1901 saw the invention of instant coffee by Satori Kato, a scientist working in Chicago. The ease and speed of this coffee substitute made it popular. Sales soon caught on, and a new food product was added to the American diet.

Instant coffee is made from inferior beans, tradionally. Good beans are sold for espresso and whole beans sellers. The green coffee bean is roasted the same as for regular coffee. It's then ground and mixed with water for drying. Doesn't that sound backwards? What can you expect from people that take an elixir of the gods and turn it into brownish bitter sludge?

Instant coffee is detested by quite a few. Despite all the modern gee-gaws and who-dads thrown at it, it tastes instant. Yes, it's quick to make, and easy, but so is mud. Something worth doing needs time to turn out well.

There is one good compromise, between taste and speed, if your machine will let you. Take the filter and basket, hold it over an empty cup, and add coffee and a cup of hot water. Try not to over pour, it makes a mess. The result is weak, and has not soaked properly to pick up robust flavors, but it tastes better than instant.

If you insist on instant, the taste may be buried under coffee creamer, provided you don't mind giving up the taste of coffee. There are many good flavors, and new ones all the time. Chocolate, hazelnut, vanilla cinnamon- the list of flavors reads like an overturned dessert cart.

You'll notice good coffee brands by coffee connoisseurs like raven's brew or starbucks don't have instant. It quite doesn't have the taste of the lovingly prepared cherished original.

Learn more about this author, Liomas Thomas.
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