What's new

Instant Coffee that tastes like burnt rubber

In the middle of the Coffee in China Thread SiBurning linked an article which in turn linked to this CoffeeGeek posting about the crisis in Coffee and collapse of the market after Vietnam came into production in a big way around 10 years ago.

But that is just back ground info. The part I wanted to highlight was this:

....Quality of product was not a concern - maximum profits and yields were. By 2000, Vietnam was producing almost a million tons of coffee - an eleven fold increase in 10 years. And most of it was the same quality of crap produced 10 years before - non-drinkable robusta.

Yet we have quotes like this one in the December 8, 2002 Fortune Magazine from Frank Meysman, the main coffee buyer for Sara Lee:

"Vietnam offer(s) excellent coffee at very reasonable prices."

It is funny that Meysman would say this, given that Sara Lee has to do some extraordinary things to the massive amounts of robusta they buy from Vietnam to make it drinkable. What do they do, exactly?

They steam the green coffee. I'm not kidding. The Big Four have developed a steaming process and technology to remove the "burnt rubber" taste, for the most part, from the robusta. In the process, they remove just about every other flavour as well.

So what do they do about it? Let me ask you, have you noticed a lot more "Hazelnut Mocha Instant" and "French Vanilla Instant" coffees on the shelf in the supermarket over the last few years? Guess what - that's the steamed robusta, which is then brewed in 5,000 gallon kegs, then flash evaporated, then coated with artificial flavours and colours with a lot of sugar tossed in. They have to flavour it because the steaming techniques leave something that, to be frank, isn't coffee any longer. But hey, marketers came to the rescue: spin this marketing pony around, and call it "French Vanilla Superior Moments Coffee".

And people call that crap "specialty coffee".....

Last year I went on a quest to find a good instant coffee for the office, something cheaper than Starbuck's Via. I did not succeed in my mission but I did find a couple of coffees that tasted like the above description. I most distinctly remember opening a bottle of Maxwell House with the big "grip" lid in bright colors, a lid that reminded me I was not yet in their main demographic. The initial taste and smell reminded me of an 18-wheeler which had just locked up its brakes on the interstate. The burnt rubber smell was quite strong. After the coffee got older (more stale) the burnt rubber taste went away but I could not finish the jar. I thought it was my imagination or something specific to how the coffee was packaged. I did not understand it was a by product of the poor quality robusta beans?!

Do other folks notice the burnt rubber taste in other coffees? To make this thread more productive and not just a rant, are there coffees you consider to have the burnt rubber flavor? Maybe that is why some people don't like coffee.
 
On the subject of instant coffee.... I despise the American made stuff. It tastes like water with a dose of I don't know what. Thanks to some generous friends and some vacations, I've found European (especially German) and Colombian instants to be quite drinkable, tho, of course, not quite as good as a real brewed cup. If you have some contacts or travel time, look into getting a steady supply of the German stuff for office use; you may well like it.

Also, while not quite instant, the Gevalia "pod" coffee is very good, imho.
 
To be fair to Maxwell House and Vietnam Robusta, they were not the worse offenders in the burnt rubber taste. I sampled a small 1.76 oz jar of this Colcafe which was worse.
proxy.php
 
I used to bring instant coffee to work as I needed that little caffeine hit to survive the evening shift, I would mix it about 50/50 with hot chocolate to make it drinkable. I also remember an article i read years ago and an African coffee taster/expert refused to classify instant as real coffee, and instead called it a hot beverage.
 
Last year I went on a quest to find a good instant coffee for the office

I am sorry, but good instant coffee is an oxymoron. It simply doesn't exist.

All of the instant coffee I have ever had is total crap.

Via's about the least offensive instant I've ever sampled. But they're all offensive.

I had a small sample of Via. Palatable, but lacking the depth, and flavor of a real cup of coffee. Considering the price Via goes for, it's basically a total rip off.

I can find no real reason for instant coffee to even exist. I can brew up a 4 cup pot of coffee in my auto drip in about 5 minutes.
 
Last edited:
I prefer my instant coffee to taste like burnt silicon :001_smile

Burnt glass??

I am sorry, but good instant coffee is an oxymoron. It simply doesn't exist.

All of the instant coffee I have ever had is total crap.



I had a small sample of Via. Palatable, but lacking the depth, and flavor of a real cup of coffee. Considering the price Via goes for, it's basically a total rip off.

I can find no real reason for instant coffee to even exist. I can brew up a 4 cup pot of coffee in my auto drip in about 5 minutes.

Instant coffee is a convenient drug delivery system. :001_smile I agree that most of it is very far from good freshly brewed, but a taste for it can be acquired. And it's better than doing without.
 
Just out of curiosity, is there a reason you are limited to having instant coffee at the office?
Not limited, just want some instant for the speed and convenience. At work we have a communal coffee pot with a few mediocre blends on hand. Some people do bring in their own coffee and personal brewers or press pots, but I don't want want that much trouble as sometimes I am away from my desk or in other parts of the building. We have hot filtered water on tap so it is very easy to make instant coffee, I don't even have to wait for hot water, just a few seconds and its ready. The only thing missing is a good instant coffee.

The only instant I'll drink, and it's not often, is Douwe Egbert.
I think your suggestion is on the right track. Looking into this a little more it seems Europeans get the "good" instant coffee while US consumers demand the worst. Including a few links that talk about the history and process of making instant coffee, mainly to highlight the high market penetration in different parts of the world relative to US. Based on this, one needs to look for coffee sold outside the US:

About 15% of the coffee consumed in the United States is instant

As of 2005: 90% of the coffee drunk in the UK was Instant Coffee.... 60% of people in France and 68% of people in Spain drink instant regularly as well.

93% of the coffee consumed in Korea, more than 50% coffee consumed in Japan, and 90% of coffee consumed by Australians is instant

Instant coffee fortified with Vitamins or Ginseng - Poland, Japan and Indonesia
 
The coffee at my office is putrid, brown water. Horrible stuff. I keep a stash of Medaglia D'Oro for when I want a cup of coffee. Having tried a bunch of instant (yes, most are trash) I am perfectly fine with this option.
 
I have tried lots of different instant coffees, the coffee here at work is horrible.
I have never found one that holds a candle to even mediocre coffee. Though starbucks instant is o.k., more than I want to spend on instant.

What I do now is grind a few days worth of coffee to bring into the office and use my Clever Coffee Dripper(Pour Over) to brew a mug at a time.

Easy cleanup and a good cup of coffee.
 
I buy Folgers Columbian, but I'm guessing that's no guarantee. I wouldn't put it past factories to "cut" the good stuff with the cheap stuff. I grind whole bean mostly.

As far as instant coffee goes, it's only good for one thing IMHO. Field coffee. Drank it in the military out in the field, where hot water was a luxury. I suppose it would be good for camping/backpacking, if you don't bring the equipment to brew. Other than that, it's emergency rations class stuff, which is to say it's better than nothing, but not much.
 
I would get an inexpensive coffee press if you already have access to hot water. In under 3 minutes you can have a real cup of coffee.
 
I would get an inexpensive coffee press if you already have access to hot water. In under 3 minutes you can have a real cup of coffee.

My thought exactly, if it is hot from the cooler, agreed not hot enough. If it is a hot water tap it should work. Barring that a $10 kettle and your in business.
 
Top Bottom