Should I drink instant coffee or raw bean coffee? The difference between instant coffee and freshly ground coffee!

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According to the 2014 Global Consumer Market Survey, nearly 50 per cent of consumers prefer instant coffee, and sales of instant coffee tripled between 2000 and 2014.

Due to the influence of the third wave of coffee, more and more people choose to buy raw beans, but it is undeniable that instant coffee still has a large market.

What is the difference between instant coffee and raw bean coffee that needs to be ground? Where did instant coffee come from? Which one should I drink? Let's get a cup of coffee and have a drink before we discuss it.

Is instant coffee made of real coffee? How do you get coffee beans?

First of all, instant coffee is really made by coffee. But coffee beans are not "beans", but seeds.

Coffee is a kind of fruit, which is often called "coffee cherry" because of its round red appearance. Usually a fruit has two seeds, and a small number of those with only one seed are called Peaberry. After harvesting the fruit, coffee farmers will carry out a series of treatments, and the difference depends on how to remove the pulp from the outer layer of the seed. Different treatments will affect the flavor of coffee. Then it will be dried and baked before a cup of coffee can be made.

At this stage, there is a difference between instant coffee and coffee beans.

How to get instant coffee?

Whether you drink two-in-one or three-in-one instant coffee, they are all products of science.

When we come to the instant coffee factory, we will see a large vat of coffee liquid that is ready to be made into instant powder. the process is very simple, just dehydration. When the water in the coffee liquid is removed, it is the instant powder that everyone scoops out of the coffee can. That is, the soluble powder retains the coffee substance that is soluble in water.

The procedure of dehydration can be divided into the following two kinds: freeze drying and spray drying.

It should be noted that some of the substances in coffee are lost during processing, especially caffeine and aroma molecules. Even the quality of coffee powder has a lot to do with the drying process. Some manufacturers even add substances to fill these lost flavors.

Differences in cooking methods

Instant coffee is very simple, as long as the fusion of instant powder and water, you can drink.

If it is raw bean coffee, there are different preparation procedures. You need to grind the coffee beans and cook them (usually filtered with filter material), and then discard the coffee grounds. These brewing processes deeply attract many coffee lovers, who can experiment with different brewing methods, different powder-to-water ratio, water temperature, etc., to make a cup of coffee they like.

If you want full-bodied coffee, you may be able to use a French filter pot or Philharmonic pressure instead of a V60 filter cup. If you want to reduce the bitterness of coffee and improve its sweetness or acidity, you can reduce the extraction rate and brew it through thicker grinding, shorter brewing time or lower water temperature.

The same kind of instant coffee always tastes the same. On the other hand, if you look at ground coffee, you can taste the brewers' skills.

So which is better?

Is that all about coffee? Does anyone really have a better result?

Let's take a look at the comparison between instant coffee and raw bean coffee:

Cost and convenience

There is no denying that instant coffee is usually cheaper, and you can drink it as long as you add hot water, which is convenient.

However, instant coffee is cheap, but is it good value for money? It depends on the characteristics you value: convenience? Flavor? Aroma?

Quality and flavor

When it comes to quality and flavor, raw bean coffee will be better, here are several reasons:

1. Differences in the quality of coffee beans

The key to the quality of coffee is to return to the quality of the coffee bean itself. Obviously, the advantage of instant coffee is that it is cheap, so low-quality Robusta commercial beans are used, which is usually bitter and stimulating.

In addition, since coffee is a crop, it will lose its flavor as long as it is stored for a period of time. Some traders often use old beans or old beans, which have been stored for more than a year and have lost their flavor and aroma. This old bean will be sold at a lower price, making it the first choice for instant coffee ingredients.

Although it is possible to use high-quality coffee beans to make instant coffee, few people do so in reality. Similarly, there are low-quality raw bean coffee, but high-quality coffee raw beans are always available on the market.

two。 Differences in cooking process

The coffee brewing process combines physical and chemical changes and can pay attention to a lot of details. One of the most important is the cooking process, when to extract different flavors. If the coffee is brewed for too long, it may be bitter. Although it is possible to use perfectly extracted coffee to make instant powder, it is unlikely to do so.

As mentioned above, when consumers brew raw bean coffee, they can control the flavor of the coffee.

3. Aroma and flavor

Finally, we still have to mention the aroma and flavor mentioned above, which will be lost in the instant coffee process. The strongest aroma of coffee is when hot water comes into contact with coffee powder, which has been in contact with coffee since months or even years before consumers drank it.

On the other hand, the flavor has a great influence on the aroma, which means that the loss of aroma will affect the taste of the drink (Note: this is why you need to open the lid of the cup when drinking coffee to improve the tasting experience).

Health

Will instant coffee affect your health? Actually, it's not. Although some theories may accuse instant coffee of causing cancer, they are all unconfirmed rumors. There is no clear evidence that instant coffee has more positive or negative effects on the human body than raw bean coffee.

Of course, if you drink three-in-one instant coffee with added sugar, there will be health concerns, but the instant coffee process itself will not have a positive or negative impact on health.

The degree of impact on the environment

2015 British coffee master champion Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood wrote a book, "The Coffee Dictionary, told us last year", which states that "if environmental factors are the only consideration, instant coffee will be your best choice."

Does that surprise you? Generally speaking, we recognize that the process of instant coffee is more onerous and has a greater impact on the environment. As long as you do not use instant powder in small packages, the garbage produced by each cup of coffee is much lower. A large amount of coffee grounds produced by the production of instant coffee will also be more environmentally friendly after proper waste disposal in the factory.

These remarks do not mean that consumers who buy raw bean coffee should not focus on environmental protection, as long as they make good use of waste, whether coffee grounds are reused or paper cups are not used. There are many ways to minimize environmental impact.

So what does this mean to you as a consumer?

To sum up, if you value the flavor and aroma of coffee, you should buy coffee beans.

If you buy instant coffee, don't worry about causing cancer or health problems, and instant coffee has less impact on the environment.