PROFILE Flavourtech
A new spin on coffee FLAVOURTECH OFFERS THE GLOBAL COFFEE INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS TO CAPITALISE ON TRENDS TOWARDS CONVENIENCE AND HEALTH IN THE INSTANT AND RTD SPACE.
T
wo years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the way people consume coffee has radically shifted. The instant and ready to drink (RTD) sectors in particular have benefitted as customers move from the café into the home. Flavourtech, a global manufacturer specialising in aroma recovery and extraction, has seen this demand grow firsthand, thanks to the popularity of its Integrated Extraction System (IES). “There are shelves and shelves full of RTD coffee beverages either in convenience stores, fuel stations, and groceries. Also, vending machines, where it started from in Japan, providing hot or cold RTDs and with a variety of flavours, are now spreading throughout the world,” says Paul Ahn, Sales Manager at Flavourtech. “We have seen an increase in demand [for RTD coffee], but more towards higher quality products in terms of better flavours, healthier choices, and cleaner labels. All this has been helped by people in general seeming to be more time poor, so they are looking for convenience as well when making these choices.” Ahn adds this focus on quality can also be seen in instant coffee, despite the convenience factor playing a major part in its growing consumption. “The demand for soluble coffee has gone up due to more people staying or being confined to their homes,” he says. “Though, they are seeking better quality coffee in terms of flavours, something that is close to the flavours of freshly brewed coffee. We now see a category called specialty instant coffee rise quickly.” High quality instant coffee has grown in popularity due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Flavourtech’s IES and its Spinning Cone Column (SCC) can capture the unique roast and ground (R&G) flavours of coffee beans through a natural process only using food grade steam. Ahn says this process allows coffee businesses to distinguish themselves from their competition by consistently providing a higher quality product. “Flavourtech has been manufacturing systems for more than 30 years, providing coffee companies globally the best way to meet this demand,” he says. “Flavourtech systems are designed with the customer and application in mind. Our design and engineering teams offer our customers a custom-built process to produce the highest quality RTD [and] it all starts from the raw material itself, the roasted beans, where the flavours are at their freshest and best.” The IES comprises of four modules, working together in a continuous and automated fashion with minimal labour input. “The IES is quite versatile, one day you can be making RTD tea, the next day it can be making RTD or soluble coffee,” Ahn says. “The versatility also extends to the ability to capture different aroma profiles from the same raw material by simply adjusting some user settings. This feature allows the manufacturer to offer a variety of flavours to meet the target taste preference.” The first module is the aroma capture station, consisting of a slurry preparation wet mill and the SCC. The beans are milled under a blanket of cold water, the water trapping the light desirable volatile aroma compounds during this cutting process. “This coffee slurry is then sent through the SCC where steam is used to strip the volatile R&G notes, and then these are stored at low temperatures and protected,” Ahn explains. “The coffee is brewed at the same time but in only 30 seconds as it travels through the column. The SCC utilises thin film technology to efficiently extract the aroma compounds as well as brew the coffee to produce the first extract which can then be used in RTD coffee.” The second module, used only in the soluble
M A R C H/A P R I L 2 0 2 2 | GCR
27
