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by Annie Kile

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Instant coffee in today's technoblur lifestyle is simply a concept that has outlived its usefulness. A short trip down the small appliance isle at any major department store (which in today's retail vernacular would most likely mean Wal Mart) and a quick survey of the shelves will prove my point. From water tap to coffee cup even the slowest coffee maker will have you drinking your first cup of the morning no more than ten minutes after you wake up. Plus, even most low dollar models are programmable, meaning you can set your coffee pot along with your alarm. Considering that the first sense a person is aware of coming out of anesthesia is smell, waking up to that glorious scent gives one an added incentive not to hit your friend the snooze button. Can instant coffee do that?

Speaking of smell, can anything top the first whiff that escapes from a newly opened can of coffee? It is the only can that I enjoy opening with a manual can opener. As a matter of fact, I wish coffee companies hadn't started making it so that all you have to do it peel off the lid; it takes all the anticipatory fun out of it. Still, peeling the film off the top of a coffee can tops screwing off the lid of a jar of instant coffee any day.

It doesn't even make sense to use instant coffee when you're camping. It runs counter to everything that motivates people to be willing to sleep on the ground and hang their food from tree branches. You've driven who knows how many miles just to get out of the rush and hurry of your everyday rat race. Looking forward to long, slow mornings watching the sun rise over mountains sans McMansions, nothing makes more sense, or a more perfect cup of coffee, than Grandma's antique stove top percolator.

There is only one instance in life where instant coffee makes sense, well two. The first is when the alarm goes off and you instantly realize that forgot you were out of coffee. The thought of hitting the shower without benefit of caffeine is almost too much to bear. The second is when you go to program your coffee machine for the following morning, it's midnight and, when you reach up into the cabinet and pull out the can, you realize there is nothing in it. Now that's when you scramble to see if that jar of instant coffee you bought four years ago is still hiding behind the green beans in the pantry.

Learn more about this author, Annie Kile.

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