Freeze-dried coffee - is it natural coffee or not?

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

In an environment where time is equivalent to money, much has to be sacrificed to save it. For example, the unsurpassed taste of natural coffee.

Yes, you need to try hard to feel this taste. Collect, clean and dry the coffee beans. Properly fry them, grind, cook. A whole ritual that has a lot of subtleties and tricks.

What can I say, even if you buy already assembled, roasted and ground coffee in the store, there is often still not enough time to prepare it. And sometimes special knowledge.

You have to be content with instant coffee, which, although inferior in taste and aroma, is prepared in less than a minute and in any conditions. But since we have to compromise, we will choose the best of the alternative proposals. So is it true that freeze-dried coffee is the same as real coffee?

First, let's figure out what types of instant coffee are.

Powder. They do it this way: for a certain time, the grains are treated with a jet of hot water. Then the resulting infusion is filtered and sprayed in special chambers,filled with hot gas. Drops of coffee liquid coagulate, dry, and become a powder

Granulated. It is made according to the same principle, but the powder is doused with hot steam, as a result of which granules are formed

And, finally, natural freeze-dried coffee, which we will discuss later

Freeze-dried coffee is instant coffee made using dry freeze technology. Roasted grains are crushed and boiled for three hours in special sealed containers. In this case, the steam does not fly into the air, but is removed in a special way with the help of pipes. It is needed to extract the aromatic substances found in the essential oils of coffee beans.

Further, the boiled coffee mass is frozen using quick freezing technologies and then dehydrated using vacuum under low pressure conditions. It turns out a fairly dense briquette. They crush it and get the very wrong pyramid crystals.

However, these crystals have no aroma, and what coffee without aroma! Here the manufacturer can go in two ways: use essential oils collected from steam or artificial flavors. Needless to say, the second option is much cheaper, but its quality is appropriate.

As you can see, this technology ismore difficult and more energy intensive. So, instant freeze-dried coffee is quite expensive compared to granulated and, moreover, powder coffee.

Although this type of instant coffee is the best, the quality of coffee produced by different companies varies. The reason may be low-quality raw materials, violation of technology, use of flavors, etc. The question arises: "Which freeze-dried coffee is better?" Until you try and choose your own, you will not get an answer to this question, because there is no arguing about tastes. But buying low-quality goods can be avoided by taking into account some factors.

1. If the packaging is transparent, inspect the granules. They should be large enough and have a light brown color. There should be no powder at the bottom of the jar, as its presence indicates that the technology was violated during the production process.
2. The material from which the package is made is not important for the safety of instant coffee. The main thing is that it is airtight. No cracks on transparent packages, rust on metal ones, etc.
3. The composition should include coffee and only it. Chicory, barley, "identical to natural" ingredients and other additives do not belong there, unless you intentionally buy coffee with certain properties.
4. Compare production and packaging dates. The smaller the difference between them, the better. Moreover, the total storage period should not exceed two years.

So, freeze-dried coffee is instant coffee prepared using a special technology that allowsto preserve the maximum possible taste and aromatic qualities for such a “coffee form”. If there are no Turks and coffee beans at hand, but only a jar of instant coffee, then let it be sublimated.