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Sometimes I find myself in situations where instant coffee is the only thing available. How hot should the water be when I make it? I'm in Britain, so boil water with an electric kettle. Should I pour just off the boil, or let it wait a bit to cool down?

fredley
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1 Answers1

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There's an answer to this question at Seasoned Advice: see What water temperature should be used for instant coffee?

A brief summary, taken from @PatrickSebastien's answer:

  • Use water at whatever temperature you like to drink your coffee at, or
  • Use water just below boiling, around 95-99 degrees Celsius (~205-210 F).

Other articles like this one from WikiHow also recommend using filtered water that is just off the boil.

See also that same SA answer, and this question, for a discussion and additional context about how instant coffee powder is produced.

Community
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Anthony Pham
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    Good find; thanks for finding and posting that SA question and the other link. Your WikiHow link was broken, and some other things weren't clear; I took the liberty of trimming your answer down to the essentials. I hope you don't mind. +1 for the good find. – hoc_age Feb 20 '15 at 16:47
  • Personal experience - Using just off the boil led to bitterness with a new style of instant coffee (https://www.suddencoffee.com), which is prepared differently than traditional instant coffee. The combination of dissolving the instant grounds in a few tsp of cold water, then adding hot water 1 minute off the boil was much better. – Taylor D. Edmiston Aug 19 '16 at 04:02