Is freeze-dried coffee instant coffee? What are the advantages and disadvantages of spray drying?

You may have heard of "spray dry manufacturing" and coffee lovers. You can easily brew and drink an image of "instant coffee", which at first glance is an "espresso granule". This time, I want to talk about spray-dried products found not only in coffee, but also in tea, flour, rice and other foods and medicines.

Instant coffee and spray drying formulations

Spray drying is a method in which liquids or a mixture of liquids and solids are sprayed into the gas and dried quickly at high temperatures to produce "dry powder". When chewing, it is a "crystal that dries instantly at high temperature".

The birth background of instant coffee

The background of the development of instant coffee is actually coffee beans that have collapsed in the coffee giant Brazil since the late 1920s. Around this time, due to the overcultivation of coffee, Brazil left too many coffee beans. The Brazilian government wants to do something about this "lost coffee bean" because it is illiquid.

Spray-dried products and freeze-dried

Coffee bean aroma carbon dioxide gas

At that time, the method of making instant coffee (which can be called epoch-making) was actually extracted from two methods. This is the freeze-drying manufacturing method and "spray drying manufacturing method" introduced this time. In contrast to freeze-drying, which does not use heat to concentrate flavor, spray-dried products are characterized by "each particle is good and easily soluble in water". It is also said to be light and suitable for long-term storage.

What is the manufacturing method of spray drying?

As mentioned earlier, the spray drying method is "instantaneous drying of crystals at high temperature".

We will build a tower facility for drying and dripping coffee mist about 40 m high. Then, by blowing hot air at a temperature of about 200 ℃ until the coffee fog drips, the water in the coffee fog is blown away and crystallized.

Advantages and disadvantages of spray drying

It seems to be a large and expensive manufacturing method, but the structure of the tower equipment is very simple and suitable for mass production. Therefore, the most important advantage of spray drying is that there is almost no product loss and can maintain a low cost. In addition, because the powder itself is very small, it is easily soluble in water or milk.

The disadvantage of spray drying is that the ingredients are sprayed at high temperature, so there is a lot of flavor loss. However, we have recently heard that the mass change caused by heat is decreasing due to technological progress.

If you want to use instant coffee as hot coffee, the freeze-drying process can easily dissolve in hot water without losing its flavor. If you want to enjoy it like iced coffee, it is said that it is recommended to use "spray drying" which is soluble in water.

In addition, to enjoy instant coffee deliciously, it is best to combine two ideas. One is to boil hot water at 80 °C (boil the boiling water with a wet cloth for 10 seconds), and the other is to bring it to a boil in a frying pan and then boil. All you need to do is bake it into a faint smell, so please give it a try.

Summary of spray drying manufacturing methods

The method of spray drying is to spray the coffee liquid with gas and dry it with hot air to make the powder. Spray-dried coffee dissolves easily in water, so it is suitable for iced coffee. Compared with freeze-drying manufacturing methods, people worry that the use of calories will reduce the flavor, but due to technological improvements, the quality changes seem to be less.