01/12/2025
⭐Nescafe wasn't supposed to win the Instant Coffee Wars in the Philippines.
In this episode of Brand Origins, we uncover the complete brand history of Nescafé and the instant coffee wars that shaped the world. We dive into the forgotten inventors, the early experiments long before Nestlé entered the picture, and how Nescafé—despite not inventing instant coffee—became the global leader and the Philippines’ most dominant coffee brand.
We explore how World War I and World War II turned instant coffee into a military necessity, how the Great Depression almost killed the product before it started, and how Max Morgenthaler revived a cancelled project that Nestlé had already abandoned. We also break down Nescafé’s rivals in the Philippines like Café Puro and Blend 45, why Nestlé launched Nescafé Gold, Nespresso, and Dolce Gusto, and how partnerships like Starbucks At Home and even the Blue Bottle Coffee acquisition fit into Nestlé’s long-term strategy.
If you want to understand how instant coffee became part of Filipino culture, and how one brand won a global war it didn’t even start, this is the full story.
