The Process of Making Instant Coffee
Instant coffee is a popular drink that many people enjoy on a daily basis, but have you ever considered how it’s made?
Instant coffee makes life easier in many different ways. So let’s take a closer look at how this convenient drink is made to see what makes it so unique.
What Is Instant Coffee?
It’s no secret that coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world, but what about instant coffee? The refined, soluble coffee powder that most people have heard of, instant coffee is a popular beverage all on its own nowadays. And it’s a great way for busy people to enjoy a cup of coffee without having to go through the process of making a pot.
Instant coffee has been around for a long time and has been enjoyed by many people since its creation all the way back in 1851. Moreover, instant coffee doesn’t contain the water found in regular brewed coffee, and many coffee connoisseurs agree that it boasts a stronger flavor than its brewed counterpart.
Those who aren’t familiar with the inner workings of instant coffee are surprised to learn that the main ingredient in instant coffee is roasted and ground coffee beans.
Initially, instant coffee was meant to be used as a substitute for regular brewed coffee. And for the longest time, instant coffee was seen as the inferior beverage. All that changed when coffee manufacturers started moving away from Robusta beans in favor of Arabica.
Here at Waka Coffee, we use only the finest Arabica beans in all of our instant coffees. And as such, we are able to bring you incredible-tasting, delicious instant coffee. But there’s a specific process that we employ to ensure that the rich flavor and intense aroma that brewed coffee is so well-known for is locked into every serving of our instant coffees.
So let’s see how this process works and why it’s so fundamental to the amazing products we provide to the loyal coffee-loving community.
How We Make Our Delicious Instant Coffee
At Waka Coffee, we mean it when we say we are committed to serving only the highest quality instant coffee. That means we start with collecting the very best Arabica coffee beans, as it’s these beans that ensure the richest flavor and aroma.
Our beans start out raw but are eventually freeze-dried to achieve our delicious instant coffee. It’s important to note that instant coffee is genuine coffee; it’s identical in chemical composition to the coffee you brew at home. The only difference is the manner in which it is served.
Traditional brewed coffee typically takes a few minutes to make. You have to wait for the water to heat up before it filters through your coffee and into your mug. But with our instant Waka Coffee, you simply empty out the appropriate serving into your cup of hot water and stir for a few seconds. You’re on your way to enjoying some of the best instant coffee on the planet.
Of course, you can’t do this with traditional ground coffee beans—they simply won’t dissolve into hot water as instant coffee does. As such, the ever-important process of freeze-drying must first occur to achieve the dissolvable granules that make up our high-quality instant coffee.
Roasting the Beans
Our raw beans get placed into giant ovens to roast. It’s worth pointing out that the temperature we use to roast our Arabica beans determines whether they are light, medium, or dark. Once we have sufficiently roasted the coffee beans, they are ready for grinding.
Grinding the Beans
We grind our roasted beans into a very fine powder. This powder is identical to the coffee grounds used for traditional brewed coffee. If you’ve ever ground your own coffee beans at home, it’s the same thing we do to make our instant coffee, just on a much larger scale.
And speaking of large-scale operations, the next step is to brew our large quantities of grounded coffee powder in a giant coffee machine. We use the same method of high pressure and hot water, just like you would at home.
Brewing the Coffee
The next step is to brew the coffee and heat it up. This heating process continues in order to condense the coffee. Ultimately, it turns into an extract that’s similar in viscosity to honey. With our large quantity of coffee extract, we head to the freezing chamber.
Freeze-drying the Coffee
In our freezing chamber, the internal temperature is kept at a frigid -58°F (-50°C). After being exposed to such extreme temperatures, our coffee extract quickly becomes frozen solid. And it’s this freezing method that locks in the Arabica beans’ rich flavor and aroma.
The frozen block of extract gets broken up into tiny pieces (granules). But before we can serve our delicious instant coffee to our customers, we have to remove any remaining water from the granules. Regardless of how small, any water left in the granules will cause them to dissolve.
Extracting Water from the Granules
The final step before packaging and shipping is to extract water from the granules. To do this, we place the granules in a special container with extremely low pressure. We then heat the granules to allow any water molecules to evaporate. As this is occurring, a vacuum removes the evaporation, leaving us with pure, high-quality instant coffee. This is the process known as sublimation. Sublimation is the process of when the ice immediately changes to steam, without defrosting first.
Our freshly freeze-dried granules are now ready to be shared with the world. We place them in the appropriate packaging and send them to you, our customers.
At Waka Coffee, we work hard to bring you the best instant coffee. As you can see, we go to great lengths to make sure you’re getting only the finest Arabica beans in your coffee. So when you buy Waka Coffee, you know you’re getting the very best.
Try It for Yourself
If you’ve not yet tried our delicious instant coffee, we invite you to explore our extensive selection. There, you will find amazing flavors that are sure to win you over.
