Blue Bottle Coffee is known for meticulously brewed, smooth espresso — and the crowds that line up to buy it.
Now the famed Bay Area roasters are getting into the instant coffee business, a category that has gone from punchline to craft brew, as more specialty brewers get into the game. On Nov. 7, Blue Bottle will start selling jars of Blue Bottle Craft Instant Espresso, freeze-dried crystals that can be stirred by the teaspoonful into warm water or milk and served in multiple espresso drinks, from iced to steaming hot.
The company, which is owned by Nestlé SA and has more than 100 locations around the U.S. and in Asia, has been working on the product for over three years, according to Ben Brewer, the senior director of global innovation and quality. That was even before the Dalgona coffee craze, which introduced whipped instant coffee to people who found it hard to access to freshly roasted and ground beans during the pandemic.
The instant coffee was crafted in Nestlé’s research and development facilities in Marysville, Ohio, and also in Switzerland. It’s made from the same beans they source to make all their espresso drinks, Brewer said. After being roasted, the ground coffee is freeze dried to preserve the flavor.
“We are committed heavily to the category,” Blue Bottle’s Chief Executive Officer Karl Strovink says. “We believe in soluble coffee and craft instant coffee, and broader spectrum of coffees we can bring to the market.”
The instant coffee market was valued at more than $33 billion in 2021; by 2026 it’s projected to surpass $41 billion with products that range from old-school Folgers to Starbucks VIA ready-brew coffee. Strovink believes it’s a market that will keep growing as people who value craft coffee continue to work from home and want something easy to make. “At-home consumption of coffee is increasing,” Strovink says. “We track back to work in key cities we operate in, and in most places, back-to-work is not above 50%.”
The Blue Bottle instant coffee isn’t cheap. A 1.7-ounce jar, which provides 12 servings of coffee, or a weekend’s worth, will sell for $25. In late November, the company will also start offering single-serving sachets that cost $15 for five sachets. The product will be available on the website and at some Blue Bottle storefronts around the U.S. Strovink says there aren’t plans to sell it at stores alongside Nescafe products, also from Nestlé.
Blue Bottle’s instant coffee enters an increasingly crowded field: The Cometeer offers the chance to make a cup of coffee in minutes using capsules of liquid nitrogen frozen concentrate that quickly dissolve in hot water.
Strovink foresees a day when their instant espresso will be on the menu at Blue Bottle outposts. “In a year or two, it’s not impossible,” he says, “that we might sell drinks made from instant coffee in our cafes. We have tested that [instant coffee] in Japan, and guests were delighted.”
Brewer says there’s even a chance that a whipped Dalgona-like coffee option could also show up on Blue Bottle menus. “We were thinking of seasonal menu ideas that would be fun,” he says. Right now, he says he just makes that kind of fluffy coffee in his lab. But people do drink what he calls soluble coffee. “I’ll keep trying to put it on the menu,” he adds.
