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。加拿大虽然不生产咖啡豆，但进口大量绿色咖啡豆，加工成高附加值产品。咖啡富含抗氧化剂，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，冷煮咖啡迅速被消费者接受，因为它比传统的热煮咖啡更少苦味和酸性。这种特性对于对饮料的酸度和苦味敏感的消费者来说是理想的。此外，从健康的角度来看，减少的苦味也使黑咖啡（即，不含糖和奶油）更适合消费者，从而减少他们的卡路里摄入量。冷煮咖啡的较温和的轮廓归因于冲泡过程，该冲泡过程包括将烘焙咖啡粉在冷藏或低温下浸泡在水中，持续延长的持续时间（12至24小时）。这一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煮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，更好地了解冷煮咖啡的提取和固有特性，这在扩大其台式专有工艺过程中具有战略重要性。通过培训高素质的人员，该项目的目标是：（1）发展对冷煮提取过程的基本理解;（2）设计和建造连续冷煮咖啡提取的台式原型，以扩大到中试规模的过程;（3）了解气泡对酿造提取和起泡性能的影响;（4）表征咖啡酿造物的物理化学性质。虽然该项目的主要受益者是工业合作伙伴，但通过提高加拿大咖啡业在国内和国际冷煮咖啡市场的竞争优势，所获得的科学知识将对整个加拿大咖啡业有益。

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.