What is the difference between instant coffee and cafe?

Before you learned about espresso, pour-over coffee, and other coffee knowledge, what do you think coffee should taste like?

instant coffee--

I believe that many people's first contact with coffee comes from a cup of instant coffee. In daily life, many people like to drink a cup of coffee to refresh themselves, especially office workers. Among them, instant coffee is the most common one. The advantage is that it is convenient and easy to operate. You only need to add hot water to brew it.

A cup of instant coffee can be made in just a few seconds. It is simply a gift from God for lazy people.

In terms of taste, after mixing various additives, it seems to be very sweet and soft, more like a cup of milk tea. In fact, instant coffee often uses over-roasted low-quality coffee beans. During the roasting process, the aroma of coffee has basically been lost due to long storage time. Therefore, many manufacturers use additives such as flavors during the production process to balance the bitter and burnt taste caused by over-roasting and the coffee aroma lost during the production process.

We know that the flavor of coffee beans is constantly volatile and changing from the moment they are roasted. If we store them in a normal sealed container, the flavor of coffee that has been stored for more than 2 weeks is completely different from that of freshly roasted coffee.

It is conceivable that the original aroma and flavor of instant coffee beans have long been lost after being subjected to multiple high-temperature operations.

Putting aside its convenience, long-term drinking of instant coffee is harmful to health. This is also the disadvantage of instant coffee.

After starting with instant coffee and gradually learning about coffee,

Regular coffee shops,

The direction of ordinary coffee shops is more commercial. Whether it is from the decoration style of the store or the development direction of the entire store, they all hope to open more branches and ultimately make profits.

These cafes all have at least one espresso machine as standard, but they not only sell coffee, but also drinks other than coffee, such as smoothies, fruit tea, etc. Some cafes also take simple meals with you, but rarely have boutique coffee.

Some of the coffee beans used by these cafes are purchased from various suppliers. They do not roast the beans themselves, so the coffee in most ordinary cafes will not taste much different.

Starbucks, Costa, Pacific Coffee... have many branches around the world. They pursue uniform and standardized coffee quality. The purpose is to provide customers who go to different stores with coffee that is made with standard techniques and tastes the same.

Therefore, their coffee beans are all roasted in one place and then distributed to each store. This process will surely cause the flavor of the coffee beans to be lost, so they choose to roast the beans a little darker to preserve the flavor of the beans for a longer time, so you can see that the beans in their stores are basically dark roasted coffee beans.

But it must be said that Starbucks stands out from ordinary coffee shops. Whether in terms of operation or beverage renewal and promotion. The goal of many ordinary coffee shops is to surpass Starbucks.

Currently, Starbucks Reserve stores basically have Reserve coffee beans and hand-brewed coffee. In addition, the decoration of the store will draw some coffee-related knowledge pictures on the wall. For a coffee shop, I personally feel that it is the responsibility to spread coffee knowledge and coffee culture.

From instant coffee to regular coffee shops, to independent coffee shops——

What kind of cafe can be called an independent cafe?

Independent coffee shops are relatively niche compared to ordinary coffee shops. Each independent coffee shop has its own "temperament". Independent coffee shops are not big, and their decoration style is relatively simple but unique. They are "hidden" in small corners of the city, waiting for you to discover them carefully.

When you walk into an independent coffee shop, you will find that every corner of the shop is carefully decorated by the store manager. From the menu, you can see that the shop only sells coffee, and some of them have handmade desserts made by the shop.

The menu is handwritten, and the hand-brewed coffee beans on the menu are updated frequently to ensure that the beans provided to customers are fresh. They all pay more attention to the flavor of the coffee itself, the quality of the coffee beans, and the "user experience".

For example, when you order a cup of coffee, if it is Italian coffee, the barista will make a beautiful coffee art, also known as latte art. Some coffee shops will also ask you if you like a more fruity or mellow Italian coffee. Provide Italian beans for customers to choose from and try to make the taste that satisfies customers.

The coffee liquid and milk are perfectly blended together, and the simple pattern may be a heart, tulip or leaf. If the barista happens to be good at latte art, he may draw a special combination. They usually tell the customer to enjoy the coffee as soon as possible when serving it, because the taste of coffee will be affected if it is left for a long time, and the temperature will also change.

The first sip will be the moment when the milk foam, milk and coffee blend best.

As for beans, most coffee shops roast their own beans and display a small coffee roasting machine in the store. They usually have their own original Italian blended beans or single-origin beans, and each one is marked with the coffee bean’s “identity card”.

Such as its origin, estate, processing method and corresponding flavor description.

If it is hand-brewed coffee, the barista will introduce you to the origin of the beans and the flavor of the coffee you will drink while brewing the coffee.

When many people first come into contact with single-origin coffee, they may hear baristas or coffee lovers say:

"Well, this bean has a chocolate flavor, a nut flavor, a blueberry flavor, a durian flavor... It's very mellow and has a lot of confusing words."

And all kinds of flavors you never thought you could taste in coffee.

In fact, this is also its charm. Gradually, you will find that after communicating with baristas and coffee lovers for a long time, and after drinking more single-origin coffee, you can really taste these flavors.

Then you will find that once you get into the coffee trap, you will be addicted to it. A cup of delicious single origin coffee can instantly make people feel good.