[1] A concentrated coffee/milk/sugar mixture was produced for the Union army during the American Civil War under the name Essence of Coffee, a teaspoonful of which was mixed with a cup of hot water.

[7] George Constant Louis Washington developed his own instant coffee process shortly thereafter, and first marketed it commercially (1910).

[citation needed] High-vacuum freeze-dried coffee was developed shortly after World War II, as an indirect result of wartime research into other areas.

[citation needed] The National Research Corporation (NRC) was formed in Massachusetts as a process-development company employing high-vacuum technology.

It formed Florida Foods Corporation to produce concentrated orange juice powder and originally sold its product to the United States Army.

[8] Instant coffee is available in powder or granulated form contained in glass and plastic jars, sachets, or tins.

In some countries, such as Portugal, Spain, and India, instant coffee is commonly mixed with hot milk instead of boiling water.

[11] In the United Kingdom, instant coffee granules are sometimes used to enhance the flavour of sauces used in preparing spaghetti Bolognese.

[12][13] Instant coffee is one of the ingredients in Caffenol,[14] a home-made, non-toxic black-and-white photographic developer.

The other ingredients in the basic formula are ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and anhydrous sodium carbonate; some recipes also include potassium bromide as a fog-reducing agent.

Initial experiments on Caffenol were performed in 1995 at the Rochester Institute of Technology;[15] addition of ascorbic acid began around 2000, yielding the improved Caffenol-C, which is less likely to stain negatives than the original formulation.

Rotating cylinders containing the green beans and hot combustion gases are used in most roasting plants.

Since the mass production of instant coffee began in post-WWII America, freeze-drying has grown in popularity to become a common method.

[26] In the European Union, regulations include the species of coffee bean, geographical origin, processing detail, year of crop, solvents used in decaffeination, and caffeine level.