STiR coffee and tea magazine

10 STiR coffee and tea | 2023 Issue 1 (February / March) Instant Wakes: New Taste Framework Aims to Help Consumers Choose Customers crave information. That's one lesson of the phenomenal development of the coffee world over the past 40 years. For example, the 100-point scale developed by the Specialty Coffee Association established a solid foundation on which the specialty movement could build and grow. Instant coffee, on the other hand, has lacked a system. Yet it is actually a bigger category than specialty by sales and numbers of consumers through- out much of the world, and it supports millions of producers. Accounting for about 25% of annual coffee consumption, its products have diversified in recent decades, with a growing trend toward premiumization. It is easy to transport, store, and prepare, and is often the ingredient of choice in drinks like iced coffee or sweets like ice cream and cakes. Long made primarily with robusta, today instant products often contain arabica or blends. You can choose your preferred roast level. There are even single-origin and organic products. Specialty brands like Starbucks offer packaged instant coffee. Many are certified for sustainability on environ- mental, social, and economic factors. And if coffee itself is complex — with its different origins, varieties, processing methods, roasts, grinds, and preparations — instant adds another layer of complexity depending on whether it is made using spray-dry, freeze-dry, or other methods. New techniques include aroma recovery and the addition of micro-ground coffee powder that provides more of the flavors of fresh, ground coffee. So how to talk to consumers about it all in a simple, clear way? And how to overcome perceptions that instant coffees are all the same, and not very good? Those are questions that the world's largest instant sector set out to answer in 2019, when the Brazilian Instant Coffee Industry Association, ABICS, together with the Campinas Institute of Food Technology, ITAL, began work on new protocols for evaluating and labelling products. The result is a system that is both simpler and more descriptive than the SCA scale. It is simpler because it groups coffees into three broad categories of quality, to sidestep the subjective nature of Q-cupping: Conventional, Differentiated, and Excellent. (See page 11.) Yet it is also more informative because it talks about flavors. Rather than an integer, it relies on words, a "sensory lexicon" of descriptive labels that cover 15 major taste attributes: sweet, acidic, woody, floral, fruity, and so on. The system was announced in a white paper, "Quality Assessment of Instant Coffee: A Sensory Science Development," unveiled at Brazil Coffee Week in November 2022, and available online at www.abics.com.br. Why "attributes"? A flavor description lets consumers choose a coffee according to the taste they like, and the way they want to use it. Hot, with sugar and milk? Black in an iced drink? In a cocktail, energy shake, bakery product, sauce? In each case, different flavor characteristics might be sought, and a different quality level desired. The system should also be useful in helping consumers understand a product's value proposition, as in the case of a premium-priced instant brand costing twice the level of a commercial- grade offering. And it's not just for consumers. The framework supports business, letting producers, brands, and retailers better assess and communicate about the products they work with. The protocols would help, for example, the maker of a new RTD coffee in England or Korea better source the right concentrate from producers throughout the world. Or in food service, a restaurateur could put three different instant coffees on a menu, listing each one by taste and priced by quality grade. The taste descriptors were rated for correlation with perception of quality and each given a weighting to generate the quality score. Sensory Lexicon for Instant Coffee SWEETNESS: Basic taste usually related to sugars. Sweetness is perceived by the palate for more delicate coffees and can be perceived when the salt and acid levels are low. Reference: Sucrose at 5 g/L (intensity 1) and 15 g/L (intensity 5). ACIDITY: Basic taste caused by the organic acids of the coffee. Also presented by lighter roasted coffees and those from higher altitudes. Reference: Citric acid at 0.25 g/L (intensity 1) and 0.5 g/L (intensity 5). WOODY: See World Coffee Research (WCR) Lexicon entry for "woody." FLORAL: Le Nez du Café, vials #11 and #12 (qualitative references).* VEGETATIVE: Diluted cucumber juice at 5g/L (intensity 1) and 25 g/L (intensity 5). Also, parsley water as per WCR Lexicon entry for "green." NUTTY: Le Nez du Café vials #11 and #12 (qualitative references).* SPICY: Le Nez du Café vials #7 and #8; turmeric, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg (qualitative references).* FRUITY: Le Nez du Café vials #11 and #17 (qualitative references).* CHOCOLATY: "Native" brand dark chocolate, 75% cocoa (intensity 5). ** HONEY: Le Nez du Café vial #19 (qualitative reference); 4 g/L honey solution.* AFTERTASTE INTENSITY: Perception that remains on the palate after swallowing the beverage or remains in the mouth for a time. Specific instant coffee samples were used as reference. ASTRINGENCY: Sensation of dryness in the buccal cavity after tasting the coffee. Reference: Unripe banana (1 bite, qualitative reference). OVER-EXTRACTED COFFEE FLAVOR: A flavor described as "caramelly," "cooked," and "bitter." Specific instant coffee samples were used as reference. BITTERNESS: Basic taste caused by the presence of three coffee components: Alkaloids, chlorogenic and quinic acids, and dark roasts. The perception is more intense at the back of the tongue, generally on swallowing. Reference: Caffeine at 0.15 g/L (intensity 1) or 0.45 g/L (intensity 5). BODY: Tactile sensation felt by the palate, with the perception of beverage viscosity. Reference: Maltodextrin at 2 g/L (intensity 1) or 0.60 g/L (intensity 5). * Le Nez du Café coffee aroma test kit. Editions Jean Lenoir ** Native Chocolate: nativealimentos.com.br/en/products/chocolate TABLE 7: APPLICATION Coffee Report

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