History of instant coffee

Early history of instant coffee or soluble coffee started as far as 1771, the British granted a patent for a ‘coffee compound’ and in the late nineteenth century R. Patterson & Son of Glasgow invented Camp Coffee, a liquid essence.

The history of instant coffee in United States is linked to wars; military commanders had long sought a way to give their troops in the field a caffeine boost without having to carry along cumbersome brewing equipment.

American attempts to create instant coffee began during the mid-1800s, when one of the earliest instant coffees was offered in cake form to Civil War troops.

Although it and other early instant coffees tasted even worse than regular coffee of the epoch, the incentive of convenience proved strong, and efforts to manufacture a palatable instant brew continued.

An Belgium immigrant named George Washington produced the first commercially viable instant coffee in the United States beginning in 1906.

Instant coffee received further boost during World War 1, when the US army purchased it for some of its troops in Europe.

The expansion was largely due to a Swiss company, Nestle, which started marketing Nescafe in 1938 and quickly dominated the market. By the 1960s, as much as one third of home prepared was soluble.

Finally, after using U.S. troops as testers during World War II, an American coffee manufacturer (Maxwell House) began marketing the first successful instant coffee in 1950.
History of instant coffee