 There is some suggestion that he was inspired by seeing dried powder on the edge of a silver coffee pot while in Guatemala.Federico Lehnhoff Wyld, a German-Guatemalan doctor, along with Eduardo T. Cabarrus, also developed an instant coffee process about this time, which he later marketed in Europe; as Wyld was Washington's personal physician, there is some suggestion that their discoveries were not independent.Washington's product was first marketed as Red E Coffee (a pun on "ready") in 1909, and the G. Washington Coffee Refining Company was founded in 1910.