Coffee illy, created from the finest 100% Arabica beans, is known all over the world. Before getting into the cup, coffee goes a long way, which begins on plantations in distant lands. To turn a green coffee bean into a unique blend illy, the company uses many years of experience and advanced technology.

ORIGIN

What is coffee made from? The fact that this product is of plant origin is known to all. However, coffee harvested from trees looks completely different from beans in their usual packaging. The coffee plant is an evergreen shrub of the genus Coffee and part of the botanical family rubiaceae. The familiar coffee beans are inside the red berry. In one berry there are two grains surrounded by a shell and a sweetish-tasting pulp.

PLANTATIONS

In order to provide the highest quality coffee, the company illycaffe cooperates directly with producers of raw materials, without buying coffee lots on the stock exchange. When purchasing raw materials, samples are subjected to rigorous selection and taste and smell tests. Grains that do not meet the standards for external parameters or aroma are ruthlessly screened out.

The best land for growing coffee is located in Asia, Africa And America in the tropical zone - between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. World leader in the production of Arabica coffee - Brazil. They also play a significant role in coffee production. Indonesia, Colombia And India.

Ideal Conditions- temperature 17-30 degrees Celsius, altitude up to 2500 meters, annual rainfall from 1200 to 2000 millimeters (for comparison, in Italy the average falls about 1000 millimeters per year) and soil rich in nitrogen, potassium and humus.

The coffee plant begins to bloom with the advent of the rainy season. Coffee berries ripen eight to nine months after the flowers appear. Due to these characteristics of flowering, ripe and unripe fruits can appear on the same branch, so picking berries becomes a complex procedure that requires precision and accuracy.

VARIETIES

There are several varieties Coffee, of which it is recognized as the best quality Arabica, which today is 59 % world coffee production.

Arabica coffee beans are oblong, with a sinuous groove in the middle. The Arabica tree is very whimsical, does not tolerate temperature changes, requires a lot of moisture, grows only on hills: (plantations are located at an altitude of 1000 to 2500 meters above sea level). Coffee made from Arabica beans has a rich aroma with floral notes and a sweet, rounded taste with a pleasant sourness and caramel aftertaste. The caffeine content in Arabica is low and ranges from 0.9 to 1.7%. This means that a cup of espresso brewed from these beans contains 60-80 milligrams of caffeine.

The second most popular variety, after Arabica, is Robusta. In terms of taste, it is much inferior to Arabica, in addition, its grains contain large quantity caffeine. The taste of Robusta coffee is distinctly bitter, often sharp and astringent, and the aroma is barely perceptible. This is due to the lower percentage of aromatic oils compared to Arabica. Robusta is not used in its pure form: it is either used to make instant coffee or added to coffee blends to reduce the cost of the final product. The third variety of the coffee plant is called Liberica. Moreover, Liberica gives coffee of very low quality, so it has not received wide distribution.

Into a unique blend illy includes 9 varieties of premium 100% Arabica beans from four continents, carefully selected and skillfully combined to create the perfect balance of taste.

VARIETIES OF COFFEE

Through years of selection, specialists illycaffe identified the most preferred Arabica varieties that grow on 4 continents. In 2010, illy introduced a special edition "Monoarabica". Now coffee connoisseurs can enjoy the taste of each individual variety from Brazil, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Colombia, Costa Rica And India. Read more about coffee varieties and features of their taste.

Instant coffee accounts for 80% of coffee sales in Russia. It is impossible to say whether it is good or bad, because high-quality instant coffee does not differ in properties and composition from natural coffee. Of course, if you do not compare the taste.

Arabica coffee is almost never used for the production of instant coffee, because in powder it practically loses its characteristic taste. The most commonly used cheaper and stronger African variety robusta.

Powdered and granulated coffee

For the production of instant coffee, the beans are roasted, ground, boiled, then the mixture is injected under pressure into a special chamber, where coffee powder settles on the walls. Granulated coffee differs only in the size of the lumps.

It is important that intense pressure changes the molecular structure of the bean, while the aroma and taste of coffee are lost. Coffee oil or flavors are used to impart a coffee flavor to the granules.

The truth about Nescafe

When preparing granulated coffee, it goes through 26 stages of chemical processing, and almost completely loses its properties. Nestle has patented this method, and this is how Nescafe coffee classic.

But, if high pressure is used to make powdered and granulated coffee, which causes the loss of most of the properties of natural coffee, then freeze-dried coffee differs little from ordinary coffee in its properties.

Sublimated coffee (freeze dried)

Outwardly, it looks almost the same as granulated, but it is prepared according to a fundamentally different technology: the coffee extract is frozen at a very low temperature, then it is dehydrated in a vacuum and crushed into crystals.

This is the most expensive way to produce instant coffee, allowing you to save beneficial features, taste and aroma of grains. For packaging freeze-dried coffee are always used glass jars- they preserve the product better.

What is McCoffee made from?

In 3-in-1 drinks, at best, they contain powdered or granulated coffee of cheap varieties, at worst, a mixture of herbal supplements (rye, wheat, chicory). Calling this mixture coffee is not even a stretch.

***

High-quality freeze-dried coffee (Nescafe Gold, Jacobs, Tchibo Exclusive) is not much different from regular coffee in composition, but cheap drinks, and especially 3-in-1 coffee, have nothing in common with natural coffee.

Main botanical species coffee trees represented by robusta and arabica. Arabica is characterized by an extreme taste variety, while Robusta has a high caffeine content. Arabica accounts for 85-90% of world coffee production, the remaining 10-15% - for robusta. The choice of varieties depends on the climatic conditions of the country involved in the cultivation of coffee. Coffee trees that are afraid of the cold can only grow in the tropics. The area of ​​coffee growth from the north is limited by the Tropic of Cancer, and from the south by the Tropic of Capricorn.

The acceptable temperature range for growing Arabica beans is from 15 to 25 degrees Celsius, Robusta - from 23 to 30 degrees. The ideal growing heights (meaning the height above sea level) range from 700-2200 meters for Arabica, 250-900 meters for Robusta. The exception is the Ugandan Robusta, which grows well at an altitude of 1200 meters.

Wild coffee trees can reach a height of 10-16 meters. Their maximum height on plantations is no more than 4.5 meters (pruning makes it easier to collect fruits). Since out of the 65 years that make up the maximum lifespan of coffee trees, they bear fruit for 20 years, industrial plantings are subject to periodic renewal. The first fruits appear on trees that have reached the age of three. The snow-white flowers of coffee trees are unusually beautiful.

During the flowering period, they shower branches like snow flakes. A few days later, dried flowers give way to coffee berries. Since the flowering of coffee trees is a continuous process, berries of varying degrees of ripeness constantly coexist on their branches: unripe - green, mature - red or yellow, overripe - dark red, dark yellow or black. The color of ripe fruits (red or yellow) is determined by the coffee variety.

How coffee is made. From picking to roasting

1. Timing and methods of harvesting

Harvest time in different parts of the globe occurs at different times. In Brazil, it is limited to the time frame from April to September, on the plantations of Costa Rica - from September to January, Ethiopian coffee is harvested in October-December, and Malawian - from December to February. The coffee year starts on October 1st and ends on September 30th.

Coffee pickers are much more likely to resort to "stripping" - a method that does not leave a single berry on the branches. Fruits of varying degrees of maturity are sent to the processing station ("wet mill"), where they are sorted. Mechanized coffee harvesting (using specialized combines) is not always possible due to the fact that coffee plantations are often located on too steep mountain slopes: agricultural vehicles simply cannot pass there. Coffee harvesting is most mechanized on Brazilian plantations. With "stripping" and mechanized harvesting, the collection of both immature and overripe fruits is inevitable.

Video: How is coffee made?

The harvested crop should still be consolidated. This is a very important step. Do not be naive to believe that coffee producers receive raw materials directly from the plantations or buy them on the coffee exchange. Such cases are so rare that they can be counted on the fingers. The export of coffee from the country of origin occurs in a different way. For example, in a country that grows coffee, there is a farmer whose plantation produces up to ten tons of coffee beans during the year. Where can he put the harvested crop? He simply cannot process coffee on his own, since there is a sharply negative assessment of “home-grown” processing in the coffee business. African coffee that has undergone a "washed" processing, carried out by the efforts of the farmer himself, is referred to as "washed". Coffee beans processed at a specialized processing station acquire the “fully washed” label and a higher price category.

2. Processing coffee beans

Before being exported, the coffee usually goes to a processing station. Today there are two types of such stations:

1. "wet mill" (wet processing point);
2. "dry mill" (dry processing point), although there is still a lot of confusion in terminology.

In fact, everything is very simple: coffee beans undergo either washed or natural (dry) processing. Confusion arises when translating terms into Russian. In English terminology, processed coffee beans are referred to either as “dry processed” (dry or natural processing) or “wet processed” (wet processing). As a result of natural processing, natural coffee is obtained, and wet processing gives the consumer washed coffee. In the context of translation into Russian, it turns out that "natural" coffee is opposed to "washed".

Abstracting from linguistic subtleties, it is important to understand the following: dry (natural) processing of coffee fruits, not peeled, comes down to their elementary drying in the sun. Wet processing requires the presence of water to sort and process the coffee beans. Let's look at each of these methods in more detail.

In the coffee growing regions, two methods of fruit processing are used: natural (or dry - "dry") and wet (or wet - "washed"). During dry processing, coffee beans are dried either directly on the soil or on special clay and concrete platforms. Dry-processed fruits acquire a rich and strong taste, high intensity and pronounced sweetness. However, at the same time, they may have a specific aftertaste that not everyone likes. Grains dried on the ground often have a very unpleasant defect - a characteristic earthy taste.

Despite the richness and brightness of the taste of dry processed coffee beans, washed coffee beans are valued higher in all corners of the globe. There is a simple explanation for this. The choice of dry processing is sometimes not dictated by the desire for a rich taste. This method is often chosen by farmers who are deprived of the opportunity to transfer their coffee to the wet processing point in time. In this case, the desire for product quality is often not up to par. For real quality product, in no way inferior to washed coffee, can only be done if all technological rules natural processing. Ideal conditions for dry processing coffee beans exist in regions where the harvest coincides with a long dry period that excludes the possibility of precipitation. Such climatic conditions exist in Brazil, Indonesia, Yemen, Ethiopia. The main technological nuance of natural drying is the prolonged contact of coffee beans with the extremely sweet tissues of the skin that envelops them.

Video: Film about coffee

In the process of wet processing, coffee fruits are depulped, completely freed from the skin, after which they are sent to huge tanks filled with water. In them, the fruits are aged until the gluten is completely discharged. When immersed in water, some of the defective grains, which have a very low density and are called "floats", immediately float up. All "floats" must be removed immediately, as they will turn into black coals in the fryer. With the help of special devices, unripe fruits are also sorted. At the end of wet processing, all grains are dried: either in the sun (as in natural processing), or in mechanical dryers.

Compared to naturally dried fruits, the taste of wet-processed beans is more balanced and soft. Wet processing, unlike dry processing, enhances the sourness of the coffee beans rather than their sweetness. Given this feature, wet processing is resorted to in regions that grow coffee varieties that have their own unique acidity. Wet processing of coffee is also forced to resort to countries that do not have the opportunity to subject the grains to long-term natural drying, since the harvest in them coincides with the rainy season. Thus, most of the coffee grown in the world is wet processed, and the ability to choose between beans that have undergone different ways processing, only enriches the taste palette of the drink loved by all.

3. Logistics and transportation of coffee

The notorious farmer, whose harvest amounted to ten tons of coffee fruits, has two options: either take them to a wet processing point, or engage in independent natural processing. With any option for processing the crop, the farmer will be forced to sell it to the exporter due to the impossibility of organizing the entire logistics chain to ensure the delivery of the finished product from his plantation to the port and from it to the recipient of the cargo. Most farmers, who have no idea about the structure of the banking system, are not able to pay off the recipient of the products. The exporter, acting as an intermediary, sells the coffee beans to a stock trader who then sells them to either a reputable self-importing coffee roaster or a significant coffee importing firm. The shipment of coffee from the growing region is carried out by the exporter, and the guarantee of the arrival of valuable cargo at the destination is provided by an international company.

Video: As it is. Coffee

Direct negotiations with coffee producers on plantations are conducted in very rare cases. This mainly applies to the vast Brazilian plantations with an excellent worldwide reputation, as well as roasters who own their plantations in the place of cultivation. A great rarity is the direct purchase of microlots - very small (about two dozen bags) batches of coffee of the highest quality. In the vast majority of cases, the purchase and transportation of coffee is carried out according to the scheme described above.

The processed grains are dried before export and poured into bags. To acquire the desired taste, manufacturers (most often Brazilian) subject coffee to aging in special silos.

From the places of growth, coffee is exported in jute bags, the weight of which in Central American countries is 69 kg, in Colombia - 70 kg, in Brazil and countries in the Asian and African regions - 60 kg. Expensive coffees come in bags of arbitrary weight: the Galapagos standard is twenty-five kg, the Yemeni is twenty kg, New Caledonian coffee is packed in ten-kg bags, and Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee beans are exported in barrels holding fifteen kg. Polypropylene can be used as the bag material. For the transport of coffee, the exporter rents twenty-foot containers (with a capacity of at least twenty tons) from a shipping company and fills them with bags of green beans.

4. Coffee roasting

Coffee that arrived in the country of consumption and got to the roaster is roasted on special machines - roasters. They are:

• gas and electric;
• automatic and manual;
• convector and drum.

Each of these machines roasts beans in a different way.

There is only one rule for roasting coffee: the darker it is, the less acidity becomes, but the bitterness, strength and richness of taste only increase. The profession of roasting coffee is of extraordinary interest for a true connoisseur of this drink. The main difficulty of roasting is that during this process, the behavior of not only different varieties coffee, but also various roasting machines.

In addition to constantly looking for a roasting method that is suitable for a particular type of coffee, the roaster must take into account the individual behavior of the roaster used. You can't learn the art of coffee roasting from a book alone. It is acquired only empirically, necessarily taking into account the density of grains (depending on the height of cultivation) and their taste parameters. Roasting should be done only in the region of consumption, as close as possible to coffee consumers. In such a huge country as Russia, the roasting of beans intended for Muscovites should be done in Moscow, and for coffee lovers from Khabarovsk, in Khabarovsk itself. The reason is that coffee beans retain their intense taste and amazing aroma only for the first two weeks after roasting. Over the next eight weeks, coffee gradually loses these characteristics, and its quality is rated "four". After two months after roasting, the score taste properties the drink is reduced to "C grade". Coffee that has been roasted for four months can simply be thrown away: its smell becomes rancid, which cannot but affect the taste.

One of the main components of the quality of coffee beans is the freshness of the roast, but it is in relation to this parameter that incredible amount omissions. In spite of a large number of Russian companies involved in roasting coffee at the highest professional level, the freshness of roasted coffee lying on the shelves of supermarkets is not always up to par.

To store coffee, it is best to use a bag with a valve (either foil or paper). It is advisable to drink it within two months after purchase. A person who has not undergone any special training can prepare coffee, which cannot be said about preparing it with the help of professional coffee machines. This should be done only by baristas - people who have completed a course of special training. The profession of a barista is akin to an art: in the hands of a true professional, even mediocre coffee can turn into a cup of delicious espresso, and an inexperienced specialist can ruin the best beans.

cup secret good coffee Thus, it consists of three components: the quality of the grains themselves, the professional level of the roaster and the art of the barista. The participation of a barista significantly complicates the consumer's task of assessing the taste parameters of their favorite drink. Another nuance of high-quality coffee is the date of roasting: the more time passes from its moment, the worse its taste.

How is instant coffee made?

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Instant coffee technology

Everyone claims that instant coffee is 100% coffee. You can consider the stages of production of such a drink.

To begin with, the coffee berries are cleaned and the coffee beans are left. About 20 kilograms of grains are obtained from a centner of berries. After that, the coffee beans are roasted and brewed for 4-5 hours under a pressure of about 15 atmospheres. You need to boil the grains until all the substances turn into a liquid. The resulting extract must then be cooled, filtered and concentrated by evaporation.

During the cooking process, most of the aromatic compounds evaporate. Somehow, these aromas are collected and at the end of the instant coffee preparation, it is infused with these aromatic extracts.

There are several types of instant coffee:

Powder- this is when the filtered extract is purified, removing all insoluble substances and resins, and then dried at high temperatures in a dryer. After the drying chamber, a powder of various sizes is obtained. That is, very strong coffee is brewed, then this strong concentrate is dried under steam and a powder is obtained. The powder method is the cheapest and most common.

Instant coffee granules.

Granulated coffee is no longer a powder that sticks to a spoon, but steam compressed into small lumps. From powdered coffee, granular differs only in the last stage, since after preparation it is knocked into granules. After the powder is obtained, it is still passed through steam, due to which the powder particles stick together into granules.

Freeze-dried instant coffee in the form of crystals that have clear edges.

Sublimated or freeze-dried (frozen) coffee is produced using the freeze-drying technology. The frozen coffee extract crystals are dehydrated by vacuum distillation. This process better preserves the constituents of the extract, but due to the more energy-intensive technology, it is more expensive than other types of instant coffee.

Freeze-dried coffee often costs more than natural coffe. Thanks to this manufacturing method, all the biological qualities of coffee are preserved, and the product is obtained enough High Quality. This coffee is very similar to fresh brewed coffee.

But, despite the improved manufacturing technology, freeze-dried coffee is still brewed, and brewed for 3-4 hours. After that, and under a pressure of 15 atmospheres, a high-quality product cannot be obtained in any way. During brewing, 50% of the coffee is still dissolved. Although they found new methods for the production of instant coffee, the overall taste did not change. Yes, the aroma and taste have become a little different, maybe even better, but there is nothing useful in such a drink.

Regardless of which method of making instant coffee is used, it is still made from the cheaper Robusta variety. Robusta is much more resistant to climatic conditions than Arabica, and therefore the yield of this variety is much higher. Robusta also contains more caffeine. There are cases when instant coffee is made from a mixture of Robusta and Arabica, but this is very rare.

16 Apr

How and from what is instant coffee made?

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There are many myths around instant coffee, and the main question, the answer to which only manufacturers know, remains open: what is instant coffee actually made of? How natural is it and how is the powder or granules obtained? How exactly is instant coffee produced and what are its differences between different manufacturers? We understand together with the founder of the company "KLD Coffee Importers" Andrei Elson and a former employee of the Mospishchekombinat enterprise, who still works in the coffee industry, but asked not to disclose his name.

The process of producing instant coffee is divided into several stages. First, the green grains are cleaned and sorted. Then they are fried and not very finely ground. After the mixture is loaded into extraction batteries (approximately the same as a coffee maker), where the extraction process takes place, that is, brewing: high pressure, flow hot water through which ground coffee particles are passed. There is nothing supernatural in the extraction process, it also occurs, for example, in a Turk, only in our case on an industrial scale. The resulting extract is collected in tanks, where excess moisture is removed from it (by analogy with how, for example, condensed milk is made from ordinary milk). Further, the concentrated extract is processed using one of two technologies: "spray dry" or "freeze dry". During the "spray dry", the extract is sprayed with hot air, which "seizes" the coffee droplets, after which they turn into powder. This is an old technology, now it is rarely used. Most manufacturers work using the “freeze dry” technology - freezing: the extract is fed into sublimators, sprayed and frozen.

Former employee of the enterprise "Mospishchekombinat"

I have been trading green coffee beans for over 20 years. Our company works with large companies, such as Produkt-Service, Strauss, Live Coffee, Russian Product, Moscow Coffee House on Shares, as well as with small roasters who work in the premium segment in almost all regions of Russia. They make both roasted ground and instant coffee from our beans.

Most instant coffee is made from Robusta, Arabica is rarely used. But not because Robusta is cheap or bad, but because it has more caffeine and high extractivity, which ensures the solubility of the product, these are essential factors for production. The caffeine content of Robusta averages 2.2%, while Arabica coffee averages 0.6%. The production of instant coffee is built in such a way that during the process the coffee loses some amount of caffeine and extract. If it is made from Arabica, there will be practically nothing left of it.

Briefly, the process looks like this: coffee is roasted, ground, brewed, moisture evaporated and ground. They do it quickly - it takes about 15 minutes to roast, and everything else takes about two hours.

There are two production technologies: “spray dry” and “freeze dry”. In the first process, the moisture is evaporated from the coffee, the extract is pulverized, and it turns into a powder. In the “freeze dry” the same stages, only at the end the extract is frozen and served in a slow stream to the drum, the temperature of which is about minus 60 degrees: coffee particles stick to the drum while it is spinning, the moisture freezes out, and the mixture crumbles no longer as a powder, but granules.

There are three types of instant coffee: powder (“spray dry”), compressed powder (also “spray dry”; for example, Nescafe Classic) and granules (“freeze dry”). During production, nothing is added to coffee (sugar, flavorings, and so on), it is done only during packaging.

There is such a parameter as glucose content. If, in addition to beans, coffee husks are used in the production of instant coffee (the pulp of the coffee berry contains sugar), it increases the glucose content.

Every company, be it Jacobs or Nestle, has its own standards. The consumer may not feel a big difference, but usually there is: after all, companies use different raw materials, different roasts. For example, if you take three types of Black Card coffee - Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia - you will understand the difference in taste: Ecuador buys a lot of Vietnamese and Indonesian Robusta; Brazilian producers make coffee from conylon, Brazilian Robusta, it has a completely different, more tart taste; There is no Robusta in Colombia, only Arabica.

If you simply try instant coffee from a tape, it will have practically no smell. The aroma is influenced by the addition of coffee oils, which are obtained in the process between roasting and brewing. This is a technology for collecting aroma, liquefying it and returning it to instant coffee, but there is no chemistry there. essential oil very little, but it gives aroma; it is also added to instant coffee already at the time of packaging.