For years, I tried to hide it: my skulking off to the Nescafé jar in the corner whenever my colleagues queued for the office coffee machine. My excuses of having already had a coffee whenever friends suggested a round. What was I supposed to tell them, exactly, when they discovered my shameful instant-coffee addiction? That it all began years ago when I was working night shifts? That I don’t have the patience to wait for a cafetière? That I actually just quite like the taste?

In fact, despite all the signs that the UK is a country of coffee snobs , I’m not so unusual. More than half of us (54 per cent) drink instant, according to a survey by professional services firm Deloitte, compared to just 39 per cent of coffee consumers outside the UK. We just don’t admit to it, given its unsexy

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