In Guatemala in 1906, an Englishman named Washington observed the formation of coffee powder on the spout of a silver urn. After some experimentation, he began marketing instant coffee in 1909.
At the request of the Brazilian Coffee Institute, Nestle had begun research in developing new products to help resolve Brazil’s coffee surplus in 1930.
After seven long years of research in Nestle Swiss laboratories, they found the answer. The new product was named Nescafe – a combination of Nestlé and café.
Nestle introduced Nescafe, the first commercially successful soluble coffee, in Switzerland, on April 1st, 1938. The company applied the technology at its Hayes factory, west London.
Nestle developed a new process for dehydrating the concentrated coffee which vastly improved the quality. In entailed spraying a fine mist of the solution into a heated tower where the droplets turned to powder almost instantly.
The name Nescafe became the generic European term for American coffee, which is thinner-bodied and less robust than European and Middle Eastern coffees.
The advent of World War II interfered with some of these production facilities, but a major expansion of instant coffee production was made in the USA at the insistence of the US military.
Broad acceptance of Nescafe as a military ration by millions of GI’s encouraged Nestle to expand its post-war production capabilities, so new plants were built in Freehold, New Jersey and Ripon, California in 1948.
By the 1950s, coffee had become the beverage of choice for teenagers, who were flocking to coffeehouses to hear the new rock ’n’ roll music.
Over the years the company has kept the emphasis on innovation, introducing pure soluble coffee (1952) solely using roast coffee beans.
Based on success of Nescafe, the company develop a freeze dried coffee in 1966 called Taster’s Choice.
In 1994 Nestle invented the full aroma process, which improved the quality of instant coffee. Such innovations have made sure that Nescafe has remained the world’s leading coffee. It is also the third most valuable brand in the entire drinks sector.
History of Nescafe
