Your argument isn’t making sense. Tea bags are not the parallel to instant coffee. Powdered tea is the equivalent.
I agree. This is why I seldom use my drip coffee maker: On my own, I don’t drink a pot fast enough to keep it from going bitter while it sits on the warming plate, so I usually just turn the machine off when the pot is full and reheat whatever I want in the microwave. Last time, I filled a Mason jar with the leftover coffee and kept it in the fridge until I wanted some and then took it out and nuked it. Not ideal perhaps, but far better than letting it get bitter and go to waste.
Any properly made coffee will go bitter if left black after brewing. If you are drinking it black, then you need to drink it up within 20 minutes or so. Otherwise, put cream in it when it’s done brewing and it will stay drinkable a bit longer.
Any properly made coffee will taste burnt or charred if left on heat for more than a few minutes after it’s ready.
Coffee needs to be consumed soon after it’s made.
It’s not though, due to the different ingredients. Also, teabags take roughly the same time to make tea with as instant coffee does, so they are as instant.
But if you insist on granulated being the distinction for “instant,” rather than preparation time, if someone tried to argue that granulated tea was nice, just different to tea bags or tea leaves, I’d accept that as an argument. Especially if they had access to different granulated tea than I did. I’d even try it if I could. The only granulated tea I’ve seen here is truly vile, really undrinkable (and I’m not fussy about drinks - this stuff floats to the surface), but there might well be something that’s better. We drink more instant coffee in the UK - there are multitudes of brands - and that has probably lead to it being nicer than instant coffee in the US.
Perhaps the same could happen with tea, given a big enough market for it. I’m sceptical due to the different ingredients but I’d definitely give it a go.
To be fair, instant coffee is a LOT better than it used to be. Still not great, and definitely nothing really comparable to say… fresh-ground quality beans brewed in a good coffeemaker or french press. And in the US, you’re more likely to end up with something decent, especially among the younger crowd.
I suspect that instant coffee served in an average British home would be comparably ghastly to whatever tea would be served in your average American home (prob. Lipton tea-bags). But the coffee in the US and the tea in the UK would be decent, because that’s what people drink in those places.
[QUOTE=MarcusF;17842004ThelmaLou: Because I treat them as different drinks I hate the “whole bean instant” or “fusion instant” stuff that has appeared recently. To me it doesn’t taste like real ground coffee, it just tastes like not so great instant with some muddy coffee grounds in the bottom to spit out :dubious:[/QUOTE]
You took the words out of my mouth - although I get through a fair amount of Millicano at work, I’m not convinced that it is anything more than regular instant coffee in a posh tin, that leaves some authentic-looking traces of coffee residue floating about in the cup. Blindfold me and I’m not sure I could tell the difference.
I’ve had a few kinds of UK instant coffee, staying in hotels and at the UK office of the company I used to work for, and it’s just as bad as US instant coffee to my palate. Granted, I haven’t done exhaustive research into UK instant coffees so there could be a brand that is genuinely good, but those that I’ve had were touted by the UK people I know as “really quite good” and to me they weren’t good.
I have an Australian friend who also claimed that Australian instant coffee was much better than US instant coffee and all I needed to do was try it to be a convert. So she brought some back from a trip home and I tried it. Nope, still tastes instant and not pleasant to me.
I’ll agree, though, that a lot of US drip coffee is dreadful, in both restaurants and homes. My mom always marveled at how my coffee tasted so much better than hers, even when we used the same coffee. She didn’t use enough coffee (you want more rather than less to avoid bitterness from over-extracting the coffee), left it on the warmer to continue cooking and then (shudder) would microwave it if it got cool. Restaurants are guilty of all those drip coffee crimes.
I used to not dislike UK instant to not decline a cup if offered but, after drinking good ground coffee for a few years I can’t stand instant coffee. I’m also quite particular about the type of ground coffee I’ll drink, and Starbuxs is found wanting in that area. I enjoyed an espresso from Starbux once, maybe they’d run out of the normal beans? I find Costa usually provide a decent cup.