Over here at DecafLife, we feel a strong connection to another style of coffee that once was greeted with boos by coffee heads: instant coffee. Just as decaf has bloomed in the 21st century, so too has instant coffee emerged from its chrysalis. One of the roasters blazing a trail on this is Swift Coffee. They’re fully dedicated to instant coffee, offering a full line of instant blends and roasts.

Instant coffee is, to put it simply, made by dehydrating coffee. Want another comparison to decaf coffee? Instant coffee has a long history of subpar dehydration processes. To this day, major instant coffee manufacturers (we’re not naming names)strip flavor and aroma from their beans. Many of these manufacturers also start with subpar, old beans to begin with.

Just as a cup of thoughtfully roasted decaf tastes miles better than your grandpa’s Sanka, Swift Coffee is producing instant coffee blends that are light years ahead of the instant coffee of the 20th century. Their process starts with top quality beans. From there, they employ a proprietary method to dehydrate their coffee.

Swift’s founders say that it took them eight long years of trial-and-error to develop their dehydration process. They dehydrate their coffee through freeze drying, an exacting process that takes both time and effort to complete. This inconvenience is more than worth it to Swift (and their customers), because it results in an instant coffee that hasn’t been damaged at all during dehydration. At times, the company has actually slowed growth to ensure that their coffee remains at the same high quality.

As decaf drinkers, we were all impressed by Swift Coffee’s decaf offering, a delicious single origin from Huila, Colombia. It makes a notably smooth, well rounded, and tasty cup of coffee. I can’t wait to serve it to friends and surprise them by telling them they’re drinking instant. Move aside Nescafe Clasico, we have a new instant giant on our hands. Check out some of Swift’s offerings today!