Treatment processes and systems for improving the taste characteristic of green coffee beans
AssigneeSaltwinds Coffee Company Ltd.
InventorLaura Amanda Richard
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Abstract
Treatment processes and systems for improving the taste characteristic of green coffee beans are disclosed. One of the treatment processes includes a) providing an aqueous solution of water and inorganic salt, the aqueous solution having a salt concentration of at least 0.1 mol/L; b) exposing the green coffee beans to the aqueous solution until a mass of the green coffee beans has increased c) drying the green coffee beans with a bean dryer to produce dried green coffee beans comprising at least 0.3% inorganic salt by mass; and d) after said drying, storing the dried green coffee beans in a storage container.
Claims20
A treatment process for improving the taste characteristic of green coffee beans, comprising the steps of:
- providing an aqueous solution of water and inorganic salt, the aqueous solution having a salt concentration of at least 0.1 mol/L;
- exposing the green coffee beans to the aqueous solution until a mass of the green coffee beans has increased;
- drying the green coffee beans with a bean dryer to produce dried green coffee beans comprising at least 0.3% inorganic salt by mass;
- and
- after said drying, storing the dried green coffee beans in a storage container.
A treatment system for improving the taste characteristic of green coffee beans, the system comprising:
- a green coffee bean hopper having a bean storage volume, and a bean hopper outlet downstream of the bean storage volume;
- a salt infuser positioned downstream of the bean hopper outlet, the salt infuser comprising an aqueous inorganic salt solution reservoir, wherein the salt infuser is configured to expose green coffee beans received from the bean hopper outlet to the contents of the aqueous inorganic salt solution reservoir;
- and
- a bean dryer positioned downstream of the salt infuser.
A roasted coffee bean comprising at least 0.3% inorganic salt by mass.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.