If you have instant coffee and a coffee maker then you might be wondering whether or not you can use instant coffee with a coffee maker.
This post will show you whether or not you can, if you should and alternative ways to make the coffee.
So, can you use instant coffee in a coffee maker? While it is possible to use instant coffee with a coffee maker it is highly recommended that you don’t. Coffee makers are designed to be used with ground coffee. A better alternative would be to just add hot water to the instant coffee yourself.
If you are going to try and use instant coffee with a coffee maker then there are some things that you should consider and there are better ways to go about making the coffee.
Using instant coffee in a coffee machine
Instant coffee is where coffee beans have been ground, brewed, frozen and then dried. The result of doing this is that if you add hot water to instant coffee it will dissolve in the water and leave you with a regular drink of coffee.
This makes instant coffee ideal for when you want to make coffee quickly and don’t want to have to spend much time cleaning things up. However, compared to using freshly ground coffee, the taste of the instant coffee will not be as good.
Ground coffee is where roasted coffee beans have been ground and nothing else has been done to the coffee.
Coffee makers are designed to heat water up, pour drips of water over ground coffee contained in a filter above a glass container, then the water will mix with the coffee and brewed coffee will fall into the glass container. Not all of the ground coffee will mix with the water so some will still be left in the paper filter.
You can watch the video below to see how coffee makers work.
If you use instant coffee instead of ground coffee to make the brewed coffee then all of the instant coffee will dissolve with the water. This will likely result in more of the coffee mixing with the water than usual causing the coffee to taste bad.
Instead, what you could do is use the coffee maker to heat the water up and then add the instant coffee to the hot water afterward.
Alternatively, you could heat the water using a pan or a kettle yourself and then add the instant coffee to it afterward. This would likely give you a better tasting coffee since you’ll be using the correct amount of water with the instant coffee and you’ll be using it the way that it is designed to be used.
Additionally, you could use ground coffee instead of instant coffee with the coffee maker. Coffee makers are designed to be used with ground coffee so this will likely allow you to make a better tasting coffee.
Ground coffee will also normally taste better than instant coffee anyway. This is because ground coffee will be fresher and you will have full control over the type of coffee beans that you will be using. Also drying and freezing the brewed coffee takes away a lot of the flavor when making instant coffee this means that ground coffee will have more flavor to it as well.
If you plan on using ground coffee then you can either buy it pre-ground or you can buy the coffee beans and grind them yourself.
The advantages of buying the coffee beans pre-ground are that you will be saving time since you won’t need to grind them yourself and they will be ground the right amount for making brewed coffee.
The advantages of buying the beans and grinding them yourself are that you’ll have full control over the types of beans that you use which will impact the taste of the coffee and you can grind them to the fineness that you want.
If you grind the coffee beans more finely then it will normally give a stronger coffee and if you grind them less finely then it will give a weaker coffee.
Related Questions
Can you use espresso coffee in a coffee maker? It is possible to use espresso coffee in a coffee maker. However, espresso coffee is much finer than ground coffee this will likely result in the coffee tasting very strong. It would be recommended to use ground coffee instead with a coffee maker.
Can you use instant coffee in a French press? You can use instant coffee in a French press. However, French presses are designed to be used with ground coffee so it would be better to do it using ground coffee. Instead of using a French press you could just heat the water and add it straight to a cup containing the instant coffee.
