STiR coffee and tea magazine

Volume 4, Number 1

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56 STiR tea & coffee industry international LBP introduced an open-sided generic capsule compatible with Keurig brewers called the UpShot. LBP cup utilized the mesh sides of the capsule to filter the coffee. Buying empty capsules from LBP avoided the 6.2-cents per cup royalty that licensed users paid Keurig. Melikian at ABCD uses LBP manufactured mesh sided cups. To reduce exposure to oxygen and increase shelf life, open sided capsules must be nitrogen flushed and overwrapped or packaged in conventional coffee bags with valves. Since there is no internal filter the cups hold up to 14 grams of coffee. One of the big benefits is the "ahhh" effect, said Me- likian. "When a customer opens the pouch they instantly smell the coffee," he said. "You can see the coffee through the clear lid," he added. Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee in Toronto designed its Real- Cup to be compatible with Keurig machines but with an internal plastic filter. Oxygen is purged by nitrogen gas eliminating the need for overwrap. Last year a biodegradable version called the EcoCup was introduced and later awarded the "Most Innova- tive Product" by the Packaging Consortium. "The EcoCup solution is a true game-changer in the rapidly growing single-serve capsule market," said Mother Parkers Bill VandenBygaart. Packing cartons The capsule filling line at POD Pack International's new $10.1 million manufacturing facility in Baton Rouge is state-of-the art. Tom Martin, e.v.p. and c.o.o. of the coffee co-packer said that weight tolerances for the single-serve filling and sealing line were set at two-tenths of a gram. "At 25,000 cups per shift we rejected only 50," said Martin. "I've never seen anything like that. It's better than we expect- ed," he said. The combination grinder, degasser and densifier (supplied by MPE) fills the formed polystyrene capsules in a controlled atmosphere using a nitrogen flushing technique that displaces air in the space below the built-in paper filter. The Keurig compatible capsules are then sealed and "nested" in 12-, 18-, and 24-count cartons. Martin installed the line in December. "It was the nearest thing to plug-and-play I've ever seen," he said. Probat UW series two-stage grinder Fill and packing equipment Early adopters spent millions per fill line on high volume pack- aging machines. To meet roaster requirements companies like OPEM, an early manufacturer of capsule filling equipment, de- veloped machines with eight fill lines and outputs up to 1,400 capsules per minute. Optima's CFL-4 fills 20 capsules at a time to produce 1,500 per minute. IMA Industries pairs its 480 per minute filling and sealing machines with an oxygen extraction unit and nitrogen gas flushing, using hermetic chambers the size of a processed capsule, to assure minimum gas consumption. Seals can be set by heat or ultrasound. Production runs initially were massive to justify the machine expense. Waste costs were high due to the capsule expense. It took much trial and error to reduce oxidation of the fine grinds while permitting the release of carbon dioxide during packing. In the U.S. Keurig Green Mountain pioneered the initial design, establishing over a period of 20 years an industry standard for capsule diameter and depth. Production increased from hundreds of millions, to billions of capsules per factory as Keurig inked contracts with Starbucks, Folgers and Dunkin's Brands. Eventually even Kraft Foods, which owns the competing Tassimo system, decided to offer its Maxwell House, Gevalia, Yuban, and McCafe coffee in licensed K-Cups. Keurig now licenses 400 beverage types owned by 60 brands including the top three selling coffees in America. Intelligent Blends was among the first co-packers to accept minimum runs of 25,000. Melikian at ABCD offers a program that lets small brands pack as little as 50 pounds of coffee (at 38 cups to the pound about 2000 filters). His company now pro- duces 50,000 cups a day in two 7.5 hour shifts and the backlog is growing, he said. No wonder, some of his boutique roasting clients are getting $2 a cup retail. Martin, who just began operating his new production line at POD Pack, is already making expansion plans. The company added 19 new jobs with an average salary of $30,100 plus ben- efits adding $600,000 to the payroll. Clients include Taco Bell and Maxwell House, Folgers, Community Coffee, and PJs. Capsule solutions demand greater cooperation between equipment manufacturers, roasters and co-packers, according to MPE's Will. To meet the needs of a prominent North American client initially "we created an engineered, bimodal grind profile to match their brewer requirements, and deliver a better coffee taste profile," said Will. Their previous grind process resulted in an unusually long brew time and a "roast forward" taste profile. This taste profile is where an abundance of flavor hits the tongue early in the sip, but has a flat finish, which is not desirable. "We were able to alter their grind profile to minimize the internal "dust" in the coffee. The flavor profile changed to a cleaner, more consistent cup of coffee, with a longer lasting fla- vor finish, which was ultimately more desirable," said Will. That's the bottom line. Taste. All the technological advances, precise adjustments, design engineering, and wizardry involved in putting capsules in coffee is invisible to consumers. All they ask is full flavor and variety with push button convenience. That's a lot of work for a 30-sec- ond pour. It's a good thing they are willing to pay the price.

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