Product and process for producing an agglomerated instant coffee having a roast ground appearance

Abstract

A process for producing an agglomerated instant coffee product having a roasted and ground appearance comprising: a. milling spray-dried instant coffee to produce a milled powder of an average particle size of 25 to 75 microns; b. adjusting the cohesiveness of the powder so that it will flow and will bind together with slight compaction; c. forming a regular shaped, loosely bound, structurally intact cluster from the cohesive adjusted powder, said cluster have a size of 800 to 2100 microns; d. fusing the outer surface of the cluster to a depth of from 5 to 30 microns; and e. drying and screening the fused clusters to produce an agglomerated instant coffee having a density of from 0.20 to 0.28 gms/cc, a hardness value of less than 8, a color of 17 to 24 Lumetron units and an average agglomerate size of from 800 to 1,300 microns. When this process is employed, an agglomerate instant coffee is produced at commercially acceptable rates which has a dark color, a fused surface and a size giving the appearance of roasted and ground coffee. Furthermore, the product has a light density yielding about one cup of coffee per teaspoon of instant coffee.

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