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Coffee Benefits - Move Over Green Tea
Green coffee beans have supplied a new player in the antioxidant
arena. An extract of green coffee beans has been found to have a
stronger antioxidant effect than established antioxidants like
green tea and grape seed extract.
The active...
Coffee in America
American coffee? Technically there is no such thing, at least none that is grown in North America. There is such a thing as the American coffee consumer which might as well be an institution all their own for it’s their money that drives a...
Coffee Or Tea - Which Is Better For You?
Most people cannot function without either their morning cup of
coffee or tea. While, it's mostly the caffeine that gets people
going, a side benefit from drinking these beverages is that you
may be boosting your immune system and helping to...
Coffee Storage Myths; Freeze Your Fresh Roasted Coffee & Other Popular Misconceptions
So you are finally fed up with that bland black liquid, you once called coffee, brewed from the finest can of generic supermarket grinds. You are finally outraged at the price of a single cup of designer coffee shop coffee. It’s now time to take...
From One Cup Coffee Makers to “Smart” Refrigerators: Kitchen Appliances Catch Up with the Speed of Life
From One Cup Coffee Makers to “Smart” Refrigerators: Kitchen Appliances Catch up with the Speed of Life By R.L. Fielding The modern kitchen would not be complete without a refrigerator, an oven, a microwave, and a coffee maker. As fixtures...
Guide To Bunn Coffee Makers
Are you one of those people who can't get moving in the morning
without that morning cup of coffee? If you are, you aren't
alone. Homes across the country are home to Bunn coffee makers,
espresso or cappuccino makers to get people up and ready to...
Home Made Ice Cream Recipe for Coffee Can Ice Cream
This delicious home made ice cream recipe can be made with a few simple ingredients and a couple of coffee cans.
The very best thing about having birthday cake is the ice cream that goes along with it.
Learn how to make your own yummy...
Kona Coffee - The Cadillac of Coffees
How to start off about Kona Coffees. First talk with an expert about coffees. Like: what is his or her favorite type of bean, almost invariably you’ll hear one variety mentioned: Kona coffee. Kona beans are grown in Hawaii and are treasured...
The Amazing Discovery Of The Stimulating Influence Of Coffee.
Coffee is a drink produced from the coffee grains. It is
stimulating, because it contains caffeine. The use of the drink
of the coffee had its origin in Kaffa, Abyssinia, today
Ethiopia, when a shepherd called Kaldi observed that his goats
were...
The History of Coffee
Who would have thought that a berry that was discovered by a herd of goats would be the single most important ingredient in the world's most popular drink? Legend has it that back in 850AD, a goat herder noticed his herd was full of energy...
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History of Instant Coffee
Mention instant coffee to any connoisseur and you are sure to get a frown of disgust. Yet, who among us hasn’t, after finding the coffee tin empty, scoured the cupboard in desperation with hopes of finding a long since misplaced jar or ‘hotel packet’ of instant coffee? And, after sighing in relief, relished in amazement that it is still good after all those years of obscurity, abandonment and outright neglect on the dusty top shelf at the back of the pantry. You haven’t? Well maybe I just like to live dangerously.
Instant coffee, or soluble coffee, as it was originally called dates back as early as 1771 when the British government granted a patent for a ‘coffee compound’. There have been many attempts since then to make instant coffee more palatable but capturing the essence of freshly roasted, freshly brewed coffee has proven a difficult task.
Instant coffee is made by brewing a concentrated liquid solution of real coffee, then removing the water through various means of dehydration. What is left, the residue, is instant coffee. Early methods of dehydration involved spraying the concentrated solution into heated stainless steel drums and after the water had evaporated the drums were scraped and the powdery residue was packaged. The taste was scorched, pungent and bitter to say the least. If you have ever left a pot on the burner too long and have ended up with a charred disgusting mess in the bottom of the carafe, then you have made instant coffee.
The next advancement in instant coffee came in the 1960’s when the process of agglomeration was introduced. Particles of instant coffee were steamed and made sticky so they would clump together. The
clumps were then redried by reheating. The result was a better looking product that closer resembled ground coffee but the flavor may have actually been degraded even further by the additional heating cycle.
Most recently the process of lyophilization or ‘freeze-drying’ has become the standard method of making instant coffee. This method is a vast improvement over other methods for two reasons. The first is that the coffee concentrate is extracted under high pressure so the water used never actually boils even though the water is well above the boiling point.
The second is that the water is removed without adding heat which helps preserve the coffee flavor. The concentrate is then frozen and placed in a vacuum chamber and the temperature is raised to just above freezing, at which point one would expect the mixture to melt. However, since it is in a vacuum the frozen water is prevented from becoming a liquid. But since the temperature is above freezing the solid water (ice) goes directly from a solid to a vapor. It is then vented to a separate chamber where it is refrozen as pure water. What is left in the vacuum chamber is the coffee residue.
Even with the improved process of freeze drying instant coffee remains a sad substitute for the real thing.
© Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved.
About the Author
Randy has more articles on coffee such as Colombian Coffee, Coffee and Alzheimers and Coffee Breaks.
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