Instant coffee was presented to the public in 1901 at the American Exposition in Buffalo. Right away this invention has raised heated debates. There is no one indifferent to it and nowadays.
Everyone has its own part in «Coffee cantata». The artistic circle, for example today, like hundred years ago, make no doubts that coffee restorative effect – is auto-suggestion. If coffee houses disappear, what may happen with Bohemia public? Espresso inventors, the Italians, are sure that the main fact to get right coffee is a mano (a hand), in other words, skills and experiences of a person, who makes it. From this point of view, the process of instant coffee making is completely impersonal. However that may be, the sociologists confirm documentarily – this product has become a harbinger of social consumption, which we belong to.
Coffee culture
One of the definite advantage of the «powder»is the fact that it takes half a minute for its completely dilution in a hot water, three minutes – in a cold. In spite of the value, which includes grain handling cost, manufacture and glass packaging, the instant coffee is quite comparable with coffee in beans. Many people appreciate instant coffee for easiness and quickness of preparation.
However, in the middle of the last century, this feature of instant coffee wasn’t among its advantages. The American boycotted fast coffee – they were sure that just poor and lazy mistresses buy it. And only well thought-out advertising campaign – «instant coffee will help you to release time for more necessary and important affairs!» – made them to temper justice with mercy. According to statistics, in 1953 2,57 cups of coffee per day accounted for each American above 10 years of age. Among them 2,31 cups were made from real coffee, and only 0,26 – from instant. Half a century later, from 400 million cups of coffee, which are drunk by Americans per day, more than half accounts for instant.
“Coffee” culture is determined at a ratio of consumption of natural ground and instant coffee. In European countries, for example in Germany, people drink lot more coffee (not to speak of Scandinavia, who are believed to be the main coffee drinkers). The main instant coffee consumers of different brands are Brazilian. However, it would seem, they could admit and real coffee.
Granules
At the beginning of the last century Brazil was the leading coffee producer. There were grown more then 60% of all harvest of coffee beans in the country. But very often gold was changed into the dust. There weren’t any technologies of storage and grain processing, – they were rotting then burnt and sank in the sea. So that coffee will not turn into prohibitive product, someone should invent something. In 1930 in Switzerland appeared «predecessor» of instant coffee, which was the most closely to modern version. By boiling and drying ground coffee particles mixed with sugar the Swiss chemist Max Morgentaller has got the first brown cube.
They told that Mr. Morgentaller took his invention only like experiment, and after workday permitted himself a cup of real espresso, but not the cube dissolved in a hot water. The Swiss scientist could be proud of his
descendants. The sky wasn’t the limit. The technologies have been improved and nowadays there are three main manufacture stages of instant coffee.
The first one – is spray-drying method. Roasted and ground coffee is processed by hot water under pressure. The extract is filtered and sprayed in vessels filled with hot inert gases. The droplets of the extract are coagulated and dry out turning into the powder.
The second stage is granulation. By means of hot steam, coffee finings get lumpy. As a result, instant coffee looks like granules, and not like powder any more.
The third stage is up to now considered to be a unique. The method of sublimation was invented in 1965. The coffee extract is crystallized by means of momentary freezing and then drying in a vacuum. At that, the thermal conditioning is unacceptable. Therefore the product has a greater content of natural ingredients. Made by freeze dry technology coffee may be compared with a freshly brewed coffee, but only in terms of aroma. According to the flavouring substances it is on the top of all kind of instant coffee.
Later it was invented decaffeinated and aromatized coffee, as well as some sorts of paste. Who knows, maybe we have a luck, and will be witnesses of another revolution in the coffee world!
As for Brazil… annually the world produces about 91 million bags of coffee (standard weight – 60 kg). The demand and supply of coffee drinkers are estimating very carefully, that is why each bad harvest is told upon prices. For example, last winter there was a harvest failure on Brazilian plantations, so market price run up to 40%. It also had an effect on instant coffee, but prices rose to 15%, and large manufacturers made long-term contracts.
Beware of counterfeit!
The most famous sort of coffee in the world – is Arabica. It is used for preparation of instant beverage not often: flavored, but not very strong, in “powder”, it practically loses its characteristic taste. The beverage made from Robusta coffee (strong African sort), is more rich then Arabica.
The caffeine, which makes us feel our oats, content in a coffee seed no less than 2-3% of its total weight. However, this volume of caffeine is believed to be exceedingly high for the modern humans who live in a stressful world. That is why they artificially «pull out» caffeine from coffee, leaving 2.3% – the index which is set by international standards. In theory, the caffeine content in instant coffee must not go below the above level. It is believed that less caffeine powder is unacceptable. But some sorts contain only 0.1%!
Actually, the problem of falsification in this area is incredibly badly – coffee is forged much frequently and with greater success than, for example, handbags Louis Vuitton. And forgery is virtually impossible to distinguish.
For ages it was considered that drinking coffee is a tempting but pernicious habit. But according to the latest researches, if we do not abuse it (permissible caffeine dose is 0,3g per day), coffee may be even useful. It stimulates the working of digestive system and brain, as well as increases the effectiveness of antibiotic action. It is also proved that people, who drink 2-3 cups of coffee in a day, have stable mentality and they are less stressful.
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Tags: Arabica, Brazil, caffeine, coffee cantata, Coffee Culture, espresso, ground coffee, instant coffee, Robusta
One Comment »
Coffee aroma | Coffee Recipes said :
September 16, 2009 at 9:46 am
[...] a help of mixer whip milk, ice-cream, strawberries and instant coffee. Finished drink pour into the glass and top with whipped cream. addthis_url = [...]
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