<p>The most sensible solution is to throw it out. </p>

<p>Instant coffee is hygroscopic, it will absorb moisture from the air if possible. I guess either someone was sloppy when scooping out the instant coffee and used a wet spoon or the container was not airtight (either bad packaging design or because a careless user didn’t close the pack properly). Now add high humidity to the mix and you will get the lump as seen in your post.</p>

<p>There are at least three reasons<sup>1</sup> to discard this container.</p>

<p>A) It’s a pain to pry it out and to dissolve it, as you have already observed. Pouring hot water straight into the container may help, but then there’s:</p>

<p>B) The flavor is almost certainly not pleasant any more (see <sup>1</sup>). </p>

<p>C) But the most important factor is food safety. If the granules got humid, there is a certain probability of bacterial and/or fungal growth and I would really recommend to discard the (ex-)coffee. I wrote more about food safety considerations <a href="https://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/3820/finding-if-coffee-is-a-health-risk-after-best-before/3825#3825">in this post</a>, explaining the FAT TOM principle of food safety.</p>

<p>————</p>

<p><sup>1</sup> There are some coffee snobs that would claim that instant coffee per se is disgusting enough to throw away, but we won’t go down that road here.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-24T04:55:17.247Z
I must agree with your reasoning. There may b a chance of the humid spoon get in the coffee. Now that I know, I will try my best too keep it away from humidity. Thanks alot.
eqrakhattak
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-23T19:46:16.820Z
2019-09-23T19:46:16.820Z
Stephie
<p>So I bought a jar of instant coffee not a year ago and it's not reached its expiry date. It's stored in the kitchen cabinet. Recently I opened it just to see its color had turned from coffee brown to something shiny black, solidified at the bottom. I tried scooping it out with a spoon, but it turned out to be hardened as granite. I managed to scrape a spoonful off, but it's still hard as rock. What do I do?</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/gwFIS.jpg" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/gwFIS.jpg" alt="the photo shows coffee in the jar"></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-23T16:14:32.853Z
Thank you for pointing out. I was talking about instant coffee as it seems. I'm sorry for the inconvenience caused. Here is the photo of the coffee in the jar. Thanks.
eqrakhattak
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-23T19:50:17.540Z
Related, but a “milder” case: https://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/4760/coffee-expired-before-its-mentioned-date/4769. I don’t consider this a duplicate because while the other is probably still usable, this one imho isn’t.
Stephie
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-25T18:16:10.260Z
Thank you for all those edits. I will try my best to come up with the website standards next time.
eqrakhattak
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-26T05:38:44.693Z
Don’t worry - as our Help Center explains somewhere: Write to the best of your abilities, the community will jump in and help with edits and comments asking for clarification as needed. The [help] is generally a good source for tips and explanations about the site and the SE system.
Stephie
<instant>
Why did my instant coffee turn dark and hard?
eqrakhattak
# Why did my instant coffee turn dark and hard?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-09-21)

So I bought a jar of instant coffee not a year ago and it's not reached its expiry date. It's stored in the kitchen cabinet. Recently I opened it just to see its color had turned from coffee brown to something shiny black, solidified at the bottom. I tried scooping it out with a spoon, but it turned out to be hardened as granite. I managed to scrape a spoonful off, but it's still hard as rock. What do I do?

[![the photo shows coffee in the jar](https://i.sstatic.net/gwFIS.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/gwFIS.jpg)

**Tags:** instant

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thank you for pointing out. I was talking about instant coffee as it seems. I'm sorry for the inconvenience caused. Here is the photo of the coffee in the jar. Thanks.  
> **username_1**: Related, but a “milder” case: https://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/4760/coffee-expired-before-its-mentioned-date/4769. I don’t consider this a duplicate because while the other is probably still usable, this one imho isn’t.  
> **username_0**: Thank you for all those edits. I will try my best to come up with the website standards next time.  
> **username_1**: Don’t worry - as our Help Center explains somewhere: Write to the best of your abilities, the community will jump in and help with edits and comments asking for clarification as needed. The [help] is generally a good source for tips and explanations about the site and the SE system.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-09-23. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

The most sensible solution is to throw it out.

Instant coffee is hygroscopic, it will absorb moisture from the air if possible. I guess either someone was sloppy when scooping out the instant coffee and used a wet spoon or the container was not airtight (either bad packaging design or because a careless user didn’t close the pack properly). Now add high humidity to the mix and you will get the lump as seen in your post.

There are at least three reasons1 to discard this container.

A) It’s a pain to pry it out and to dissolve it, as you have already observed. Pouring hot water straight into the container may help, but then there’s:

B) The flavor is almost certainly not pleasant any more (see 1).

C) But the most important factor is food safety. If the granules got humid, there is a certain probability of bacterial and/or fungal growth and I would really recommend to discard the (ex-)coffee. I wrote more about food safety considerations [in this post](https://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/3820/finding-if-coffee-is-a-health-risk-after-best-before/3825#3825), explaining the FAT TOM principle of food safety.

————

1 There are some coffee snobs that would claim that instant coffee per se is disgusting enough to throw away, but we won’t go down that road here.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I must agree with your reasoning. There may b a chance of the humid spoon get in the coffee. Now that I know, I will try my best too keep it away from humidity. Thanks alot.  

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