffee or seen it someone's house (under the age of 50) for a long time.

moynomore · 13/07/2021 08:26

@speakout

I hate the smell of line dried clothes

You hate the smell of fresh air?

I do too. I don't get it. Line dried clothes don't smell of fresh air to me, they kind of smell stale actually.
Doublestar · 13/07/2021 08:27

I used to as it was what I was used to growing up (mellow birds was the instant coffee of choice in our house!)
Then I moved to a "naice" area and started going to coffee mornings where people used cafetières and ground beans and I realised it tasted much nicer - I haven't had instant coffee for a long time. I associate good coffee with the Italians and French though - not America!

Also OP - who on earth in America had the bright idea of putting a scoop of ice cream in a glass of Coke? Yuk!

LST · 13/07/2021 08:27

@Travielkapelka

People with tumble dryers still line dry, though. Tumble dryers are seen as back-ups for when the weather is bad, or you are in a rush. On the first warm dry day of spring, people will start rhapsodising about the joy of line-dried bed linen. Also, lots of clothes aren't really suitable for tumble drying.

Apart from shirts and jumpers everything here gets tumbled. Can’t stand the thought of wet washing hanging around and I hate the smell of line dried clothes

Why what do line dried clothes smell like?
Neondisco · 13/07/2021 08:28

Instant coffee is disgusting. But that weak over stewed stuff that is widely drunk in America is also awful. Not like you're drinking anything superior as a nation.

Original poster
mediumbrownmug · 13/07/2021 08:28

@Doublestar

I used to as it was what I was used to growing up (mellow birds was the instant coffee of choice in our house!) Then I moved to a "naice" area and started going to coffee mornings where people used cafetières and ground beans and I realised it tasted much nicer - I haven't had instant coffee for a long time. I associate good coffee with the Italians and French though - not America!

Also OP - who on earth in America had the bright idea of putting a scoop of ice cream in a glass of Coke? Yuk!

Coke? You’re doing it wrong, it should be root beer (specifically A&W brand, chilled) with vanilla ice cream on top. Grin
OP posts:
habibibibi · 13/07/2021 08:29

@ChainJane

a) American voltage is half that of Britain. Electric kettles are a waste of time in America. If it takes as long to boil a kettle to make instant coffee as it does to make proper coffee, you may as well make the nice stuff.

b) It's just the way it's always been. I grew up on instant (Nescafe - the lowest of the low instant), I didn't taste proper coffee until I was in my 20s.

c) Americans demand taste when it comes to food and drink. British people put up with poor quality. I don't mean American food is healthier - it's just there's more of it, it's tastier and usually cheaper.

I don't agree with (c) at all. American food isn't tastier at all. Obviously some things are but not as a general rule. And if it wasn't cheap crap, it was quite pricey, more than the UK.
knitnerd90 · 13/07/2021 08:31

I've no idea why someone thought to invent the Coke float,, but then Americans would ask the same about marmite!

We've been through the laundry on a previous thread. It's half prejudice (as enshrined in some HOA rules) and half practical. I find that since I have to tumble dry half the time anyway I just start doing it automatically.

Original poster
mediumbrownmug · 13/07/2021 08:31

@Neondisco

Instant coffee is disgusting. But that weak over stewed stuff that is widely drunk in America is also awful. Not like you're drinking anything superior as a nation.
“Superior” isn’t a word I’d use to describe anything over here except maybe some Americans’ egos Grin. I was curious about the difference in type of coffee, not quality! Although I would say to never drink restaurant or diner coffee here. It isn’t what any of us actually drinks!
OP posts:
Hotcuppatea · 13/07/2021 08:32

I don't think I'd describe American food as tasty. In fact quite the opposite.

HoldingTheDoor · 13/07/2021 08:32

Coke floats are amazing. As are Irn Bru, ginger beer and cream soda floats. Root beer is evil though. One of the worst things I've ever had.

LookItsMeAgain · 13/07/2021 08:32

I was going to pick up on the fact that in the UK (and Ireland, and many other countries) we use electric kettles and we can boil just the right amount of water to make a single serving of coffee rather than having to make a whole pot of coffee, so less waste all around.

I don't know what I'd do without my electric kettle. I don't get the point of putting a whistling kettle on a ring of the cooker and it takes AGES for the water to heat up.
Microwaved water is not nice. It has to be boiled from a kettle.
This video last year caused outrage....outrage, I tell you:

knitnerd90 · 13/07/2021 08:34

My coffee drinking friends like to dunk on the coffee served by a particular doughnut chain.

(Canadians tell me their doughnut shop coffee is also terrible.)

Starbucks is considered okay not amazing. You can get ordinary coffee there, people just go for ridiculous mixed drinks. If I were meeting a friend, and I knew they actually liked coffee, I wouldn't pick a Starbucks.

mutedrainbow · 13/07/2021 08:35

I thought it was a pretty innocuous question OP, but it appears as though questioning anything that British people do means that you're going to get interrogated for all of the weird stuff that Americans do 🙄 like there haven't been any threads on that before!

Original poster
mediumbrownmug · 13/07/2021 08:35

@Hotcuppatea

I don't think I'd describe American food as tasty. In fact quite the opposite.
Yeah, I see your point. Our food is okay, but I’ve been to a fair few other countries and can honestly say that I don’t find any particular dish here mind blowing. Not a knock, just kinda true.
OP posts:
FlowerArranger · 13/07/2021 08:35

Americans demand taste when it comes to food and drink. British people put up with poor quality. I don't mean American food is healthier - it's just there's more of it, it's tastier and usually cheaper.

You what? Confused

Tulipomania · 13/07/2021 08:36

"Coffee culture" as in Starbucks etc started on the West Coast of the US.
Has been widely adopted here. I now have a bean to cup machine at home which makes amazing fresh ground coffee in the time it would take to make a Nescafe.

Here in the UK, we've always been much more about tea. It's very hard to get decent teabags and a proper cup of tea in the US, but also getting more popular there.

I say we should celebrate our differences!