The advances he made enabled people, for the first time, to prepare coffee by just adding hot water.
However, it was George Washington an English chemist living in Guatemala who invented the first mass produced instant coffee.
The Brazilian government had approached coffee expert Max Morgenthaler at the start of the decade asking him to find a way of reducing its coffee surpluses by producing a cheaper coffee.
In 1930, upon engagement with the Brazilian government’s request, under the watchful eye of their coffee specialist Max Morgenthaler, Nestlé Company attempted to create a form of instant coffee that kept the original taste and aroma.
It was an intensive research – seven years of research to be precise, taking place in Swiss laboratories in the 1930s. In 1938, Nestlé embraced the idea of spray drying. This involved spraying fresh coffee into the top of a tower where a large supply of hot air would instantly dry it into droplet.
Spray-drying was improvement on previous methods.
The process of spray-drying leads to Nestlé launching Nescafé. In April 1, 1938 Nestlé first instant coffee goes on sale.
Max Morgenthaler and instant coffee
