NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK— A local cafe has switched its menu exclusively to instant coffee, to the reluctant but undeniable delight of baristas, customers, and management.
“I was really upset when I found out we were planning to switch to instant coffee, for obvious reasons,” lead barista Sloane Micheli told reporters. “I’m a barista because I like making really good coffee for people who care—I thought this would take away all of the things I really enjoy about my work.”
In a surprising turn, Micheli found the coffee to be “almost as good as what we were doing before, and way more consistent.” She also loves that you can brew cold coffee without underextracting or diluting with ice, just by mixing the instant coffee with cold water.
“It’s pretty much magic,” she said. “I also have a lot more time to talk to customers and look at my phone.”
The cafe’s owners are equally pleased.
“High-quality instant coffee doesn’t come cheap, but we have pretty much zero waste and we can sell off all of our brewing equipment,” co-owner Don Markle told us excitedly. “Plus our online reviews are rock-solid consistent. It’s been great, honestly.”
Customers for the most part seemed unaware of the switch.
“I mean, I noticed they just put some powder in it but I thought that was what they always do,” said Tim Green, a regular at the cafe.
Is instant coffee the wave of the future? According to this cafe, signs point to yes.
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