Instant coffee

A concentrated coffee/milk/sugar mixture was produced for the Union army during the American Civil War under the name Essence of Coffee, a teaspoonful of which was mixed with a cup of hot water. It had the consistency of axle grease, and proved so unpopular with the troops that it was soon discontinued. The brand Camp Coffee, a coffee and chicory essence, was first produced in 1876 by Paterson & Sons Ltd in Scotland. The invention for instant or soluble coffee was filed 28 January 1889 and patented in 1890, by David Strang of Invercargill, New Zealand, under patent number 3518. It was sold under the trading name Strang's Coffee citing the patented "Dry Hot-Air" process. Some modern sources have credited French humorist and writer Alphonse Allais with the invention. The invention was previously attributed to Satori Kato, a Japanese scientist working in Chicago in 1901. Kato introduced the powdered substance in Buffalo, New York, at the Pan-American Exposition. George Constant Louis Washington developed his own instant coffee process shortly thereafter, and first marketed it commercially (1910). The Nescafé brand, which introduced a more advanced coffee refining process, was launched in 1938. High-vacuum freeze-dried coffee was developed shortly after World War II, as an indirect result of wartime research into other areas. The National Research Corporation (NRC) was formed in Massachusetts as a process-development company employing high-vacuum technology. It developed high-vacuum processes to produce penicillin, blood plasma, and streptomycin for US military use. As the war ended, NRC looked to adapt its processes for peacetime uses. It formed Florida Foods Corporation to produce concentrated orange juice powder and originally sold its product to the United States Army. That company later changed its name to Minute Maid. ==Use==

Close to 50% of the world's green coffee is used to produce instant coffee. As food Instant coffee is available in powder or granulated form contained in glass and plastic jars, sachets, or tins. The user controls the strength of the resulting product by adding less or more powder or granules to the water. Instant coffee is also convenient for preparing iced coffee like the Greek frappé. In some countries, such as Portugal, Spain, and India, instant coffee is commonly mixed with hot milk instead of boiling water. In other countries, such as South Korea, instant coffee commonly comes pre-mixed with non-dairy creamer and sugar and is called "coffee mix". Said to have been popularised in the UK by GIs during World War II, instant coffee still accounts for over 75 percent of coffee bought to drink in British homes, as opposed to well under 10 percent in the U.S. and France and one percent in Italy. In the United Kingdom, instant coffee granules are sometimes used to enhance the flavour of sauces used in preparing spaghetti Bolognese. Non-food uses Instant coffee is one of the ingredients in Caffenol, a home-made, non-toxic black-and-white photographic developer. The other ingredients in the basic formula are ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and anhydrous sodium carbonate; some recipes also include potassium bromide as a fog-reducing agent. The active ingredient appears to be caffeic acid. Initial experiments on Caffenol were performed in 1995 at the Rochester Institute of Technology; addition of ascorbic acid began around 2000, yielding the improved Caffenol-C, which is less likely to stain negatives than the original formulation. Experiments have shown that cheaper, less desirable brands of coffee work better for this application than more expensive brands. In crafts, Instant coffee can be used as a dye to stain paper and give the impression of it being aged. ==Production==

instant coffee As with regular coffee, the green coffee bean itself is first roasted to bring out flavour and aroma. Rotating cylinders containing the green beans and hot combustion gases are used in most roasting plants. When the bean temperature reaches the roasting begins. It takes about 8–15 minutes to complete roasting. After cooling, the beans are then ground finely. Grinding reduces the beans to pieces. Until this point, the process is in general the same as for other types of coffee. Freeze drying The basic principle of freeze drying is the removal of water by sublimation. Since the mass production of instant coffee began in post-WWII America, freeze-drying has grown in popularity to become a common method. Although it is more expensive, it generally results in a higher-quality product. • The coffee extract is rapidly frozen and is broken into small granules. (Slower freezing would lead to larger ice crystals and a porous product; it can also affect the colour of the coffee granules). • The granules are sifted and sorted on size. To achieve this, nozzle atomization is used. Various ways of nozzle atomization can be used each having its own advantages and disadvantages. High speed rotating wheels operating at speeds of about 20,000 rpm are able to process up to of solution per hour. The use of spray wheels requires that the drying towers have a wide radius to avoid the atomized droplets collecting onto the drying chamber walls. • Completed in 5–30 seconds (dependent on factors such as heat, size of particle, and diameter of chamber). • Moisture content change: IN = 75–85% OUT = 3–3.5% • Air temperature: IN = OUT = One drawback with spray drying is that the particles it produces are too fine to be used effectively by the consumer; they must first be either steam-fused in towers similar to spray dryers or by belt agglomeration to produce particles of suitable size. Decaffeination In commercial processes, the decaffeination of instant coffee almost always happens before the critical roasting process which will determine the coffee's flavour and aroma processes. Byproducts The main byproduct of the instant coffee production process is spent coffee grounds. These grounds can be used as biomass, for example to produce heat used in the manufacturing process. Roughly two times the mass in spent coffee grounds is generated for each quantity of soluble coffee. ==Composition==

The caffeine content of instant coffee is generally less than that of brewed coffee. One study comparing various home-prepared samples came to the result that regular instant coffee (not decaffeinated) has a median caffeine content of 66 mg per cup (range 29–117 mg per cup), with a median cup size of 225 ml (range 170–285 mL) and a caffeine concentration of 328 μg/mL (range 102–559 μg/mL). In comparison, drip or filter coffee was estimated to have a median caffeine content of 112 mg, with a median concentration of 621 μg/mL for the same cup size. ==Malabsorption==

Instant coffee decreases intestinal iron absorption more than drip coffee. One study estimated that, when a cup of instant coffee was ingested with a meal composed of semipurified ingredients, intestinal absorption was reduced from 5.88% to 0.97%, compared to an absorption of 1.64% with drip coffee. It was also estimated that, when the strength of the instant coffee was doubled, intestinal iron absorption fell to 0.53%. However, there is no decrease in iron absorption when instant coffee is consumed 1 hour before a meal, but the same degree of inhibition as with simultaneous ingestion occurs when instant coffee is taken 1 hour after a meal. ==Regulation==

In the European Union, regulations include the species of coffee bean, geographical origin, processing detail, year of crop, solvents used in decaffeination, and caffeine level. Various institutions govern the coffee industry and help to achieve standardization and release information to the public, including the International Coffee Organization (London), Codex Alimentarius Commission of the UN (Rome), and National Coffee Association (New York). ==See also==