eli5: How do “instant” versions of foods (instant oatmeal, coffee, rice, etc.) exist? Why are they not the standard since they’re so efficient?
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Instant oatmeal is oatmeal cut up very small to absorb water or milk much more quickly than regular. It isn’t as good because it has a different texture
Instant coffee is dehydrated brewed coffee, it doesn’t taste nearly as good as fresh brewed coffee because a lot of coffee’s flavour is easily evaporated. It also has less caffeine than fresh coffee
Those sorts of problems exist across many instant products, and even good instant foods lose popularity because of their association with all the bad instant foods
Instant mashed potato is especially bad, incidentally
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