Nescafe Azera Smooth

[pamount]

I was given this tin of Nescafe Azera Smooth for free. I'm on a low income.

I just made a cup and I'm tempted to pour it down the sink.

The trials and tribulations of being an unemployed Coffee Snob. Thank God I've still got my coffee beans.

[pamount]

In case anybody's wondering, I did pour that Azera coffee down the sink. I gave the rest of it to a friend of mine.

[shortblackman]

No such thing as bad publicity! I noticed this stuff in the supermarket. Had a little smile having read you post, but did not purchase.

By the way.

What exactly IS instant coffee??

Is it (guessing from something I read recently) strongly extracted coffee (stale/ poor quality/ otherwise) frozen dry, cooled?

Is there some sort of solvent that helps it disintegrate? (IE detergent?)

Interested.

[chokkidog]

No such thing as bad publicity! I noticed this stuff in the supermarket. Had a little smile having read you post, but did not purchase.

By the way.

What exactly IS instant coffee??

Is it (guessing from something I read recently) strongly extracted coffee (stale/ poor quality/ otherwise) frozen dry, cooled?

Is there some sort of solvent that helps it disintegrate? (IE detergent?)

Interested.

:-D Solvent!! :-D The stuff is toxic enough!! I think you mean 'wetting agent' ?? ;-)

[Vinitasse]

No such thing as bad publicity! I noticed this stuff in the supermarket. Had a little smile having read you post, but did not purchase.

By the way.

What exactly IS instant coffee??

Is it (guessing from something I read recently) strongly extracted coffee (stale/ poor quality/ otherwise) frozen dry, cooled?

Is there some sort of solvent that helps it disintegrate? (IE detergent?)

Interested.

Dry instant coffee (as opposed to liquid concentrate) is coffee that is roasted, ground, dissolved in water (water is, after all, the "universal solvent") and then either freeze dried or spray dried. Think of it as pre-brewed coffee that has then been dehydrated, so that it can be packaged, put on a shelf for months or years and then brewed again and you begin to understand just why it is as bad as it is.

[chokkidog]

In my reading I have not come across any definitive information other than in a heavy science tome called 'Surfactant Science and Technology'.

In this book it actually states that coffee is a wetting agent itself.

There was an American who applied for an Instant Coffee Tablet patent in 1957; he wanted to put a wetting agent in the tablet.

Patent US2889226 - Self-dissolving instant coffee tablets - Google Patents

There is a Wikipedia page on how instant coffee is made:

Instant coffee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Vinitasse]

And the following was taken directly from the nestleprofessional website... after all, who knows instant coffee better than Nestle?:

"HOW [instant] COFFEE IS MADE
Turning green coffee beans into high quality soluble coffee products requires a great deal of expertise and technical know-how...
Blending
The character of coffee beans varies naturally from region to region, from season to season, and by variety. Arabica beans produce a rich, smooth, aromatic coffee flavour, while Robusta coffee has a strong, harsher flavour with more body. There is great skill involved in tasting samples of the various beans and selecting the right blend to produce a high quality, distinctive soluble coffee.

Roasting
The flavour and aroma of coffee beans are brought to life by the roasting process. Temperature and time are carefully controlled to develop the coffee's flavour to the full. In general, a light roast gives a mild taste, a medium roast produces a well-rounded, rich flavour and aroma, and a high roast gives a strong, distinctive flavour.

Grinding
The roasted coffee beans are then ground into a coarse powder. This is the same as ‘Roast & Ground’ coffee which you might buy in your local supermarket or coffee shop.
Extraction
The roast and ground coffee is put into a series of extraction cells. These do the same job as a domestic coffee percolator or filter coffee maker - extracting the coffee flavour, aroma and colour from the coffee grounds into hot water. A series of cells is used producing stronger and stronger coffee, until the coffee consists of a highly concentrated liquor.

Drying
Soluble coffee is produced by drying the liquor in one of two ways. In spray drying, the liquor is sprayed into a stream of hot air at the top of a tall cylindrical tower. As the droplets fall, they dry, falling to the bottom of the cylinder as a fine powder. In freeze-drying, the liquor is frozen to about -40°C to form a thin layer. This is broken into tiny pieces, and then subjected to a vacuum. The vacuum lowers the boiling point of the water sufficiently so that it evaporates even at these very low temperatures, helping to preserve the coffee flavour, and leaving behind the solid soluble coffee.

Spray-drying is used for most soluble coffees, whereas freeze-drying is used for the more expensive, higher quality coffees.
Agglomeration
Soluble coffee granules are produced from the powder produced by spray-drying by a process called agglomeration. The powder is wetted slightly so that the particles stick together, and then the resulting granules are sieved so that only particles of the same size are filled into jars.

Aromatisation
In the NESCAFÉ range, the beautiful aroma of freshly ground coffee is captured during the grinding process, and added back to the coffee just before it is filled into jars.

Filling
The soluble coffee powder or granules are filled into glass jars or sachets. Filling is carried out in an inert gas atmosphere, to prevent any deterioration of the flavour or aroma of the coffee during storage.
Decaffeination
Caffeine is a mild stimulant which occurs naturally in coffee and a number of other plants, such as tea. While this property of coffee is acceptable or desired by most coffee drinkers, there are many who prefer the caffeine to be removed. This is done at the green bean stage, before the beans are roasted. There are three main methods in use today, all of which use the same first step - the beans are treated with steam to make them porous, which allows the caffeine to be removed.

The oldest method uses an organic solvent to dissolve out the caffeine. More recently, a process using carbon dioxide under high pressure was developed. However, all decaffeinated NESCAFÉ coffees in the UK now use a process which uses water to dissolve out the caffeine. In this process, the steamed coffee beans are washed in water, which dissolves the caffeine and some of the flavour compounds. This liquid is then passed through activated charcoal, which removes the caffeine. The liquid is then re-integrated with the coffee beans to put back the flavour compounds which were removed along with the caffeine. The beans are then dried, ready for roasting in the normal way.

[shortblackman]

God. A lot of effort goes into producing such a crappy drink, doesn't it?

Chokki , loved the patent of the coffee tablet, where he describes the problems with powder (particularly around "dosing"). I've never seen a coffee tablet.

Thanks also for Wiki link.

So good of Nestle to return the aroma that gets lost in production, for our enjoyment at home. Pity not everything is so easy to replace, eh, Nestle?

And there you go... solvents do finally make an appearance.. As an old school decaffeinator.

Thanks for your posts!

sbm

[chokkidog]

Hi sbm

Yeah! The tablet was a hoot, probably never made it to production.

Interesting historical perspective tho'..... when instant was a (relatively) new fangled thaing!

Cheers

[Javaphile]

Hi sbm

Yeah! The tablet was a hoot, probably never made it to production.

Interesting historical perspective tho'..... when instant was a (relatively) new fangled thaing!

Cheers

Ya never know. I ran into these at SCAA a couple years ago. Flavored Green Tea as tablets. Drop them in a cup, add hot water and viola! Instant tea! In this case they were being marketed as both a breath freshener as well as tea. On the front of the label they're presented primarily as a breath freshener while on the back it states "Three mints equal one cup of green tea".


Java "Has the era of the Instant Coffee Tablet finally arrived?" phile

[Erimus]

In case anybody's wondering, I did pour that Azera coffee down the sink. I gave the rest of it to a friend of mine.

I don't believe this coffee is as bad as you're trying to make out. If you drank it black, without sugar well yes it's not going to be good, or with cold milk.
However, with steamed milk that will hide a lot of sins.
This morning I made a latte with 3 teaspoons of Carte Noire instant coffee, was it bitter? yes ... and added steamed milk and the latte was decent and certainly to good to pour down the sink.

[TC]

However, with steamed milk that will hide a lot of sins.

It will not however hide original sin- which was in fact instant coffee....

I shudder at the memory of places with a Haros steamer and a tin of Caterer's blend.

[blend52]

So good of Nestle to return the aroma that gets lost in production, for our enjoyment at home.

sbm

Yes, but note that its only returned as an "Aroma" ..not as a flavoring .
Its normally added as a tiny spray application to the inside of the jar lid or seal...so that you think you can smell fresh coffee when you open the jar.
It does nothing for the flavor or taste of the contents !

[shortblackman]

Yes, but note that its only returned as an "Aroma" ..not as a flavoring .
Its normally added as a tiny spray application to the inside of the jar lid or seal...so that you think you can smell fresh coffee when you open the jar.
It does nothing for the flavor or taste of the contents !

Absurd. ...

[Vinitasse]

I don't believe this coffee is as bad as you're trying to make out. If you drank it black, without sugar well yes it's not going to be good, or with cold milk.
However, with steamed milk that will hide a lot of sins.
This morning I made a latte with 3 teaspoons of Carte Noire instant coffee, was it bitter? yes ... and added steamed milk and the latte was decent and certainly to good to pour down the sink.

To quote Kurtz in Conrad's Heart of Darkness: "The horror! The horror!"

Yesterday you whipped up both a "Mussolini" and a "Berlusconi" on your Moka Pot, so we may as well give a name to a latte made with an instant coffee base... how about calling it a "Kurtz", or... better still... "The Horror"