We may not have invented instant coffee but we were the first to get it right. And, nearly 70 years later, NESCAFÉ remains the world’s favourite, we British drink a massive 15000 cups of NESCAFÉ every minute (Source IRI 52 w/e 24 March 2007).
At last, a drinkable instant coffee
NESCAFÉ was first launched on 1 April 1938 in Switzerland.
It wasn’t the first instant coffee. A Japanese chemist called Kato patented a process for making soluble coffee powder in 1903 in Chicago. He was followed in 1909 by the Englishman, George C Washington, who made instant coffee powder commercially available for the first time.
Then, in 1930, the Brazilian Coffee Institute decided that a good instant coffee that would retain its flavour would stimulate demand and help reduce Brazil’s huge coffee surplus.
So they approached Nestlé. Seven years, the Nestlé research team under Max Morgenthaler came up with the perfect solution – an instant coffee created by a new spray drying process. They called it NESCAFÉ.
The instant effect
Within a year, the Nestlé factory in Hayes, West London was producing the new instant coffee. When America entered World War II in 1941, the entire production of NESCAFÉ’s US plant, about a million cases a year, was reserved solely for the boys in uniform.
NESCAFÉ’s popularity continued to grow. In the 1950s, with the advent of coffee bar culture, coffee was the ‘in’ drink. In 1955, in line with the more adventurous spirit of the times, NESCAFÉ launched the distinctively continental taste of Blend 37.
Since then, the NESCAFÉ range has continued to grow. The milder Fine Blend appeared in 1972, followed in 1984 by Gold Blend, the world’s first premium freeze-dried coffee. The ‘ultra premium’ NESCAFÉ Alta Rica followed, a full-bodied after-dinner coffee from grade A Latin American beans, along with Cap Colombie which owes its mild and smooth aroma to the exclusive use of Colombian beans.
Facing the future
NESCAFÉ continues to innovate, launching decaffeinated and reduced-caffeine varieties in 1986 and unveiling its first Fairtrade certified coffee ,NESCAFÉ Partners’ Blend, in 2005, as part of a long-term commitment to develop sustainable agricultural practices, specifically in Ethiopia and El Salvador.