Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Beverage or beverage concentrate
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-28
2003-05-27
Weier, Anthony J. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Beverage or beverage concentrate
C426S580000, C426S583000, C426S585000, C426S587000, C426S588000, C426S386000, C426S595000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06569486
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a beverage system for providing a coffee beverage comprising a stable coffee concentrate which may be reconstituted with water and an aromatized creamer to provide an aromatized coffee beverage. The invention especially relates to a beverage system for providing a coffee beverage having foam on its surface known as Italian latte coffee such as cappuccino and macchiato coffee. The invention also relates to an apparatus and a method for providing the beverage system. Further the invention relates to a method for preparing Italian latte coffee.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Soluble coffee beverage products of the instant “cappuccino” type are well known and are commercially available. Usually these products are a dry mix of a soluble coffee powder and a soluble whitener powder. The soluble whitener powder contains pockets of gas, which, upon dissolution of the powder, produce foam. Cappuccino compositions of the above-discussed types are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,746,527 and 4,748,040, as well as European Patent Application 0154192, PCT Patent Application WO96/08153, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,129,943. Therefore, upon the addition of water (usually hot), a whitened coffee beverage, which has a foam on its upper surface, is formed; the beverage resembling, to a greater or lesser extent, traditional Italian cappuccino.
Coffee products in the form of soluble beverage powders may be of extremely high quality to the point were they provide a beverage very similar to freshly brewed beverages. Despite this, they are still perceived as being inferior to freshly brewed coffee. Also, the fact that soluble beverage powders are in powder form creates problems in many food service applications where the product is dispensed from a machine. In particular, problems such as mechanical degradation of the powder, and bridging or blocking due to moisture pickup occur. Other problems are known to occur in obtaining an acceptable beverage with little or no lumps upon dissolution.
Ready-to-drink liquid coffee beverages are very popular in Asian markets. The beverages are made up of soluble coffee solids, stabilizers, water and, usually, sugar. For whitened beverages, a creamer or whitener may be included. Ordinarily, these beverages have a soluble coffee solids concentration of about 1% by weight. These beverages are very often consumed cold and, in general, have organoleptic properties which differ from freshly brewed coffee. Therefore they do not, and in fact are not intended to, provide a substitute to freshly brewed coffee. The ready-to-drink liquid coffee is therefore little suitable for making cappuccino and macchiato type coffee.
There have also been attempts to provide convenient coffee products in concentrate form. In theory, a coffee concentrate offers the advantages of being perceived to have better quality than soluble beverage powders, and being simple to apply in food service applications. Unfortunately, coffee concentrates are mostly unstable and this has severely limited their application. One problem appears to be the increase of acidity over time which negatively influences the quality of the beverage reconstituted from the coffee concentrate. This increased acidity can cause curdling of later added whitener or creamer components.
Attempts have been made to avoid or reduce the acidity increase by adding caustic base to the concentrate. For example, European patent application 0861595 describes treating a coffee concentrate with alkali to convert acid precursors to their acid salts, and then neutralizing the treated concentrate with acid to bring the pH to about 4.7 to 5.3. This process is described to convert the acid precursors to stable salts and hence prevent the formation of acid during storage.
Another possible method of avoiding or reducing the acidity increase in aromatized coffee concentrates is to increase the coffee concentration to above about 55%. This is described in European patent application 0893065.
While these processes provide some improvement of the storage stability of the coffee concentrates, quality deterioration still occurs. Therefore, there is still a need for a stable coffee concentrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,936 describes a product including a beverage-forming component and a frozen milk concentrate component, wherein the frozen milk concentrate component incorporates a gas therein at an overrun of at least 150%, with the components constituting distinct separate portions of the product and being present in amounts sufficient to form a beverage having a foamed milk topping thereon after addition of a liquid to the product and melting of the frozen milk concentrate component. The beverage-forming component can be coffee in the form of soluble coffee or a frozen coffee liquor. In a dispensing machine, this would require an apparatus to provide the necessary freezing capability, thus making the dispensing device more complex.
To provide a beverage of the cappuccino and macchiato type coffee there is a need for an alternative to the above beverage powders. Furthermore, there is a need for an alternative beverage system for providing cappuccino and macchiato type coffee which is based on a coffee concentrate. The present invention now satisfies these needs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, this invention provides a beverage system for providing a coffee beverage. The beverage system includes a coffee base concentrate having a soluble coffee solids concentration of at least 10% by weight and from which coffee aroma has been removed; and an aromatized soluble creamer powder separate from the coffee base concentrate. The coffee base concentrate and soluble creamer powder are combinable and upon reconstitution with water provide a coffee beverage.
It has been surprisingly found that separation of the coffee base concentrate and coffee aroma, and incorporating the coffee aroma in the soluble coffee creamer significantly improves stability of the concentrate. The soluble coffee creamer incorporating the coffee aroma has a good aroma potential, which has been found to provide a more complete aroma profile of the final product. In particular, it has been found that a beverage system with a soluble coffee creamer incorporating aqueous aroma components provides a product, which assimilates a freshly brewed roast and ground coffee combined with a milk beverage.
It has also surprisingly been found that with an aromatized soluble creamer powder containing gas for foaming the beverage system provides a coffee beverage which closely resembles a cappuccino or macchiato type coffee. The coffee base concentrate and aromatized soluble coffee creamer may be each stored in a separate container or may be stored in separate compartments of a single container. The containers are preferably dispenser containers. For reconstitution of the beverage, the aromatized soluble creamer is preferably mixed with a hot liquid to provide a foamed aromatized milk beverage, the concentrate is combined with the aromatized milk beverage to provide a coffee beverage of cappuccino or macchiato style coffee. This provides a beverage that has an aroma profile, which assimilates that of cappuccino or macchiato style coffee.
In another embodiment, this invention provides a beverage system for providing a coffee beverage, the beverage system including a container that has: a first storage compartment containing a coffee base concentrate having a soluble coffee solids concentration of at least 10% by weight and from which coffee aroma has been removed, and a second storage compartment containing aromatized soluble coffee creamer powder.
Advantageously, these storage compartments are admixed with a liquid upon reconstitution of the beverage. In one embodiment, the aromatized creamer powder is reconstituted with the liquid, and then the reconstituted coffee creamer is combined with the coffee base concentrate.
In a further embodiment, the invention provides a method for providing a coffee beverage. The method includes providing a separately stored coffee base conc
Cirkel-Egner Charlotte
Maier Hanspeter
Nestec S.A.
Weier Anthony J.
Winston & Strawn
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