Coffee Snobs Are Shelling Out $3.25 for a Jolt of Instant

Benji Walklet recently reviewed the instant java sold by Los Angeles startup Waka Coffee. Walklet, who runs the Coffee Concierge blog, liked it but got a second opinion from a trusted critic—his wife, who has been known to compare coffee she doesn’t like to gasoline. “It passed my wife’s taste test,” he says, “and that’s really saying something.” Walklet typically drinks the real thing but stocked up on a 35-serving pack of Waka instant. “If the day gets off to a slow start or we’re in a hurry, it’s great to have instant coffee,” he says. “I wouldn’t buy Nescafe or Folgers or Maxwell House. That’s the snob in me talking.”

Instant coffee, often relegated to brownie recipes and steak rubs, is making a comeback and even winning grudging approval from connoisseurs. A handful of startups including Waka, Sudden Coffee and Swift Cup Coffee have improved the taste and are attracting a new generation of convenience seekers who are too young to associate the product with the stuff their grandparents drank. They don’t mind paying up either: The Chicago-based coffee chain Intelligentsia sells a four-pack of Colombian instant for $13, or about $3.25 a serving.