Instant Coffee Goes Gourmet, Canadians Now Paying Café Prices for the Flavour of a 1987 Cottage Kitchen
Instant coffee, the beverage your grandmother kept in a jar beside the kettle and the bag of powdered milk, has gone gourmet. Premium brands now offer "single-origin crystals," "freeze-dried tasting notes" and packaging in the muted earth-tone colour scheme that tells a shopper the price has tripled.
Canadian roasters say the new instant is real progress. One sachet carries hints of "dark cherry, cocoa and a Muskoka dock at dawn." Older Canadians tried it and reported hints of "instant coffee."
The shift makes a certain sense. Canadians already queue for twelve minutes at a drive-through to get coffee in under a minute. Instant coffee simply removes the queue and keeps the disappointment, which is efficient.
Retailers say the biggest growth is among young urban professionals, who have rediscovered the appeal of a drink that needs only a kettle, a mug and enough self-respect to call it a "pour-over alternative." A Toronto shop now runs an instant-coffee tasting flight for $14. Customers receive four small cups of hot water and four labelled envelopes, and are invited to "build the experience themselves."
Nutritionists and economists agree on one point: the drink is now best enjoyed slowly, mostly because each spoonful costs about as much as a litre of gas.
At press time, a cottage in Haliburton was listed for sale with its original 1980s jar of instant still in the cupboard. The realtor advertised it as a "vintage reserve," and it drew three offers over asking.