Development of extraction process and characterization of cold brew coffee

咖啡是加拿大和世界其他地方最受欢迎的饮料之一。虽然加拿大不生产咖啡豆，但它进口大量的绿豆，加工成高附加值的产品。咖啡含有丰富的抗氧化剂，可以降低患心血管疾病、2型糖尿病、阿尔茨海默病和帕金森病的风险。在过去的几年里，消费者迅速接受了冷冲咖啡，因为它比传统的热冲咖啡更少苦，更少酸。这种特性对于对饮料的酸味和苦味敏感的消费者来说是可取的。此外，从健康的角度来看，苦味的减少也使黑咖啡（即不含糖和油）更容易被消费者接受，从而减少了他们的卡路里摄入量。冷萃咖啡的温和特征归因于冲泡过程，包括在冷藏或温度下将烘焙好的咖啡粉浸泡在水中，持续时间延长（12至24小时）。这个过程提出了一些独特的技术和产品挑战，必须克服这些挑战才能确保商业成功。目前，基于系统研究的综合信息在冷萃咖啡的文献中基本上不存在。拟议的研究将使工业合作伙伴能够利用学术界的专业知识，更好地了解冷萃咖啡的提取和固有特性，这在扩大其台式专有工艺的过程中具有战略意义。通过培养高素质的人才，本项目的目标是：(1)培养对冷萃提取工艺的基本认识；(2)设计并搭建连续冷萃咖啡提取的台式样机，并将其扩展到中试规模；(3)了解气泡对啤酒提取和发泡性能的影响；(4)咖啡冲泡物的理化性质表征。虽然该项目的主要受益者是工业合作伙伴，但所获得的科学知识将有利于加拿大咖啡行业，通过增加他们在国内和国际冷萃咖啡市场的竞争优势。

Coffee is one of the most popular beverages in Canada and elsewhere the world. Although Canada does not produce coffee beans, it does import a large quantity of green beans for processing into highly value-added products. Coffee is rich in antioxidants, which have been implicated in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disorders, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Over the past few years, there is a rapid acceptance of cold brew coffee by consumer because it is less bitter and less acidic than the conventional hot brewed coffees. This characteristic is desirable to consumers who are sensitive to the acidity and bitterness of the beverage. Also, from a health perspective, the reduced bitterness also makes black coffee (i.e., no sugar and crème) more amenable to consumers, thereby reducing their calorie intake. The milder profiles of cold brew coffee are attributable to the brewing process which involves steeping roasted coffee ground in water at refrigerated or temperature, for an extended duration (12 to 24 h). This process presents some unique technical and product challenges that must be overcome to ensure commercial success. Currently, integrated information based on systematic studies is largely non-existing in the literature for cold brew coffee. The proposed research will allow the industrial partner to leverage academia expertise to develop better understand on the extraction and inherent properties of cold brew coffee, which is of strategic importance during the scale up of their bench top proprietary process. Through training of highly qualified personnel, the objectives of this project are: (1) Development of fundamental understanding of cold brew extraction process; (2) Design and build benchtop prototypes for continuous cold brew coffee extraction, to be expanded to pilot-scale process; (3) Understanding the effects of bubbles on brew extraction and foaming properties; (4) Characterizing physicochemical properties of coffee brews. While the main beneficiary of the project is the industrial partner, the scientific knowledge derived will be beneficial for the Canadian coffee industry in general, through increasing their competitive advantage in the domestic and international cold brew coffee markets.