section_path: Serving/Instant coffee
section_name: Instant coffee
paragraph_text: Instant coffee
  
  Many products are sold for the convenience of consumers who do not want to prepare their coffee or who do not have access to coffeemaking equipment. Instant coffee is dried into soluble powder or freeze-dried into granules that can be quickly dissolved in hot water. A New Zealand invention and staple, instant coffee was originally invented in Invercargill 1890, by food chemist David Strang. It rapidly gained in popularity in many countries in the post-war period, with Nescafé being the most popular product. Many consumers determined that the convenience of preparing a cup of instant coffee more than made up for a perceived inferior taste, although, since the late 1970s, instant coffee has been produced differently in such a way that is similar to the taste of freshly brewed coffee. Paralleling (and complementing) the rapid rise of instant coffee was the coffee vending machine invented in 1947 and widely distributed since the 1950s.