Evaluation of Steam Distillation of Roasted Coffee for

Quality Improvement of Soluble Coffee

NAOTO IMURA and OSAMU MATSUDA

Ajinomoto General Foods, Inc.
Sphere Tower Tennoz, 2-2-8 Higashi-shinagawa,
Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 140 JAPAN

ABSTRACT

Steaming of roasted and ground coffee is an effective operation to deliver a regular

brewed coffee flavor to a soluble coffee by adding back the steam condensate to the
extract obtained by the steamed coffee. However, acids generated by the steaming
resulted in increasing sourness of the soluble coffee. This increase of sourness is
known as a factor that deteriorates consumer's preference. A screw conveyer type
continuous steaming apparatus minimized the acid generation and contributed to flavor
improvement. Distillation of the steam condensate and "Partial Steaming", wherein only
the Arabica portion of the blend was stripped to recover superior aromas, were
explored. The products made by the techniques were evaluated by a consumer test and
improvement of consumer preference was confirmed by a multivariate analysis.

INTRODUCTION

Steam distillation of roasted coffee in a percolator column prior to water extraction is

known as a technique to deliver a regular brewed coffee flavor to a soluble coffee and
to improve quality of the products [1]. This technique, however, increase sourness in
the cup of soluble coffee made from the steamed coffee due to the generation of
acids during the steaming process [1]. In this study, a continuous system was evaluated
in recovering volatile aromas from coffee and reducing the acid generation during
steaming for quality improvement. For further improvement of flavor, aroma
rebalancing by distillation of the steam condensate and "Partial steaming" (solely the
Arabica portion of the blend was steamed to recover superior aromas) were examined
as means of manipulating coffee flavor.

T. Yano et al. (eds.), Developments in Food Engineering

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1994
368

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Materials
Coffee beans were roasted to a 20° L value by colorimeter measurement and ground to
a 3,000J.1m mean particle diameter for being steamed. Colombian coffee and Ivory
Coast were representatives for Arabica and Robusta respectively.

Equipment
Roasted and ground coffee was steamed in the apparatus illustrated below. The main
vessel has 2,000mm in length and 125mm ID. The screw flight pitch is 100mm and the
shaft diameter is 40mm.

Condenser Coffee Feeder

Rotary Valve

Condensate Tank
D- Residual Coffee

Figure 1. Continuous apparatus for recovery of coffee volatiles

The steam condensate was evaporated with an ordinary continuous evaporator

with a plate type heat exchanger under 625 mm Hg vacuum for distillation of the
steam condensate.

Analyses
Acid titration: The acids in the steam condensate and coffee extract were
titrated by 0.1 N sodium hydroxide solution to an end point of pH 8.1 and described in
milli-equivalent /g dry coffee.
Organoleptic evaluation: Freeze dried samples to which the steam condensate
was added back were provided for flavor evaluation. Expert panelists rated the
intensities of the attributes in 13 degrees; aromatic impact, a "Floral" note (a desirable
and typical note for Colombian coffee), an "Earthy" note (a note like soil), harsh note
and sourness. Eighteen ordinary consumer panelists evaluated flavor of the coffee
samples in eleven attributes for preference and ten for strength with five degree ratings.
The ratings on the attributes by the consumers were analyzed by a multivariate analysis
(factor analysis) to characterize the flavor.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Excess acid generation
Steam distillation of roasted and ground coffee in a percolator column resulted in
generating an extra amount of acids because the coffee was exposed to high
temperature for a long time as shown in Table 1. This generation of acids caused
increase of sourness in a cup of coffee made from the steamed coffee. The continuous
system enabled to recover as same amount of volatile aromas as the static bed
steaming in a short time as five minutes. The short residence time of coffee grounds
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resulted in minimizing the acid generation and consequently in reducing sourness in the
cup.

Table 1
Excess acid generation via steaming roasted and ground coffee in static bed and
continuous system in a counter current manner
(m equivalent / gm dried coffee )
Acids in Acids in Total Acids Acids in non Excess acids
Condensate Residual coffee steamed coffee Generated
Static bed*1 0.0562 0.136 0.192 0.128 0.064
Continuous*2 0.0414 0.136 0.177 0.179 - 0.002
*1 Steam pressure: 0.35 kglcm2, *2 Residence time: 5min.

Distillation and Partial Steaming (Steaming by Coffee Variety)

The freeze dried soluble coffee samples to which distilled steam condensate was added
showed a less harsh note, an undesirable aromatic, and less intensity of sourness by
expert panelists' evaluation. This correlated with the reduction of acid in the condensate
measured by titration. A process flow called "Partial steaming" was devised to obtain
steam condensate only from Colombian coffee (Arabica) portion of the blend for
superior aroma and to blend the residual coffee with non-steamed Ivory Coast
(Robusta) for good "body" and bitterness. The samples to which the "Partial steaming"
was applied showed a "Floral" note characterizing Colombian coffee, and less an
"Earthy" and harsh notes were perceived in the samples compared with the samples to
which steaming both Colombian and ivory Coast was applied. Six prototype samples of
freeze dried coffee were prepared with the combination of those techniques and
evaluated by consumer panelists. The samples evaluated were positioned on the
coordinate of two factors; "Preference of aroma / Strength of taste" and "Overall
preference" by plotting the factor scores for the samples. The samples to which
distillation and/or "Partial steaming" were applied were plotted at further positive side
on the axis that highly correlated with the "Overall preference". This was attributed to
the reduction of acids by distillation and to the preferable aroma, "Floral", derived
from Colombian coffee.

CONCLUSION

A continuous apparatus for steaming of roasted and ground coffee enabled us to

recover regular brewed coffee flavor in a soluble coffee. Sourness in a cup, which was
a disadvantage for steaming a static coffee bed in a percolator column, was also
reduced with minimizing acids generation during steaming. Both distillation and "Partial
steaming" were able to manipulate aroma and sourness of the coffee steam distillation
was applied, and were effective techniques to improve consumer's acceptance of a
soluble coffee.

REFERENCES
1. Imura, N. and Matsuda, 0., Volatile aroma recovery from roasted coffee by
steaming and its effects on soluble coffee products,. Nippon Sbokllbin Kogyo
Crakkaisbi, 1992,39, 531-535.