How is liquid coffee extract different from instant coffee?
A whole roasted bean is approximately 80% wood and 20% flavor (see question 10). X Café extracts only the 20% that is flavor and fragrance. We use pure water as both the solvent and the carrier of coffee’s flavor. When instant coffee is manufactured, a total of 45% of the roasted bean’s weight is extracted. Since 20% of a bean is flavor / fragrance…. where did the 45% yield for instant come from? The instant coffee process uses very hot water at about 370 degrees F at 150 PSI to “melt” the beans fiber into the extract slurry. Upon dehydration, the flavor and the fiber are dehydrated into powders or crystals. Simply put, steam is used as the solvent for instant coffee, and over-extracted bean fiber is the carrier of the flavor / fragrance in instant coffee versus the more gentle extraction used in the patented X Café Method.
