General Foods Limited

Kraft General Foods, Inc.

George A Jasovsky

Saul N Katz

Kenneth W Cale

Naoto Imura

Martin Gottesman

Harold W Jacquett

Gaetano J De Ceglie

Robert Franklin Howland

Joseph Anthony Galanti

The present invention relates to a process to recover beneficial coffee volatiles such as diacetyl and acetaldehyde from an aroma stream generated by the thermal hydrolysis of spent grounds. The aroma stream is passed over a bed of a non-polar microporous adsorbent and effluent is collected until breakthrough of furfural is detected. The invention also relates to the composition of the recovered/purified coffee aroma and to soluble coffee products containing the coffee aroma.

Soluble coffee with aroma recovered from the thermal hydrolysis of spent

Aroma recovery from the thermal hydrolysis of spent grounds

An improved method for aromatizing soluble coffee is described, whereby a grinder gas frost is concentrated in valuable coffee aromatics by a 'rapid vent' from a peak pressure of between about 750 psi and 950 psi to a pressure of between about 300 psi and 375 psi, prior to contacting the grinder gas frost with a glyceride. The aromatized soluble coffee is 'buttery,' 'groundsy' and 'less sulfery' in character.

Method for aromatizing soluble coffee

A lower-grade green coffee bean fraction is moisturized to above 37% by weight and then decaffeinated by extraction with a moist supercritical fluid having a temperature of at least 100.degree. C. This decaffeinated coffee is then combined, either before or after roasting, with a higher-grade coffee fraction. Typically the higher-grade fraction will be coffee which has been decaffeinated by extraction with a moist supercritical fluid at a temperature below about 85.degree. C.

Preparation of a decaffeinated roasted coffee blend

A high level of aromatics are absorbed by coffee oil by placing a coffee aroma frost in an isolated vessel, raising the internal temperature and pressure, removing water from the pressurized vessel and thereafter introducing coffee oil into the pressurized vessel. The mixture is allowed to equilibrate for a period of time and is then slowly vented.

Method for fixing cryogenically condensed coffee aromatics in a

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Bayonne, NJ, United States of America

George A Jasovsky