What is Instant Coffee - Folgers vs. Nescafe
What is Instant Coffee?
During the month of June, Mr. Brew and I were backpacking in multiple places along the Rockies. My desire for a really good cup of coffee just kept growing and growing. I couldn’t bring my French press up the mountain with me, so I brought instant coffee instead.
It occurred to me while I was sipping a cup by my little mountain fire, that I didn’t actually know what instant coffee was. I hoped that it was made from real coffee, but a part of me was worried that I was consuming a chemically altered and over-processed drink.
Once I got back to the city, I knew I had to do some research and figure out what Instant Coffee really was and how it was made.
It is made from real coffee!
They take the roasted beans, brew them, and then dehydrate the liquid using one of two different drying methods: spray-dry or freeze-dry.
1. Spray Drying
In this method, the brewed coffee is sprayed in a fine mist through really hot air (close to 480 degrees according to HuffPost). The coffee is dehydrated almost immediately and what is left of the coffee - crystals and powder - falls to the bottom of the spray zone.
2. Freeze Drying
This process sounds a little more involved than spray drying. First, the brewed coffee is turned into a coffee extract. It is cooked down and chilled at 20 degrees F until it becomes slushy. That extract is then rapidly chilled to -40 degrees until an ice block forms. The ice blocks are cut into chunks and slowly dried using a low temperature and a vacuum to suck up the water molecules.
Both of these processes try to capture the aroma and flavor of a freshly brewed cup of coffee. Although it isn’t quite as good, there are good instant coffees out there! Companies like Nescafe and Folgers have worked hard to create good quality instant coffees.
Folgers vs. Nescafe Instant Coffee
If you are going to buy instant coffee, you know that you aren’t going to spend a pretty penny on it. At my local H-E-B grocery store, Folgers (7 pack) cost $0.93 and the Nescafe French Roast (5 pack) was $0.91. But just because it is cheap doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice great flavor!
That is where I can help.
I took Folgers’ Classic Roast instant coffee and pinned it up against Nescafe’s French Roast coffee to see how they compared to each other.
When looking at the Folgers Instant Coffee, the first thing I noticed was that each packet was only 2 ounces, but there were seven packets in each box (enough for a full week!). Nescafe French Roast had 3 ounces of coffee and only five packets in each box (a full workweek at least!). Each packet is designed for an 8 oz cup of coffee.
Folgers
Upon pouring out the crystals, I noticed that they were a much darker color and carried more of the “crystal” appearance you find in instant coffee.
They dissolved very quickly when I poured the water onto them and required no stirring to mix up the particles. There was a slight froth on the edges of the cup, but not very much. The color remained very dark, almost black.
It had a very light, slightly sweet flavor and aroma. The sweetness was slightly acidic, but really not very much. This was a subtle coffee without a lot of complexity going on.
Nescafe
The Nescafe French Roast crystals were much lighter in color and looked slightly chalky.
They did not dissolve as quickly as the Folgers coffee and did require some stirring. They did maintain much more froth on the surface, even after stirring. The color was less dark than Folgers and gave the appearance of a lighter coffee with more of a brown color.
This coffee smelled slightly burnt and had a sharpness to its aromas and flavors. It was slightly smoky, especially in the aftertaste, and was bolder than Folgers. After multiple sips, this coffee continued to have a strong flavor.
The Winner
The winner is… Nescafe French Roast!
I took both of these coffees with us when we went camping recently. While on the mountain I really preferred the Nescafe French Roast because of the bold, smoky flavors. The Folgers coffee fell a little flat for me flavorwise. This might be because I make my coffee really strong and I was searching for the dense flavor profile that the instant coffee didn’t have.
If you are looking for a subtler, easy afternoon cup of coffee that is gentle on the palate, Folgers Classic Roast is the way to go. It was not a bad cup of coffee! I just really liked the bold flavors of Nescafe’s French Roast.
Cheers,
Mrs. Brew