Instant coffee is a lifesaver for most working people. They start their morning with it, drink during the day to keep themselves vigorous. Of course, instant coffee is inferior to the usual one in taste and aroma, but modern technologies are trying to neutralize this difference. There are only two technologies for creating instant coffee: freeze-drying and dry atomization.
Simpler and cheaper way
Dry spray is a very simple technique. Most often, inexpensive varieties are taken for making coffee in this way. There is special equipment for creating instant coffee using dry atomization. Ground coffee is placed in large glass extractor glasses, after which it is filled with water. The result is liquid coffee in very large quantities. Then the coffee is concentrated, as is done, for example, with juices. Excess water is evaporated until a thick, viscous mixture remains in the extractors, which is then dry sprayed to remove the remaining water.
The technology for such spraying was invented seventy years ago. It works in a similar way to a shower. The liquid passes through the holes and turns into droplets. They are exposed to a stream of very hot air, which allows them to quickly evaporate excess water to obtain a dry extract of coffee, which is the usual soluble. The evaporated water is collected in special collectors, since it contains a huge amount of aromatic substances. This liquid is subjected to distillation, as a result, the resulting substance smells like coffee two thousand times stronger than a natural product. If this substance gets on your clothes, you will have to throw it away, since the smell of coffee from it will be almost unbearable. This highly scented concentrate is added to the dry extract to give it its characteristic aroma.
Freezing or sublimation method
Freeze-dried coffee is coffee that has been freeze-dried. The crushed coffee is dissolved in a small amount of water, then the resulting drink is poured onto special wide trays with a very thin layer, the trays are placed in special refrigerators. Certain temperatures and pressures in freezers cause the water to evaporate. This leaves the freeze-dried coffee directly on the trays. The low temperature prevents the aroma from evaporating, which eventually remains inside the resulting product. The coffee extract obtained by freezing, which most of all resembles a thin layer of ice, is broken into small fragments and packaged. This method is more expensive than the dry spray method, which, of course, affects the final cost of the product.
