'These are skull ice cubes of pure espresso' is the most metal thing that I've ever heard James say.

Okay, so, no one tell my PhD supervisor, but I've experimented with making instant coffee using our lab's freeze dryer. I had access to a pretty nice super automatic espresso machine in the building, so I brewed into a pre-chilled container, and then flash-froze the coffee in liquid nitrogen. From brew to solid ice in less than a minute. This then went onto the freeze dryer overnight, and it was done by the next day. It tasted quite good, but I agree with James, there is something lost in the process that I can't quite explain. Fun experiment, but definitely super inefficient.

Slurp-free audio track is the kind of innovation I expect from this channel.

Ben from Hasty Coffee in Canada here - Seems like specialty instant is trending on Youtube this week! We've been scaling freeze-dried for 4 years for us and over 40 coffee roasters and it is very difficult on a small scale.

If you have 2-300k to dump into equipment you could produce an economically viable specialty instant on a small-medium scale. We've had to get creative and do some very risky in-house engineering and waste a ton of cash on blowing stuff up. It's been a wild ride but we've created a fantastic instant process now and I can't imagine a world without it.

Always happy to forward some samples for comparison!

"If you dont know Bovril, well done.
If you do know Bovril, good times!"

I'm loving that this video has activated all the chemistry nerds who are secretly using their insanely expensive specialist work lab equipment for making illicit homebrew instant coffee, and then nerding some more about the exact process. Nerd love <3

James Hoffman colluding with his son Lance for an instant coffee revolution

I work in a research lab (some weird field called 'proteomics'), where we try to understand proteins using ridiculously expensive and complicated instruments ('mass spectrometers'). Sample preparation involves chopping up our proteins into 'peptides' using an enzyme (trypsin) and 'drying' the peptide-containing solution in a little vacuum centrifuge/vacuum concentrator (so called Speecvac), which makes our samples more suitable for storage. One trick we use to speed up the drying process is to first 'snap-freeze' our sample in liquid nitrogen before we place the frozen peptide-containing sample into the Speedvac for drying. You could kind of steal that idea to potentially improve your instant coffee: Idea 1): Directly extract your coffee into liquid nitrogen (or into a container placed in liquid nitrogen) and then transferring your 'snap-frozen' coffee into the freeze-dryer (you may want to add a bit of liquid nitrogen into the drying tray to prevent the coffee from thawing again). Idea 2): get some dry ice and extract your coffee directly into your dry ice. This will probably form some sort of frozen coffee crystal/dry ice mixture, which you could then spread out on your freeze-drying tray (without your coffee starting to thaw again) to start the drying process. The dry ice should just sublimate (released as CO2) during the drying process. The dry ice approach could be a bit messy, though (you may want to wear a lab coat and some protective glasses)... These approaches may address three problems: 1) Freezing your coffee much more quickly (which, as you mentioned, is essential to get tasty coffee); 2) Preventing your coffee from thawing while you distribute your coffee onto the tray of the freeze-drying machine, as I my gut feeling tells me that repetitive freeze-thawing may not really promote your coffee taste; 3) Speeding up your drying process, which may also help you create better tasting coffee. The cold temperatures and the fact that you have a lot of gas (CO2 or N2) surrounding your coffee may also reduce the amount of oxidation, and thus, preserve taste (although that's really just a naïve hypothesis...). Anyhow, would be interesting to see you play around with coffee and dry ice/liquid N2🥶😅. Really enjoy your channel, keep up the good work!

Instant Dan from B&W Coffee Roasters here. Thanks for shouting out our vid! The bit about freezing time was fascinating; we don't worry about it too much, but that's mostly a logistical thing. Would be interested to see if different modes of extraction yield different profiles for you to test your espresso theory. We found that a blend of espresso and filter actually produces a better instant than either alone. Would be happy to send along some samples if you want to test some of your experiments side-by-side!

The "slurp-free" track is a kind of wonderful example of how much you and your team care about the quality of your videos. I don't personally mind the slurping but it says a lot that you're willing to put in a little more effort to make your videos better in that small way.

Highly disappointed that this didn't end with liquid nitrogen to flash freeze espresso before freeze drying. Amazing sweater game as always.

Pharmaceutical chemist here, when we lyophilize (freeze dry) compounds we use a container (glass) and freeze it by rotatinging in a dry ice/acetone bath. Then the container is put into the lyophilizer which boils off the water and dries the compound. Your tasting of "rubber" could be from your silicon ice cube trays that you froze in. Suggest you try a direct freeze of container in dry ice/acetone bath or liquid nitrogen before placing the container into the lyophilizer.

Not a hack, but a little bit of science. I know the natural impurities of your water are important to the taste of your coffee. If you brew a cup of coffee with water that you like to drink and then freeze dry it, it will have all the impurities your water had. Then, if you reconstitute it with the exact same amount of the water you like to drink, the resultant cup will have double the number of salts/other impurities as the fresh cup. Some ways around this might be: a) to brew an extremely concentrated batch of coffee with water you like to drink and then reconstitute it at a more normal concentration for drinking. b) to brew your coffee with distilled water and reconstitute it with water you like to drink. c) to brew your coffee with water you like to drink and reconstitute it with distilled water. The problem with option c is that if you're in a situation where you are using instant coffee you probably don't have distilled water to hand. I'm not really tempted to use instant coffee as I just make some, even if I'm camping or traveling. I have a tiny french press and a little rocket stove that fits in my bag easily. Mostly I see uses for instant coffee in baking and there, maybe it's not necessary to get The Best cup of instant. Anyway, for the sake of science it might be fun to compare those three options I presented.

I reckon James could be obsessed with door knobs and his passion and media quality would still have thousands of us hooked. It’s really magnetic.

Never clicked so fast. Missed you James.

As someone who has suffered from misophonia their entire life, thank you so much for making a separate audio track available.

Not freeze-drying the coffee in skull form might be the greatest missed opportunity this channel has ever experienced

Garden Hose: A tasting note that I could immediately comprehend.

Justice for Hames Joffmann!

James, our favorite joke channel needs your help.

Doing a second slurp-free audio track may be one of the funniest ways of tackling a common complaint I've seen on YouTube, boss moves.