"Liquid Coffee": Abomination or Revelation? You decide...

[Gentleman in Japan]

here in Japan they have a variety of coffee concentrates. They are actually pretty decent IMHO. I have used it a couple of times. before jumping in the car in the morn, scoop some ice into my flask of choice, pour over a shot of concentrate(which has been chilled in the fridge), splash of milk to taste and off. Tastes alright tbh.
Granted could just use an actual shot of espresso from a nespresso shot

but just as others have said, this is nothing new. Maybe someone should tell the "new kids on the block" at Dunkin to do a quick google search as part of their due diligence lol

 

[Dobric]

I remember when I was little, my grandparents would buy raw coffee beans, they would roas them and grind them, smell was amaizing...
Nowdays everything is instant, that is one of the reasons I have chosen DE shaving, to slow down. Even my watch is analog...
In Montenegro we usualy 99% of the time make Turkish coffe, we boil it and when you drink it, there is some sludge remaining at the bottom of the cup

 

[TOVT]

There were also young people who felt intimidated by the whole at-home coffee making experience, he said. Some Gen Zers don’t know how to brew coffee. Others might not be interested in making the investment in the equipment.

The thing with GenZ'ers is most are programmed and peer pressured into not accepting or doing anything the way previous generations have done them. They just come up with nonsensical excuses for why they don't do something.

I can see a use for these liquid coffee concentrates if one isn't into the ritual of coffee making. Family trips, vacation rentals, house guests, road tripping, camping at festivals or events, etc.

 

[Old Hippie]

I've had some concentrates and instants that weren't terrible. Context means a lot, though -- sitting in cold rain in the Cascades trying to run an Army map course all-day exercise, and that warm brown sludge from the MCI packet was a real lifesaver. Incentive to make it back to civilization and get some real coffee, if nothing else.

I have made my own at times, simply soaking a bunch of ground coffee in cold water for a few days in the fridge. Frankly, too much bother. I'll grind it and brew it and drink it.

I remember in the early '70s when coffee still came in three-pound cans and there was a shortage for some reason. People were trying all kinds of things. Chicory, barley, heavily toasted bread crusts, burnt rice; people even went so far as to try tea! My dad went to the feed store and got some barley, which he then roasted in the oven. Once it was cool he ground it and made a pot of "coffee" with it. He and I agreed that if you wanted a hot drink it would do, but aside from tasting vaguely like coffee it was kinda pointless.

When my mother came home from work he poured her a cup and asked what she thought. She gave him her trademark dead-level stare and said, "I've had better coffee." Let all the air outta his balloon just like that. But life is compromise. Rather than throw out the remaining (large) amount of roasted barley, Dad ground it up and used it to cut the coffee half-and-half. After that the crisis was over. But the companies never again made three-pound cans of coffee.

O.H.

 

[rajagra2]

I'm just counting down to the inevitable "TikTok Challenge" that has kids chugging a full container of the stuff and getting horribly sick...

What say you?

Um, yes. The kids.
I'm not tempted. No, honestly, I'm not.

Who am I kidding? I would skip the TikTok part though. No need to display such depravity in public.

On a serious note though, I envy my grandparents' generation. Our lives are becoming increasingly abstract and artificial and the problem is that if you're born into it you don't even realise it. The future looks bleak to me.

 

[CzechCzar]

How Smucker will use liquid coffee to win over Gen Z

A new Dunkin’ product that makes hot or cold beverages in seconds hits shelves in July. The company says it will unlock its future in the space.

www.fooddive.com

Really - "liquid coffee" in the title? I mean, what kind of lazy writing is that? Would it be so hard to write "coffee concentrate" or "concentrated coffee" or "java juice" something a bit more clever? Anyway...

***

“She said, ‘Well, there’s no way I could wait for the K-Cup to finish brewing. That way takes way too long. I need something faster than that,’” Stanziano recalled.

There were also young people who felt intimidated by the whole at-home coffee making experience, he said. Some Gen Zers don’t know how to brew coffee. Others might not be interested in making the investment in the equipment.

***

Liquid coffee concentrate under the Dunkin’ brand. The product will be in 31-ounce shelf-stable bottles, which will be on shelves next to coffee beans, grounds, K-Cups and mixes at the grocery store. Consumers will purchase it and dilute it with whatever they want — hot or cold water, dairy products, ice. A regular strength brew can be achieved with liquid at a 1-to-1 ratio.

***

I understand this as a product to entice people who are impatient or intimidated; to each their own. I'm just counting down to the inevitable "TikTok Challenge" that has kids chugging a full container of the stuff and getting horribly sick...

What say you?

TikTokers will dare each other to inject it intravenously

Chicory in coffee.

yes. this is the only proper answer.

I remember when I was little, my grandparents would buy raw coffee beans, they would roas them and grind them, smell was amaizing...
Nowdays everything is instant, that is one of the reasons I have chosen DE shaving, to slow down. Even my watch is analog...
In Montenegro we usualy 99% of the time make Turkish coffe, we boil it and when you drink it, there is some sludge remaining at the bottom of the cup

Love Turkish coffee.

 

[luvmysuper]

TikTokers will dare each other to inject it intravenously

yes. this is the only proper answer.

Love Turkish coffee.

On a related note, Smuckers (the Jelly people who are now liquid concentrate coffee people) just bought the Hostess brand.
I expect PB&J filled Twinkies before long.

 

[JohnG]

Liquid coffee?

 

[manimal]

Onyx Coffee Lab has started offering these as well but they call them "extractions". I've used and like the beans that they are using for the current offerings ("Monarch" and "Southern Weather") but I don't have any interest in the concentrates.

 

[BrightSideBob]

I feel like if people have so little patience that they can't even wait a minute or two for a keurig brewer to do its thing, they could just get a jar of taster's choice.

 

[Larry C in Texas]

I'm a big fan of coffee concentrate for my morning iced coffee. I like a half-caff version, so I use a caff French Roast "somewhat concentrated" and a highly concentrated decaf and then add milk and a bit of sweetener. It has taken me two years to hone in on the two brands that do best for me, which shall not be named here because that's not the purpose of the post. In a 20oz cup, I put around 5oz of French Roast concentrate and a tablespoon of the decaf super concentrated. Milk and ice fill out the drink. The beauty of the concentrates for iced coffee is that I can make it as strong as I like. Plus, the cost is about 20% of what I would pay at a coffee place. YMMV, of course.

I never use the concentrates for hot coffee. That's what grinders and pour-over carafes are for.

 

[Columbo]

Fast coffee?

Back in the day, they called it Nescafe. And you wouldn’t find a drop of liquid in a truckload of it.

I guess someone has to reinvent the wheel every so many years to show how much smarter they are than their parents.