Spray-dried Instant Coffee

Instant coffee is coffee that’s already been brewed and dried, so all you add is water. Most of it is spray-dried: the coffee is brewed at scale, concentrated into an extract, then sprayed as a fine mist into a tall chamber of hot air. The water evaporates as the droplets fall, and what lands is a fine powder, which is usually clumped into granules before it reaches the jar. It’s fast and cheap, and it’s how most instant coffee is made. Here’s how it’s made, where it came from and how to make a better cup.

The short version

• Brewed, concentrated, then sprayed into hot air to dry.
• A fine powder, usually steamed into granules so it dissolves well.
• Cheaper than freeze-drying, but the heat costs some aroma.
• Invented by David Strang in New Zealand, patented in 1890.
• Nescafé, 1938, was spray-dried.

How is spray-dried coffee made?

1. Brewing. Roasted coffee is brewed in large extractors.
2. Concentrating. The coffee is concentrated into a strong extract.
3. Spray-drying. The extract is sprayed as a fine mist into a tower “many stories high”, as one Procter & Gamble patent puts it, full of swirling hot air. The water evaporates as the droplets fall.
4. Collecting. The dry powder, about 0.1–0.3 mm grains, is collected at the bottom. It’s too fine to use as it is, so makers usually agglomerate it, spraying it with steam so the grains stick into granules about 3 mm across. Many also add aroma back: the same patent says only about 50–60% of the aroma added to the extract survives spray-drying.

Spray-dried vs freeze-dried

	Spray-dried	Freeze-dried
How	Sprayed into hot air	Frozen, then dried under vacuum
Looks like	Fine powder, usually steamed into granules	Larger, porous granules
Aroma	Some lost to heat	More retained
Cost	Cheaper, faster	More expensive
Share	Most instant coffee	Premium jars

How do you make a better cup of instant?

1. Boil the kettle and let it stand a moment, so the water is just off the boil.
2. Spoon in the coffee, using the amount on the jar.
3. Make a paste with a splash of cold water or milk, so it dissolves smoothly.
4. Top up with hot water and stir. Add milk and sugar to taste.

Instant also makes quick iced coffee: dissolve it in a little hot water, then pour over ice and cold milk.

A short history of instant coffee

• 1890: David Strang of Invercargill, New Zealand, patents a soluble coffee powder made by a “dry hot-air” process, filed in 1889, and sells it as Strang’s Soluble Coffee Powder.
• 1901: Satori Kato, a Japanese chemist in Chicago, files a patent for a soluble coffee, granted in 1903, and shows it at the Pan-American Exposition. He was long credited as the inventor, until Strang’s earlier patent was rediscovered.
• 1938: Nestlé launches Nescafé, a spray-dried instant, developed after Brazil asked for a way to use its surplus coffee. Coffee extract had been too sticky to spray-dry, so the Swiss chemist Max Morgenthaler mixed it half and half with maltodextrin, Wikipedia says.
• 1950s: General Foods makes spray-dried instant from 100% coffee, extracting at high temperature and pressure so no added carbohydrate is needed.

General guidance only. Take care with boiling water, and check the jar for caffeine content if you’re watching it.

Instant vs other methods

• Freeze-dried instant: the premium way to make instant.
• Camp Coffee: the Victorian coffee and chicory essence.
• Coffee bags: real ground coffee, steeped in the cup.
• Drip bag: a single-serve pour-over with no equipment.

Explore every industrial method in the instant and industrial chapter.