Globally, the instant coffee market is worth more than $20 billion. In Japan alone, where Starbucks has 839 stores, the $2.9 billion of annual instant coffee sales account for more than half of all of Japan’s coffee consumption. In the United Kingdom, where Starbucks has more than 700 stores, instant coffee is a $1.2 billion business, more than 80 percent of all the country’s coffee sales. The data were impressive—most Americans had no idea instant coffee was so popular in the rest of the world—but
