- Good instant coffee was absent in the USSR by default. Instead, people were forced to drink Indian powder, which among themselves was called "the dust of Indian roads", or an incomprehensible acorn burn! - I recently read here in Zen (or correctly write "in Zen", dear gramarnatsi, you will not miss this nuance, correct it without fail).
I really sympathized with the author. As long as I remember my childhood and adolescence, no one forced our family to drink either instant Indian coffee or acorn burnt.
Although I admit: even I, being not yet quite an adult, remember a rich assortment of drinks that can now be called "coffee substitutes". They were completely different - both soluble and those that need to be cooked.
Their basis was also different.
I remember there was a coffee drink "Golden Ear" - it was made from barley grains, and they were depicted on the box. And there was also Barley.
There was a drink called "Summer" - it seemed to mix coffee and chicory.
There was a drink called "Our Mark" - as much as 35 percent of it had coffee, as they say now.
Whether "unfortunate Soviet citizens" bought them in those days, or not, I don't know. At school, we (and not only us, but also adults) were obviously poured something barley under the guise of coffee, so I still recognized the taste of this drink. As for me - one to one with what is now sold in bags called "three in one".
Because the indignation that there were ersatz coffee drinks and there was no good instant coffee, I do not share and do not understand.
At home, the adults drank the usual. The one that had to be cooked. Before that - grind the grains. There were times when the beans were bought green and they had to be roasted - and then the magical aroma of freshly roasted coffee was carried through the apartment. I still associate it with comfort.
And also - with cafeterias at grocery stores, with small cafes, with buffets in theaters and cinemas.
There were coffee machines, and a cup of espresso (then it was called, sort of, just coffee) cost about thirty kopecks, sort of. The coffee was delicious and aromatic. I won't argue with those who claim it was bad coffee. For one reason: more than sure, there are actually few coffee gourmets. And indeed gourmets in the full sense of the word.
All our gourmands are tied, for the most part, to "I like the taste - I do not like it", and for some - and on show-off. Like, if a product costs less than a certain amount (each has its own, it is determined by financial capabilities), then it is impossible to speak of it as tasty.
So it is with coffee.
He has a very peculiar taste that you have to get used to. Few children like coffee initially. And in the future, everyone has their own taste preferences: someone prefers bitterness, someone drags on the pronounced sourness, someone needs balanced softness. And someone doesn't need coffee for free.
I mean, nobody in the USSR was forced to drink anything. Those who wanted coffee bought coffee beans (yes, there were problems with instant coffee). Whoever wanted could buy a coffee drink. And he could ignore coffee altogether: in our country, which arose on the territory of the Russian Empire, coffee has never been a familiar drink more than for 90 percent of citizens.
By the way, now the same coffee drinks, according to the same recipes, are most often found in the healthy food departments. And it is very funny when people who scold the "damn scoop" for the lack of coffee, buy exactly them - because it is good for health.
The influence of marketing strategies on the perception of reality in action.