People have been drinking coffee at least as far back as the 1500s when the Sufis of Yemen were known to have used it. Soon coffee houses sprung over Cairo, and from there, all over the world.
Instant coffee was invented in the late 1800s, and various processes led to the removal of the water to produce the instant coffee crystals. In 1938, the freeze-dried process of instant coffee was produced by Nescafe of Switzerland.
It is said that the next evolution in coffee was created by Eric Favre, working initially for Nestle company, in the development of the coffee capsule.
Favre and his Italian wife had one objective, to allow anyone at home to produce a great Italian espresso without muss or fuss.
Finding what they believed to be one of the best Italian espresso shops in Italy, Favre realized that the secret to Italian espresso was inserting a great amount of air into the coffee beans.
As a result of this aha moment, Favre invented the first truly practical coffee capsule.
Obtaining a patent for the same, Favre established his own Swiss-based factory Monodor S.A. in 1991. Monodor, as of the present has produced over 500 million coffee capsules under license.
Today, there are dozens of companies producing coffee capsules, some under Monodor. many not.
the use of coffee beans
The coffee bean industry has never been stronger. Today there are more than 2,000 coffee bean roasters in the US. To buy coffee beans online check this out.
It’s a great business, with most coffee roaster companies making profits of $250,000 per year and more.
Coffee roasting, unlike the production of spirits such as wine, does not require the expensive equipment, the expertise, and the expensive licenses required to roast coffee.
And companies such as Starbucks have whetted the appetite of coffee drinkers to try to create the gourmet coffee drinking experience at home and at the grocery store, regular old ground coffee is cheap. A can of Maxwell House for example typically costs
around $5.25 a pound, which amounts to around ten cents per cup.
But what is the fun in that? The vast majority of people who do not buy grocery store coffee but go to a local roaster, pay from $15 to $25 per pound. Let’s say you pay $20 per pound because you want the freshest and the tastiest coffee around.
At around 48 cups per pound, that means you will be spending around 41 cents per cup. By contrast, coffee capsules at Amazon are as cheap as 29 cents per capsule, and for a penny or two more you can get specialized coffees.
But doesn’t coffee made from roasted beans taste better?
The answer is possibly, but the truth is that coffee from coffee capsules is downright good.
You see, coffee is best when it is roasted. In fact, experts say your coffee begins to lose flavor after as little as 30 minutes.
Coffee roasted at a local shop may be fresh when it is packaged, but how long will it sit on the shelf before it is sold? A week? A month? Several months?
Alternatively, immediately after the coffee is roasted and cools down, the coffee for coffee capsules is ground into a blend.
One of the keys to coffee capsules is consistency. If you make 10 cups of coffee with a capsule and an automatic coffee machine, all 10 should taste the same. So grinding the coffee to the same consistency for all capsules is essential.
But as to taste, the coffee flavor released by heating the beans is hermetically sealed shortly after roasting, so there should be no question that the coffee from a coffee capsule tastes great.
Save time coffee capsules
Although it takes about the same total amount of time to make a cup of coffee with ground coffee beans, the various techniques for making the coffee involve you paying attention to how the water is poured over the coffee.
With a coffee machine and coffee capsules, you set it and just let it go. During the brewing time, you don’t have to watch the machine and can cook breakfast or attend to the children while waiting for your coffee to brew.
Another advantage is the no-mess operation. There is never a mess with coffee capsules, while often brewing your coffee with beans leads to overflow.
We’re not saying to brew coffee the old-fashioned way, but many busy couples simply do not have the time to brew their coffee other than with an automatic coffee machine and coffee capsules.