How to Make Instant Coffee?

#1: Post by **abhishah** » February 14th, 2016, 3:25 pm

Hi All

I have been pondering about how the entire process of making instant coffee takes place for a while now. I had seen a videos years ago on youtube, of a person doing it for Tv Channel, where he had boiled the water first then he had dehydrated the beans, don't quite remember the process exactly.

I would really appreciate if someone could share some insight as to how the process takes place and if i could do a small batch at home to experiment and see and compare the results.

Cant wait to start a new project

Thanks

#2: Post by **pcroque** » February 14th, 2016, 3:39 pm

Well, there's always this method. I'm not sure you'd want to repeat this process, but you gotta love the use of the hammer.

#3: Post by **Marcelnl** » February 14th, 2016, 4:10 pm

Taste wise I think you want to experiment with freeze drying...sublimating the ice will leave you with the coffee residue...not sure how easy that is at home https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeze-drying

February 14th, 2016, 5:28 pm

If you want to make something similar to what they sell in the store then I think you've out or luck since you will need commercial equipment to do it.

#5: Post by **Marcelnl** » February 14th, 2016, 6:16 pm

The bigger question for me is why you would want to make something similar to what you can buy....instant just is no good..

#6: Post by **pcroque** » February 14th, 2016, 7:34 pm

These folks claim to be the "only in-home freeze dryer manufacturer in the world". But a home unit is $3,499 (on sale). A little steep if all you want is instant coffee.

#7: Post by **jpender** » February 14th, 2016, 7:43 pm

Marcelnl wrote:The bigger question for me is why you would want to make something similar to what you can buy....instant just is no good..

I can't speak for abhishah but as a backpacker I would love to have better instant coffee. Starbucks has already proved that better instant is possible. Unfortunately their instant coffee tastes like Starbucks coffee. But I believe that better instant from other beans/roasts is possible. How much better is hard to say since nobody is doing it.

A DIY home lyophilizer has always been a pipe dream of mine since it would be useful for preparing backpacking food. If I had one I would sure give it a try with the best coffee I can brew. But I think it would be a difficult project to make one.

Another approach that might work would be to attempt to freeze distill coffee to some sort of concentrate. You wouldn't get a powder but it would be denser.

#8: Post by **jpender** » February 14th, 2016, 7:48 pm

pcroque wrote:Well, there's always this method. I'm not sure you'd want to repeat this process, but you gotta love the use of the hammer.

I've dehydrated lots of brewed and filtered coffee in an oven at about 215°F in order to measure concentration and extraction. And, just for the heck of it, I've rehydrated some of this in water. The reconstituted coffee tastes like the worst instant imaginable. It's really horrible. There's a reason even inexpensive instant uses lower temperature drying methods.

#9: Post by **FirstBetta** » February 14th, 2016, 8:31 pm

Reading between the lines in the Harvestright site - you would need to freeze the coffee for a good length of time while subjecting it to a hard vacuum. It would seem to me to be a real problem if you didn't use the their machine. They say the process includes an overnight dwell of the dehydrate. Constructing a container for a hard vacuum even small enough for a beaker of coffee is not an easy task, air will find any opening destroying the vacuum by sucking air from the environment.

#10: Post by **pcroque** » February 14th, 2016, 10:43 pm

Here's how to make a home freeze-dryer for around $200 (allegedly). It looks like a lot of work.