Should you be in search of a delightfully prepared beverage, a cup of coffee stands without parallel. Nevertheless, those with a recurring coffee habit may find themselves visiting the grocery store often to restock their coffee and milk reserves.
Also, depending on the kind of coffee you are preparing, you might have to spend more time and effort making it tasty. Therefore, you should try instant coffee powder to prepare your coffee quickly.
But how to prepare instant coffee powder, and is it a reliable way to make a tasty coffee? Well, to help you know about such questions we have written this article. Here, you will learn everything about instant coffee powder and how to make it.
You may also like: How to Make Coffee
What is Instant Coffee Powder?
The instant coffee powder is prepared from brewed coffee beans to help people prepare delicious and hot coffee. This coffee powder will let you make your desired coffee in no time.
Further, you do not have to put a lot of effort into preparing an instant coffee. Spray drying and freeze-drying are two popular methods commercially used to prepare instant coffee powder.
One of the prime benefits of instant coffee is the speed of preparation. Because it quickly dissolves in hot water so you will not have to wait for a longer period for preparing it.
Also, there is less cleanup when using instant coffee powder as you do not have to deal with coffee grounds. Some experts also believe that instant coffee powder has a lower environmental footprint than other methods of preparing coffee.
Instant Coffee Powder History
The first soluble instant coffee powder was invented in 1899 by David Strang. However, Satori Kato, a Japanese chemist, was mistakenly credited because of his invention in 1901.
British Version
Coffee lovers have heard different stories about instant coffee powder before 1899. In 1771, this thing was popularly known as a coffee compound in Britain. At that time, the British government also provided a patent for it.
American Version
After the British version, the American edition also came in 1851. During the civil war in America, the soldiers were given cakes for instant coffee powder. The instant coffee powder got more popular after George Constant Louis Washington provided help regarding the coffee.
However, people were not happy with the taste of George Washington coffee. Also, there were some issues with that coffee. It was not easy to dissolve the coffee, due to which people were searching for a new alternative.
After that, in 1938, Nestlé came into the business. At that time, the Brazilian Coffee Institute asked Nestlé to prepare a flavorful and soluble coffee. In 1937, Max Morgenthaler, who worked at Nestlé, revealed a new way to prepare soluble coffee with the help of soluble carbohydrates and dried coffee extract.
After that, Nestlé started working on instant coffee powder. After working for a few years, Nestlé was able to provide flavor and solubility to this solution. Instant coffee became very famous among World War II soldiers because of its taste.
Materials Needed to Prepare an Instant Coffee Powder
Following are some of the items that you will need to make instant coffee powder.
- Coffee beans
- Airtight bag
- Coffee grinder
- Strainer
Instead of a strainer, you can also use a fine-mesh sieve. In contrast, the alternative of coffee grinders that you can utilize is a food processor or a coffee mill.
The Process to Make Instant Coffee Powder Using Coffee Beans
Making an instant coffee powder gets easy if you know the right process. Below is the complete method on how to make instant coffee.
- First, you will have to take a scoop of regular coffee beans. Then, take a grinder and put the coffee bean scoop into it. You can add the desired amount of coffee beans depending on the servings you want.
- Now begin the grinding process. Keep on grinding the coffee beans until they begin to clump together. Stop the process when you notice powder-like coffee granules.
- After that, make sure to shake your ground coffee beans. For shaking, you can use a fine-mesh strainer over the mug. Keep on shaking until you have got fine powder in the mug. All the larger particles will be left behind on the strainer.
- Now remove all the large dry coffee particles. Also, take the leftover coffee and put it in an airtight container.
- Next, take fresh, clean water and boil it. Let the water boil for some time. After that, take the hot water and pour it over the ground in the mug. You can also add sugar if you want your cup of coffee to taste sweet.
- Next, stir it for a few seconds. As per your desire, you can additionally add cream or milk to it.
Now your coffee is ready!
Tips To Prepare a Good Coffee
Some people usually struggle to prepare a good coffee. To help those people, we have added a few tips. Using these tips, you can prepare fresh, delicious coffee in no time.
Better Grinding
First of all, you should focus on grinding. Then, ensure to get the finest coffee powder that will accommodate you in making a tasty brewed drink. To get better coffee powder with a coffee grinder ensures to set the grinder at correct settings.
Further, remember not to grind the coffee too much. Grinding the coffee for a longer duration will produce heat which can minimize the coffee taste.
Also, not to grind it too little because in that case, the power will not be fine enough. Therefore, you should be careful while grinding. Make sure to perform the grinding under moderate conditions.
Need a guide in grinding your beans? Check this out: How to Grind Coffee Beans
Don’t Store for Too Long
If you keep your coffee powder in an airtight container, ensure not to keep it for too long. Instead, try using it within two to three days to get the best outcome. Storing it for a longer period will oxidize it, and you might lose its flavor. Therefore, try utilizing it as soon as possible to enjoy the tasty coffee.
How to Turn Brewed Coffee into Instant Coffee?
There are several other ways as well by which you can attain instant coffee powder. However, if you want to turn a brewed coffee into an instant coffee, you will have to remove all the liquid. There are two different methods that you can utilize to produce an instant coffee powder from dehydrated brewed coffee.
Spray-Drying Method
Spray drying is the first worthy method that many experts use to attain instant coffee. Remember that if you put the brewed coffee longer in the environment, it will lose its flavor quickly. Therefore, you need to execute this drying process quickly to get the best result.
When you mix water with the coffee beans, the oxidation process begins to happen. If, after brewing, the coffee sits for a longer duration, this will get intense. You will begin noticing a change in the taste after an hour of brewing the coffee.
Therefore, if you want to execute this process quickly without losing the coffee task, you will have to arrange a tall evaporation tower. A 75-foot tall tower will let you do this task rapidly. You will have to put the coffee in it, and the coffee will then be sprayed out in a fine mist.
After that, a hot air jet will blow the mist downwards with some pressure. By this, the moisture will begin to evaporate, and you will get tiny concentrated coffee particles. You may also require adding some water to keep these particles together.
Freeze Drying
Freeze drying is another useful method that you can use to brew coffee into instant coffee. As compared to spray-drying, the freeze-drying method is a bit more complicated. Due to which you will have to spend more time and effort preparing an instant coffee powder using this method.
In this method, you will first have to chill the coffee concentrate at about 20°F. Keep it at such a temperature until it is turned into a Slurpee. Now you will require putting it into bins on a belt to cool it further.
With the belt movement, the coffee slush will also move, which will further cool it slowly. After some time, its temperature will reach around -40°F. This cooling process will give you large granules.
Now you will need to ground down these coffee popsicles for the drying process. After that, put it in a vacuum chamber. The vacuum chamber will heat it and turn it into vapor. By doing this, you will get chunky little coffee particles that you can utilize to prepare delicious coffee.
Summary
Instant coffee powder is a quick and effective way to prepare delicious coffee. You do not need to own a lot of things to make instant coffee powder. In this article, we have written a complete guide about instant coffee powder. You will learn unique and easy methods to prepare instant coffee powder at your place. So, do read this article if you want to know about instant coffee powder.
