Making the case for instant coffee

Until the pandemic hit, I hadn’t given instant coffee a thought for years. I used instant espresso in baked goods on occasion, but the idea of actually drinking instant coffee did not cross my mind. Why would I do that when I have a world of flavorful, aromatic, high-quality coffee available at my fingertips? If my local supermarket did not carry it, it was easily available online from a number of sources.

Then lockdown happened, and as many bored people did during the first few weeks of staying at home, we stumbled upon the Dalgona coffee craze. Overnight instant coffee became cool. Still, no one really drank instant coffee as a regular hot beverage, right? Wrong, says Eater’s Angela Burke. She makes the case for drinking instant coffee.

When I first purchased instant coffee to try the Dalgona trend, removing the seal on the jar whisked me back to my childhood. The aroma of the dark brown crystals reminded me of my grandparents, who drank Sanka brand instant coffee every morning for breakfast. At the break of dawn, they would each drink a single cup of coffee before heading out for the morning’s chores on the farm. My grandfather, whose father had come over to the US as a young man, hewed to a European tradition while drinking his American coffee, pouring it into the saucer and sipping it from there. I am thankful to be reminded of those early mornings on the farm.

Burke, for her part, notes that instant coffee has come a long way since my grandparent’s Sanka, and draws our attention to some of the better brands available today. Although I still prefer the ritual of grinding fresh beans to make coffee in the morning, I have had a few cups of the instant stuff every now and again this year, each time drawing on the same wonderful memory.