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?

@ChainJane that’s rubbish since America practically invented fast food crap chains, I would not say MacDonalds was the height of tasty food.

I’m British and would never drink instant.

Cheap, convenient, less cleaning, tastes pretty good.

Lots of criticism of Costa, Starbucks but there are always queues of cars at our local Costa - don't understand it myself.

[quote LookItsMeAgain]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:

[/quote] What did I just watch!!!!???? Okay, I’ve never seen that here. The only thing I can think of is a London Fog latte, which Starbucks does, and that is an Earl Grey tea bag steeped in 2% milk, sweetened. Is that what she meant?

i like instant coffee , its all i drink , its cheaper , i wouldnt want to be faffing about with those cafetieres and as its my staple drink it would be very expensive if i didnt have instant coffee , im on my fourth mug of the morning as we speak

I prefer instant coffee to be honest. I'll drink Costa coffee at a push. I try coffee whenever we're in a restaurant or overseas but the only coffee I've actually enjoyed so much I had a second cup was in a cafe in Portugal. And stupidly I didn't ask the brand! That was 15 years ago and I've never had as good a cup of coffee anywhere. But my instant one is fine if I can't find a 'proper' one as good as the one in Portugal.

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

All of it? That seems unfair considering the huge variety of American dishes that are available including many regional specialities.

Because tea is our main drink

I imagine the kettle thing has an influence on this (being a reason instant coffee isn't popular in America).

My coffee related question is are americanos called americanos in America? (probably could google but i've only just thought about it while typing here)

I thought drinking instant coffee was normal it's what I drink. If I go anywhere which serves filtered coffee I always have to ask for extra milk and hot water as it's too strong for me.

Because the real thing is too much faff and many people don't have the luxury of time. And what is the point of all that nonsense? It's only a cup of coffee FGS and instant really is good enough. Which is why many of us prefer a cup of tea instead.

@mutedrainbow

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!

I get it though. I was curious, and I guess other people are too. Goes both way!

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.

One word. Twinkies.
Where's the vomit emoticon?

@LavenderAskew

I imagine the kettle thing has an influence on this (being a reason instant coffee isn't popular in America).

My coffee related question is are americanos called americanos in America? (probably could google but i've only just thought about it while typing here)

Good point about the kettles. Yes they are called Americanos here. It’s odd, isn’t it? I’ve actually never thought about it before.

@saraclara

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.

One word. Twinkies.
Where's the vomit emoticon?

I’ve never had a Twinkie. Agree wholeheartedly with your assessment though. Possibly unfair as I’ve not tried them, but as I’m not likely to do so my opinion will have to stand.

There's excellent food in the US! Yeah, there's a lot of cheap crap but you can also get great food. I don't mind a bit of gentle America bashing but it's going a bit far to say all the food is shit.

Although to be fair, we used to live in Queens so most of the excellent food we were eating wasn't actually American

Before WW2 Brits drank tea. Instant coffee was introduced by the American soldiers who got it in their packs. After the war people in Britain had got a taste for coffee but with rationing and general shortages probably could only get instant. And it stuck.

Re the “Brit” thing, OP - it usually has a slightly pejorative sense, eg, “drunken Brits abroad”, which tends to be lost on Americans. I’m English but refer to myself as British.

Apparently Americanos comes from when American soldiers were in Italy during WW2 and the espressos were too strong for them so they asked for them to be weakened with hot water. Not sure if that's true or not.

@Babygotblueyes

Before WW2 Brits drank tea. Instant coffee was introduced by the American soldiers who got it in their packs. After the war people in Britain had got a taste for coffee but with rationing and general shortages probably could only get instant. And it stuck.

Anyone tried Camp? Bleugh

@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?

Because I'm a barbarian.

@SomethingNastyInTheBallPool

Re the “Brit” thing, OP - it usually has a slightly pejorative sense, eg, “drunken Brits abroad”, which tends to be lost on Americans. I’m English but refer to myself as British.

Ah. Good to know. I’ll be more careful.

It's popular because we tend to drink kettle drinks whereas Americans are more likely to have coffee machines due to the way our electrics are different. Our kettles boil really quickly, so it's just a really quick easy drink. Of course many homes have coffee machines too! It's also easy to make teas and coffees at the same time, so it's instant coffee is a great alternative to tea and made at the same time. Just like we don't drink tea with tea leaves/ in a teapot every day and chose tee bags and kettle water, same is true for instant coffee convenience wise.

It's silly to call all American food shit. I've had the same experience explaining to Americans that British food isn't stuck in 1962.

Packaged snack cakes are hardly the best measure. I don't think I'd want British food judged by Mr Kipling's either.

I’m sure my American aunt drank Folger’s coffee, when I visited her in the early 90s, and the “Gold Blend couple” advertised it on the tv (as Folger’s not Gold Blend)