VATIS UPDATE Article

Scientists from Brandeis University, the United States, have developed a new method of roasting green coffee beans that could enhance the health benefits of the brew. Dan Perlman from Brandeis University is developing the flour milled from parbaked coffee beans both as a food ingredient and a nutritional supplement. “It is a world of difference from the traditional coffee bean,” Perlman said. Perlman wondered what would happen if the coffee bean was baked for less time and at a lower temperature.

This took some trial and error until he got it right. In the end, he determined that parbaking the beans at 148°C at approximately ten minutes worked best. The concentration of CGA in the bean, around 10 per cent of the bean’s weight, barely dropped. The parbaked coffee bean cannot be used to make coffee. It is not roasted long enough to develop flavour. Instead Perlman cryogenically mills the bean in an ultra-cold and chemically inert liquid nitrogen atmosphere to protect the bean’s beneficial constituents from oxidation.

“At the end of the process, you get a wheat-coloured flour. Its taste is nutty, pleasant and mild,” researchers said. Perlman sees his coffee flour being blended with regular flours for baking, used in breakfast cereals and snack bars and added to soups, juices and nutritional drinks. To compensate for the CGA lost during traditional coffee roasting, it would be possible to blend parbaked beans with regularly roasted ones.