Commercial instant coffee by David Strang

The first “instant coffee” is made in Britain in 1771. It was called a “coffee compound” and had a patent granted by the British government.

The first commercial instant coffee was made in Invercargill (the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand) by David Strang, who owned a coffee and spice works factory. For its manufacturing it used something called "Dry Hot-Air" process.

He applied for a patent for his "soluble coffee powder" in 1889. It was patented under patent number 3518 and sold under the trading name Strang's Coffee

Strang also filed patents for a "coffee-roasting apparatus of novel design" and Strang's Eclipse Hot Air Grain Dryer. He was also credited with making mocha - a blend of coffee and cocoa that is ubiquitous nowadays.

However, instant coffee wasn’t massively produced until 1910 when 1909, the Belgian-American businessman, George Constant Louis Washington, invented the first mass-produced instant coffee.

David Strang was born in Glasgow, worked in a coffee warehouse before moving to New Zealand in 1863. He first sold his products locally and later developed a national, and then international following. Strang’s coffee and spices won awards at exhibitions in Christchurch, Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. He created his `Dry Hot-Air` process to convert coffee into soluble granules and then set about patenting it.

‘Strang’s Patent Soluble Dry Coffee-powder’ as it was called, had the advantage that it was easier and lighter to ship while also having a good shelf life. He packaged it in tins, as he did with his other spice products, and set about marketing and distributing his new invention.
Commercial instant coffee by David Strang

Invention of instant coffee by George Washington

The earliest experiments with and patents for instant coffee date to the Civil War; further experiments were conducted during the Spanish-American War.

In 1906, while living in Guatemala, a Belgian named George Constant Louis Washington conceived the idea of instant coffee processing. He discovered a practical process for condensing coffee so that it could be reconstituted merely by adding boiling water in a cup.

George Washington, purportedly an indirect descendant of the first American President, refined coffee crystals from brewed coffee.

By 1910 Washington, he came out with his G. Washington’s Refined Coffee. G. Washington’s Refined Coffee was the first to be produced on a large commercial scale and proved to be popular in the US Army during the First World War.

In the summer of 1918, the U.S. Army requisitioned the entire G. Washington output, which fact the company promptly advertised: G. Washington’s Refined Coffee has gone to war.

The G. Washington Coffee Company continued to sell instant coffee in the U.S. market into the 1940s.
Invention of instant coffee by George Washington