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Young people looking to save money on their increasingly expensive morning caffeine habit are turning to a throwback: instant coffee.
Sales of instant coffee rose 24% last year from two years prior and spending is growing the fastest among Gen Z, according to data from Nielsen. Consumers in their teens and twenties - who weren’t around when Folgers’ "The Best Part of Waking Up” jingle debuted in the 1980s - more than doubled what they spent on instant coffee in 2024 compared with 2022.
Driving the spike, in part, is the rising price of coffee. A 12-ounce cup of Starbucks brewed coffee in a midtown Manhattan cafe costs $3.45, while a cup of Starbucks instant coffee at home can net out as cheap as 36 cents.
"Normally, you’d need to go buy an espresso machine or go to Starbucks and sell your left leg to get one of these drinks,” TikTok user Ethan Rode said in a video where he shared a recipe for making a brown sugar shaken espresso. His budget-friendly option can be made at home without any fancy machinery, and with just instant coffee, brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, water and ice.
The market has also exploded with higher-end options claiming to match or even surpass the kind of quality typically associated with whole bean or ground varieties.
Coffee manufacturers like JM Smucker Co., which owns the Folgers brand, and Nestlé SA, say their instant lines are growing in part because more people are leaning into the at-home barista trend and trying to replicate viral drink videos found on TikTok and Instagram.
Elisabeth Rosario said she switched to Starbucks instant coffee packs two years ago while living in Los Angeles as a means to cut down on cafe bills, and to reclaim the time she’d spend cleaning her French press.
"I’m not trying to add more work in ways I don’t need when I feel like there are ways to make the experience better,” she said, adding that she finds the quality to be just as good as what she drank previously. Now the 38-year-old marketing consultant takes instant coffee packets with her when she travels for work.
Smucker said it saw a 21% increase in sales among Gen Zs and Millennials for Folgers’ instant category at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York conference in February. Smucker also owns Café Bustelo and Dunkin at-home brands.
"These are consumers who have a deep love of coffee, want to be able to customize their drinks and are interested in trying new things,” said Rob Ferguson, Smucker’s senior vice president of coffee and procurement.
Nestlé has also seen a bump over the past three years in its instant segment, which includes Nescafé and the licensed Starbucks at Home brand. Last year, the company rolled out more premium instant espresso products in the US that a company spokesperson said are "over indexing with multicultural Millennials.”
Instant has given artisanal coffee companies a way to expand their lineups with shelf-stable products that appeal to a broader swath of customers.
Swift Coffee, a private-label manufacturer that specializes in turning whole coffee beans into the freeze-dried granules that can be dissolved in water, says its business is booming. The Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based firm makes instant products for several companies, including Intelligentsia, Partners Coffee and Verve Coffee.
"I think we’re in the phase where it’s now accepted by the most progressive, leading specialty coffee companies,” Nate Kaiser, founder and chief executive officer of Swift, said about instant coffee. "It’s just assumed that if you’re going to be a roaster in 2025, it’s going to be on your retail offerings menu.”
