The story behind instant coffee

For many years the discovery of instant coffee was attributed to America and Satori Kato, who was working in Chicago in 1901. The truth is that much earlier, in 1890, New Zealander David Strang registered patent number 3518 and began selling the first instant coffee ever, under the name Strang’s Coffee.

In 1938, mass production of instant coffee begins. The product spreads rapidly throughout the world, with two varieties, ‘regular’ and ‘decaffeinated’ (decaf). In 1965 a new brewing method, ‘freeze-drying’ (lyophilisation), is developed, which helps to improve both quality and flavour.

The creation of frappe happened by chance, in 1957, during the International Exhibition in Thessaloniki. Yannis Dritsas, a representative of a major coffee producer, was presenting a new chocolate drink for children, which required mixing with a shaker. Dimitrios Vakondios, an employee of Dritsas, during a break he took during the exhibition, wanted to drink instant coffee, but because he couldn’t find hot water he thought he would use a shaker to make his coffee with cold water. He put instant coffee, sugar and water, shook it up and created the first coffee frappe in history. Years later he stated that he could not have imagined that his simple “experiment” would lead to the invention of the most famous cold beverage in Greece.