Posted on 01/30/2005 4:38:29 AM PST by flitton
IT APPEARS the effort of stirring instant coffee powder in a mug or emptying the cafetière of grinds has become too much of an effort.
In an ever growing convenience culture, Marks & Spencer has launched a ready-prepared coffee which consumers only have to pour into a cup and heat in a microwave oven.
Retail experts predict the microwave coffee is just the start of a new trend for ‘convenience breakfasts’ as a population that has grown used to ready meals and pre-packed lunches seek out similar choice and ease at breakfast time.
Angela Grove, senior consumer analyst with independent industry analysts the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD), said: "What people want is to be able to grab something and eat on the go. This will be the next challenge and will be an important approach for targeting lunch and increasingly breakfast occasions."
Among the convenience breakfast foods Grove predicts will hit the shelves in the near future are marmalade and jam-flavoured breads.
"Someone has already produced a bread with cheese and pickle in it and people seemed to like the idea of having breads with jam or marmalade in them, which you could just eat on the go while you were preparing the kids’ packed lunches and getting ready for work.
"People are very happy with the variety of convenience foods around for dinners and lunches, but at breakfast they want something different. They accept that a bowl of cereal and milk is about as convenient as you get, but they want more choice.
"They are also choosing pre-packed fruit portions for breakfast, like the ones you get for children’s packed lunches, because they see them as convenient and healthy."
The move towards an increasingly convenience-based diet is a lucrative one for food retailers.
UK consumers spent £1.1bn on chilled convenience foods last year, a 14% increase year-on-year, and in Scotland the market is expanding even faster, up 17% last year.
And according to IGD predictions, the ageing population, more single-person households, more working women and greater numbers of people in employment with more disposable income and less free time mean the market will continue to grow.
Around 55% of the UK population now spends less than half an hour preparing their main meal of the day, while almost one in 10 spends less than five minutes on the task.
Grove said: "Convenience and the demand for quick options that fit with time- pressured lifestyles are clear catalysts behind the switch from cooking from scratch to using partly and fully prepared ingredients. A further driver is the lack of knowledge and skill to prepare meals from scratch."
According to Marks & Spencer, ignorance was one of the key factors that encouraged the store to introduce the ready-made coffee range.
A spokeswoman for the company said: "The target market is a younger audience that we call ‘carefree’, that is mainly single people or couples without children - people who are short of time but appreciate quality coffee and are prepared to pay for convenience and quality.
"There is also a huge percentage of coffee drinkers who don’t know how to make coffee in a cafetière, either don’t get the dose right and it comes out too strong or weak, or they don’t make it often enough to learn."
Sales of the microwave coffee will be reviewed at the end of this month to determine whether the product is as popular as M&S hoped, but the company is already looking at ways of making it even more convenient, and a single serving in a carton or cup is expected be developed soon.
However, coffee experts believe retailers have some way to go before they will convert British coffee drinkers to the new style of drink given that instant coffee is still by far the country’s most popular beverage.
A spokeswoman for the British Coffee Association said: "Although the market for roast and ground coffee is developing in this country, it is still the case that 90% of coffee drunk here is instant coffee.
"I can’t imagine this is going to bring an end to the way we drink coffee at the moment."
THE TASTE TEST
MARKS & Spencer’s new coffee is bound to raise questions over whether a prepared product can match the taste of a freshly brewed drink.
John Thompson, official coffee taster with the Edinburgh Tea and Coffee company, has worked in the UK and Kenya sampling different beans and roasts. He tasted M&S’s Just Heat Real Coffee Medium Roast and Italian Roast and gave his verdict.
"I would give the Medium Roast five out of 10. It has a nuttiness and slight acidity. It does taste like they have used good coffee beans, but it does not have enough body and has a slight taste of molasses.
"The Italian Roast has more body and I would give it six out of ten. It has less acidity than the medium roast and a slight note of cocoa. I prefer this.
"There’s no way something you make in the microwave is going to taste as great as freshly brewed coffee.
"However, compared to instant coffee it stands out really well and if I had to choose between these and instant I would choose these, but my heart isn’t really in it."
I've got powdered water in my cupboard. I'm not sure what to add to it.
Too much work. I've got THINGS to do!
For me, the best part of my morning is smelling the coffee brewing. The next best thing is leisurely drinking several cups while reading through FR.
If I have somewhere to be early in the day I will get out of bed earlier. Why start the day in a rush if you expect to be rushing all day?
Instant coffee is an abomination.
I hear the next innovation from M&S is pre-jammed toast (available in Strawberry, Apricot or Marmalade)
I agree, coffee is for enjoying not throwing down one's throat. Anyway I don't find that putting water and coffee in my stovepot percolator takes any longer than pouring liquid in a cup and microwaving it.
Especially nowadays with newer machines like the Philips Senseo coffeemaker.
I have a Senseo coffeemaker - the coffee it prepares is perfect and fresh. Marks and Spencer is barking up the wrong tree.
Regards, Ivan
My only comment is this: The day I don't make a nice, fresh cup of coffee is the day after I died. Fresh-brewed coffee is one of heaven's gifts. Fresh-ground "Texas Pecan" from HEB is so good.
>> Marks and Spencer is barking up the wrong tree. <<
Not if the statistic is correct that 90% of the coffee used is instant (ugh) coffee.
The next breakthrough will be genetically pre-caffeinated children.
lol, I make a cup of instant to tide me over when the drip is going...
I really need to get one of those "pause" makers!
I've used Bunn coffeemakers for the last 15 years. 3 minutes and the coffee is ready in the morning. I've gone through several and have decided my next will be a professional model like the restaurants use!
I preload the coffemaker just before I go to bed.
When I awaken, I get up, turn on the coffeemaker and then prodeed to my morning ablutions.
Coffee is ready when I get back to the kitchen.
Is a caffeine patch next?
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