I know, I know, it’s probably a cringe-worthy topic, BUT I want to know how you make your instant coffee.
Moccona #10 - two heaped teaspoons in a ‘standard mug’, no milk, no sugar …
One the rare occasions that I make instant coffee, I use a metric size china cup - one teaspoon coffee - two sugars - boiling water up to 3/4 of the cup - the rest full cream milk.
Aldi decaffeinated 3/4 boiling water and small amounts of milk no sugar. Medium to high strength
Moccona decaf, one flat-ish spoon, hot water (not boiling) to about 5/8 of the cup or mug (mostly a mug), and pure cream in at the last.
Re: water temperature.
Instant coffee is a popular way of making a cup of coffee because it’s quick and easy, but its taste depends on how the coffee beans have been prepared from the start; the water temperature we add to our cup isn’t very important, it can range from hot to cold water/milk.
Even if our trusted kettle could boil to 100C, as soon as it stops the water temperature drops within second, and when we pour into our cup and add cold milk it drops even further. Not much of a chance to scorch the granules as the Nescafé labels are so fond of telling us.
I don’t drink coffee, but Mr Z has his daily instant with 1 teaspoon of coffee, 200ml boiling water and one of sugar or a sweetener tablet with 70ml full cream milk, in that order.
He regularly changes his coffee brand; what tasted good initially, becomes distateful over time (going stale?) He is currently trying Nescafe cappachino sachets with no sugar, but added milk.
1 heaped teaspoon of Moccona medium roast (5)mostly filled with water and and a glug of milk. Not a dash! In a large mug. Much prefer instant.
Most cafe coffee is too strong and /or bitter for me.
One teaspoon of Nestle gold, same of sugar, and then the milk.
Give that mix a good whisk in the cup, and then add the boiled water. You get a cappuccino like effect. And for an evening extra, a splash of Scotch.
That’s basically a caffe’ corretto, which doesn’t mean a correct coffee but a coffee corrected by the addition of a liquor.
Traditionally it’s a one shot espresso with a small amount of distilled spirits added. The Anise liquor is a popular one, but also Grappa, Rum, Brandy…
Not usually a white coffee, as the milk might curdle.
I like to think of it as a scotch whiskey version of Irish coffee. Without the whipped cream on top.
The Irish coffee with the luscious cream on top reminds me of a coffee I love, the Vienna coffee, the one with whipped cream on top 
This is a very personal issue for everyone. Raised in a family of coffee shop owners I attended numerous courses on coffee and tea making. We were told about the changes in milk taste for a standard pasteurised full cream milk as the temperature increased.
I appears that the milk changes with each 10C step with milk tasting normal at 36C. They pointed out that pouring milk into heat would scald milk and give a different taste to the same amount of hot/boiling water poured into milk at 10C.
The demonstration of this was to take the temp of milk and pour a small amount of boiling water into the milk and take the temp, then slowly add more boiling water and continue to take the temp until completed, the drink got to a max of 72C.
The reverse was to pour milk into boiled water. Starting at 93C the milk dropped the temp down thorough the scaled temp range to get to 72C, meaning that the milk was almost all scalded and gave a different taste.
So all instant coffee made by me has the milk in first, for my partner it is almost 50% of the cup volume and is full cream. Then one teaspoon of Maccona (5) and then let it stand while the kettle is filled and gets to a rolling boil and then poured into the teapot for my cup of tea (real tea leaves not bags) and then the cup with the coffee.
The water must just get to a rolling boil not a vigorous boil as that will deplete the oxygen in the water.
Put milk in first, then instant coffee, sugar then hot water. If you put coffee, sugar, hot water makes a burnt coffee flavour. By putting in milk first, the instant coffee doesn’t stick to the cup/mug bottom, esp when the cup is wet.
The taste difference I find between adding milk before or after is more pronounced with full cream versus low fat milk. So I am in the milk first, boiled water later.
And don’t get me started on UHT long life milk, which has been pre-boiled and to me undrinkable.
I much prefer instant coffee over pod, machine or coffee shop coffee. Not a very popular point of view, but I like it and it’s much cheaper, so win-win!
I use Nescafé espresso blend as it is stronger than Blend 43 so I use less, therefore it lasts longer. I also stock up when it’s on special.
My morning coffee is a cup of Hilo milk heated in the microwave for 2 minutes, then a heaped teaspoon of coffee granules stirred in. I much prefer this to a bought flat white or latte. To me, it’s never bitter, too strong or too weak. A bit like a Goldilocks coffee!
Though it does make me resent paying coffee shop prices when I go out with friends, for a coffee that I don’t enjoy as much as my own home made.
A “normal” coffee throughout the day is a small teaspoon of coffee granules in the cup, followed by a large splash of Hilo milk (up to a quarter of the cup size), then topped up with boiling water from the kettle.
I used to drink numerous cups a day (Now I drink no coffee whatsoever). But, my preferred Instant Coffee recipe was:Add a dollop of Nestles Skinny Evaporated Milk to the mug and a heaped teaspoon of Moccopan Instant. Stir like mad as you add boiling water. No sugar for me.
Last week I stayed a night in a motel with my 14 year old coffee-drinking granddaughter. I made her an instant coffee. Said to her, ‘This is all the coffee I used to know. I had my first at 16.’ The year was 1960.
She rolled her eyes and said, ‘Surely you had coffee, and a machine?’
She hated the cup I made for her.
Sorry, just can’t use instant coffee! The only time I have had it in many years was when my Coffee Machine broke down. I had some Nestle sachets and mixed them with hot, not boiling water. They really didn’t taste like coffee, so I switched to tea until I got the machine fixed,
Yes almost certain I can taste the difference. Preference by far is heaped teaspoon of Moccona Indulgence, hi lo milk, just boiled but not boiling water.
1,1/2 teaspoon moccona 13 , 2,1/2 teaspoons sugar, nearly full hot water, top up with full cream milk
