Is the cold extract coffee healthy? how long can the cold extract coffee be kept in the refrigerator? how long can the cold extract coffee be drunk?

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Cold Brew coffee may be the hottest product in the boutique coffee circle at present. As a subdivided product, Starbucks has joined the cold extraction army after the launch of the third wave of small and medium-sized American boutique coffee brands. First, let's talk about cold coffee.

More and more coffee brands have joined the cold extraction product army

As opposed to cold extraction, coffee is traditionally made in two ways: trickling, in which hot water drips through coffee powder on filter paper to extract coffee, and Italian, in which hot water passes through a filter handle at high pressure in a boiler to extract concentrate. For example, the American coffee we often drink is espresso and hot water. Latte and cappuccino are coffee drinks mixed with espresso and milk. The two traditions have one thing in common: hot water is used to extract coffee.

So what exactly is cold extract? In fact, until today, there is no uniform specification and definition for cold coffee in the industry. But simply speaking, coffee is extracted by non-hot water, which can actually be called cold coffee. More common is a long time to soak coffee powder, usually takes 12-24 hours, and then filter out coffee powder to obtain coffee concentrate. Concentrates can be added to water, milk, etc. to make different coffee drinks. Sometimes ice cubes can be added to adjust the taste. Starbucks 'practical name is cold iced coffee. It should be noted that cold coffee is not iced coffee. Iced coffee means hot coffee with ice added. The same coffee made cold will have a very different flavor than coffee made traditionally. Because everyone's taste is different, can not say which is better, can only say that its flavor is very unique.

Cold extraction coffee is currently more popular practice, according to the water temperature at the time of extraction, there are only three kinds: room temperature, cold water, hot water extraction after rapid freezing and cooling.

At present, in addition to cold-extracted coffee sold as a beverage in coffee shops, many brands have also begun to fill their own retail. And today, I want to talk to you about some of the food safety issues and supply chain solutions related to cold coffee.

As a coffee industry practitioner and investor, the coffee industry has long enjoyed the bonus of not having to worry too much about food safety. Because the vast majority of coffee drinks, from the ingredients, are nothing more than coffee beans, hot water and milk that have been roasted at high temperatures. The production process is also operated at high temperatures. The operation process is relatively simple and fast, and there are no ingredients in the middle that need to be preserved for a long time. This is also why you rarely hear about people drinking coffee in cafes with food poisoning. But the advent of cold extraction changed all that, and the biggest problem was time.

The cold-extract concentrate can last up to 24 hours, and then the concentrate is stored in stores for 1-2 days to make cold-extract coffee drinks. As for those cold-extracted coffee filled by themselves, even some domestic e-commerce, micro-commerce sales, the shelf life above will be written to at least 7 days, or even longer. The biggest problem here is time.

If we look at the graph below, we can clearly see that the range from 4 degrees above zero to 60 degrees above zero is the active range of microbial growth caused by bacteria in liquids. Coffee liquor actually has all the nutrients for bacteria to grow in abundance, especially many acid-resistant microorganisms. During coffee making, water, utensils, equipment, environment, operators, and other excipients such as sugar are all sources of these bacteria.

Foreign formal, some large coffee brands, in the introduction of their own cold coffee products, are basically produced in the store, drinking. The cold-extract products that can be placed in supermarkets are either traditional canned coffee drinks with different names and packaging, or they have undergone extremely complex sterilization. The most commonly used beverage is high temperature sterilization treatment, and in the production, packaging process is also a strict sterile environment to avoid secondary pollution. However, for cold-extracted coffee, in order to preserve it for a long time, the current industry, including the United States and Japan, has no particularly effective method except high temperature sterilization. Because high temperature sterilization can not be used, high temperature sterilization will destroy the unique flavor of cold extraction, cold extraction after high temperature sterilization is not cold extraction. The sterilization method of cold extraction coffee is currently more common than two ways:

HTST (High temperature short time method sterilization): Use high temperature to coagulate or denature microbial proteins and enzymes and die.

Ultra-High Pressure Processing (UHP)

The problem with the former is that even a short period of ultra-high temperature will destroy the flavor of cold extraction. The problem with the latter is that it is extremely expensive and difficult to scale. At present, almost all the independent coffee brands that I have seen in China claim to retail canned cold extraction, and none of them adopt any similar technology.

My advice for on-site coffeehouse drinking is to make cold extract concentrates one day and use them the next day, not to exceed 48 hours, and to refrigerate. If it is self-filled in the store, please tell the guest that it must be finished on the same day. This is not the kind of canned beverage in our supermarket, but the take-away beverage with glass bottle or aluminum bottle instead of paper cup. because the entire process has not been sterilized.

If you see cold-extracted coffee drinks or cold-extracted coffee concentrates on the Internet in WeChat circle of friends, if the other party claims to have a shelf life of more than a week, it's best to ask what disinfection method the other party has adopted? Do you need to refrigerate? Anyway, it doesn't need refrigeration, and it can have a shelf life of more than 7 days. I dare not drink coffee without special professional disinfection.

Recently, some friends who invest in catering and consumer goods in the circle have come to consult, saying that in looking at some similar coffee fast-selling brands, my suggestion is to understand each other's production conditions and technology. Cold extraction itself is not a high-precision technology, there is no technical threshold, that is, for a coffee brand, cold extraction itself does not have any moat, just like ear-hanging coffee bags. But how to solve the retail packaging situation can maintain the flavor of cold extraction sterilization technology is the core technology.

For canned cold-extracted coffee, I think it must be an extremely large plate in China in the future. It is easy to copy a concept, and there will be more copies. At present, factory-style cold-extracted coffee products on the market are a time bomb in food safety. Selling canned drinks retail and selling pre-made coffee drinks in coffee shops are two completely different animal worlds.