There is a widespread opinion among gourmets that instant coffee is incomparable in quality and taste to natural coffee. Instant coffee, they say, if you do not take into account the benefits and harms, loses to natural coffee in many other respects. It is necessary to understand the reason for such statements and whether they correspond to reality.
How is instant coffee made and what is it?
Instant coffee is obtained from natural beans using various technological processes. Manufacturers no longer keep the recipes for its production secret.
To make the “elixir of vivacity” tasty, aromatic and truly energizing, the Robusta variety is used to make instant coffee.
The shape of such grains is more round, they grow on the tips of tree branches. When the grains are collected, they need to be processed: first fried, then crushed. The crushed mixture is poured with hot water and then dried. It turns out to be a kind of powder. This will be instant coffee.
Today, picky consumers prefer to buy freeze-dried or granulated coffee rather than powder. The freeze-dried drink retains the maximum beneficial properties contained in the beans. In this case, the powder obtained from the grains is subject to further technological processing of the powder. If the crystals are frozen and dried in a vacuum, freeze-dried coffee is obtained. To obtain a granulated drink, the powder is moistened in a special way (using steam). Whether it is freeze-dried or granulated coffee, ground or instant, its calorie content is the same - up to 2 kcal per serving.
Instant coffee brands - leaders and outsiders in popularity among Russian citizens
Thanks to massive advertising on TV, most Russians have come to believe that waking up in the morning without a cup of hot and invigorating drink means ruining your whole day , abandoning a familiar and important ritual (similarly for citizens of the USA and Ukraine, Germany and Belarus, Azerbaijan and France). After all, it takes a minimum of time to prepare, but how coffee lifts your mood for the whole day, Evgeniy Olkhansky, a well-known Canadian financial expert at the Masterforex-V Academy, commented on the situation. This is truly the highest level of professionalism in promoting an entire niche product market, noted by our advertising specialists and services for coffee, chocolate, beer and a number of other goods that have suddenly become human necessities. But PR for specific coffee brands that are popular among Russians is much more interesting for marketers. The “Exchange Leader” rating of the popularity of TM instant coffee in Russia can be presented in the form of the following table for Yandex search queries, explained Evgeny Olkhansky:
As can be seen from the table, there are two leaders in the Russian instant coffee market - Nescafe and Jacobs, which are significantly ahead of their competitors. What are the features and differences of advertising and marketing promotion of each TM?
Nescafe is the world's company, which over its more than eighty-year history has become not only the largest brand of instant coffee, but also one of the most popular among Russians, ranking first in Yandex search queries.
The advantages of Nescafe over Jacobs are that: 1. Search engines search for specific brands and varieties of Nescafe instant coffee, and not melodies, songs, etc.: - Nescafe coffee - 2339 search queries in month - nescafe imax - 1377 - nescafe gold - 1182 - nescafe thick - 1100 - nescafe longce thick - 1086 - nescafe imax - 748 - nescafe gold - 714 - nescafe classic - 443 - nescafe espresso - 242 - nescafe classic - 224 - nescafe espresso — 191 2. It is one of the world's largest industrial giants, Nestle , whose shares are listed on the stock exchange, and, as can be seen from the graph, have a stable bullish trend: the price per share is $65.94, explained analysts at the brokerage company LionStone Investment (included into the major league of forex brokers of the Masterforex-V Academy)
Nescafe lags behind Jacobs (Jacobs) - in promoting its TM, namely in PR (much less mention in the media), lack of impact on the mind in parallel with the impact on the senses (television advertising or cups with the Nescafe logo) Jacobs (manufacturer and owner of the TM - famous, having a 100-year history of producing the best varieties of coffee) - since 1994, it has been in first place in the ranking of popularity among instant coffee brands in Russia. What’s interesting, experts note, Jacobs is the leader as a brand in terms of the Jacobs Monarch TM (5021 requests), and for certain varieties of its instant coffee its leading position can hardly be called indisputable if you see the data for the following search queries: - Jacobs Monarch 5021 - Jacobs Americano 644 - jacobs monarch millicano 379 - song from Jacobs advertising 1242 Jacobs varieties include several varieties that “have their own special notes and only connoisseurs of real coffee can truly appreciate the velvety taste and unforgettable aroma,” the advertisement says. Expert conclusion : Jacobs has ambitious plans to overtake Nescafe in popularity among brands of instant coffee; it is not for nothing that it has 251 news stories in the media per month, versus 9 for Nescafe)
Agree, the intrigue in the instant coffee market is just beginning: - Jacobs continues active PR in the media, far ahead of the leader Nescafe - at the same time, the unstable leading position of Jacobs opens up excellent chances for competitors if they accurately calculate niche areas for a global offensive against the modern leader, fortunately the ratio of the cost of PR advertising and possible profit in the event of stunning success is truly miserable, explained the famous Canadian expert. Jardin “breathes in the back” of our leaders in instant coffee. He is one of the world leaders in sales of coffee beans and ground coffee of the same brand, Jardin. Under this TM there are hotels, restaurants, SPA centers, so for the search query “Jardin coffee” there are 10.5 thousand search queries and 38 mentions in Yandex news per month.
One can only imagine what huge reserves for promotion in Russia are laid in Jardin, because the demand for coffee of this brand is growing, and the attractive and alluring aroma is only getting better with time... But for now it is third and will fall (if you don’t change the marketing PR plan -promotion) is easier than rising above those who are still ahead.
The benefits and harms of an invigorating drink
The benefits and harms of instant coffee are known to everyone. Thanks to the caffeine and tannins contained in the drink, it is a wonderful invigorating and tonic. Whether freeze-dried or granulated, coffee provides vitality and improves your mood. But people who suffer from cardiovascular diseases, diseases of the digestive system, as well as those who have high blood pressure, should drink the invigorating drink with caution or avoid it altogether. The harm of instant coffee is obvious to them. The low calorie content of the drink makes it acceptable for those who are losing weight.
Also, the benefits and harms of instant coffee are compared on the principle that this type contains less caffeine. Unfortunately, it is less aromatic than grain, its taste is less pronounced. Speaking about the benefits and harms of the drink, we need to once again recall the fact that instant coffee is made from lower quality beans. Secondly, freeze-dried instant coffee goes through more processing steps. Thirdly, odor-enhancing and taste-enhancing substances are added to its composition, which is not good. Summarized benefits and harms of ground drink:
- it is convenient to use and store;
- it has low calorie content;
- Its shelf life, provided all requirements are met, is longer.
Recipes for delicious instant coffee
Recipes for Beginners: Buy the best instant coffee from well-known, well-established brands. To do this, you should study their rating. Recipes for those who want to save money: you can buy instant coffee from companies new to the market. While their brands are being promoted, they will monitor the quality of their products. This is confirmed by one or another test purchase.
Recipes for those who like to experiment: do not mix different types of drink (ground, granulated, natural) when drinking it. If you take one type of instant coffee, this drink will turn out to be the most delicious. Recipes for those who like to mix: the ground “elixir of vivacity” can be drunk without milk, or with milk or cream. But then its calorie content will increase, the benefits will increase and the harm will decrease if you drink it this way: milk enriches the drink with calcium. Recipes for those who want to discover new facets of the drink: as one famous movie character, Professor Pleischner, once said, try drinking ground coffee with cold water. You can endlessly experiment with instant coffee recipes. When drinking another cup, you need to think about the good, then the benefits and harms of the drink will be less important. But it would be useful to find out what results the test purchase showed, in which well-known brands took part.
Outsiders among instant coffee brands in Russia
The outsiders among instant coffee brands this time were: Black Card, MacCoffee coffee, Japanese Bushido and Moccona . Why, you ask? Try to answer your question yourself,” explained the Canadian expert, and explain to me: how does the coffee of these TMs differ for the better from the same Jacobs, Nescafe, Jardin? Name the first... second... third... seventh... - on each point, the manufacturers of TMs of these types of instant cafes managed to convince journalists, and the journalists, the people of Russia? How is Moccona’s press and PR department not publishing a single article in a month about the merits of its type of coffee or the “Black Card” in only 5 news stories? We can talk for a long time about the shortcomings of outsiders in the coffee market, but why? It is up to the marketing services of each company to understand why only 200 or 900 people from all CIS countries (!) are interested in their trademark on the Internet and what the level of sales will be. The analyst’s task is to record a fact, and then a trend. So far, the owners of the instant coffee brand use only one way to the client’s heart: magical stories where people are inspired to drink aromatic coffee, enticing them to try it too and find out whether its taste is really so divine: if you don’t try it, you won’t know. At the same time, scientists slowly and confidently give them a “big pig”: - Scientists have found that coffee can cause blindness - Mysteries of coffee: positive for women under stress, dangerous for men, etc., the list goes on. As well as the fact that to escape the crisis, Italians and Spaniards are giving up coffee. Agree, it’s clearly too early to rest on the laurels of TM coffee, says the Canadian expert.
