Instant Coffee

I guess this is becoming one of those food blogs I keep hearing about. First milk, and now coffee. Stay tuned for what will doubtless be my upcoming article on cornmeal. (Sneak preview: Not as good as flour.)

Instant coffee is the bomb. I'm not afraid to say it. Yes, it's not as "classy", or "good" as the fancy Hawaiian coffee that you like to swill. But you can't really afford that anyway. I guarantee that it's at least as good, cup for cup, as Folgers, or some other crummy coffee, and not much more expensive, but so much more versatile.

For one thing, you can add it to baked goods. Of course, you can brew coffee, and add the resulting liquid to your cake, but what if your cake has no water in it? What if the only liquid is eggs? Instant coffee is the only way to get a coffee-flavored cake. What if you are making tiramisu, and need intense coffee syrup? You can't brew ten cups of coffee in a cup of syrup. Instant coffee again.

And it's good for drinking, too. Brewing strong coffee is annoying. You need a minimum of water to dissolve all the coffee efficiently. Brewed coffee only gets so strong. But triple strength instant coffee is a tablespoon away. Even better, you don't need boiling water to make instant coffee. About 1/5 of the time, I burn my tongue when I can't wait any longer. But instant coffee dissolves in water that's merely hot, or in milk for that matter. I may just be reiterating the main selling point of instant coffee, but it bears repeating. Coffee when you want it is not a trivial thing.