History of Instant Coffee (Nescafe)The beginnings of Nescafe can be traced all the way back to 1930, when the Brazilian government, first approached Nestlé. The agency, Brazilian Coffee Institute seeks Nestle to preserve the huge coffee surpluses, by develop coffee that was soluble in hot water.
Coffee guru, Max Morgenthaler, and his team set out immediately to find a way of producing a quality cup of coffee that could be made simply by adding water, yet would retain the coffee’s natural flavor.
After seven long years of research in Nestle Swiss laboratories, they found the answer. The new product was named Nescafé – a combination of Nestlé and café. Nestle introduced Nescafe, the first commercially successful soluble coffee, in Switzerland, on April 1st, 1938. The company applied the technology at its Hayes factory, west London.
Instant coffee processing was not a new idea; it was invented by a Japanese chemist in 1901 and had been marketed and sold by other companies without success. Nestle revolutionized the way instant coffee was made. Nestle developed a new process for dehydrating the concentrated coffee which vastly improved the quality. In entailed spraying a fine mist of the solution into a heated tower where the droplets turned to powder almost instantly.
For the first half of the next decade, however, World War II hindered its success in Europe. Nescafe was soon exported to France, Great Britain and the USA. Its popularity grew rapidly through the rest of the decade. It was so popular that the entire production of its US plant was reserved for military use.
By the 1950s, coffee had become the beverage of choice for teenagers, who were flocking to coffeehouses to hear the new rock ’n’ roll music.
Over the years the company has kept the emphasis on innovation, introducing pure soluble coffee (1952) solely using roast coffee beans, freeze dried soluble coffee (1965) and coffee granules (1967). In 1994 Nestle invented the full aroma process, which improved the quality of instant coffee. Such innovations have made sure that Nescafe has remained the world’s leading coffee. It is also the third most valuable brand in the entire drinks sector, after Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
History of Instant Coffee (Nescafe)
