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Single Serve - An Easier

By Scott Mazzini

"I love my single serve coffee brewer because it makes the kind of coffee that I want and it makes it fast," said a 20-something woman during some research conducted recently on single serve. The explosion of single serve coffee on the market and the development of sophisticated single serve brewers have made single serve coffee an increasingly viable option for both home and commercial environments.

Although millennials, the 70 million consumers born between 1979 and 1988, are not a driving force in the coffee world yet, but the day will come when they are, and single serve coffee brewing may be the answer to many of their needs. Only 29% of 18-24 -year-olds drank coffee daily in 2008 according to the US National Coffee Association (NCA); however, this group leads the pack as far as consumption of espresso-based beverages and iced coffee drinks.

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Spray, Agglomerate, Freeze or Liquid Coffee India’s Instant Coffee King Stirs Up a Successful Business

By Heneage Mitchell

CCL Products (formerly Continental Coffee Ltd.) was founded in 1995. This was also its first year of production. The company originally invested in a plant with an annual capacity of 3,000 tons spray dried coffee. From there it has grown, and until today its production capacity has reached 21,000 tons. Of this, 14,000-15,000 tons is spray dried, about 3,000 tons agglomerated and 4,500 tons is freeze dried.

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A Logistical Balancing Act

By Jane Pettigrew

What issues are currently affecting the transportation of teas on board container ships? We discuss the causes of rising prices.

In the past 50 years or so, the way in which bulk quantities of tea have been shipped around the world has changed radically. Nets, cranes and dock workers have been replaced by containers; chests have given way to paper sacks; pallets and slipsheets have made the movement of those sacks faster and more efficient. The turn-around time of vessels in port has generally been reduced from several weeks to a few days. But things do not always run as smoothly as the industry would like and the job of shipping and logistics departments is extremely complicated.

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Machines that Brew Hot Tea

By Jane Pettigrew

Can a machine ever brew a good cup of tea? Most tea connoisseurs would probably say ‘No’, but a few recent innovations offer controls and systems that meet the approval of even the most passionate of tea lovers

There are so many different ways to brew a good cup of tea and most tea lovers would agree that, whatever method you choose, the prime considerations are the quality of the tea, the temperature of the water, the number of minutes the tea should be allowed to steep, and whether or not the leaf can be easily separated from the liquor once the tea has brewed.

Latest Issue - features

Indian Baristas Benefit from Espresso Innovations

By Vikram Khurana

Gone are the days when India was considered a market for cheap products or outdated technology. The new shining Indian coffee business - with brands like Cafe Coffee day, Barista, Costa Coffee, Aromas cafe, Cinnabon cafe, Au Bon Pain cafe, Gloria Jeans, Coffee bean and Tea Leaf, Segafredo Zanetti, Testa Rossa cafe, and so on, together with most of the 5-star hotel chains that re gradually introducing semi-automatic coffee machines - portrays a strong demand for the latest innovations in espresso brewing technology, be it an espresso machine or a grind on demand espresso grinder.

If a barista entered the coffee industry as a trainee way back in 2001, he learned his first lessons on espresso brewing on single boiler machine which had volumetric dosing and a simple touch panel. The espresso machine had to be opened to set up the boiler pressure for milk steaming. One had to fiddle with the external pumps to change the water pressure for correct espresso brewing. Similarly, the grinders were a mere simple manual grinder with flat burrs and everything including the grind time and dosing was done manually. Training programs often led to major variations in baristas’ techniques as the elements differed from person to person depending on the manual technique they followed.

Latest Issue - features

People You Should Know in China Yin Tianji of Anhui Guorun Tea Industrial Co. Ltd.

By Helen Xu Fei

Anhui Guorun Tea Industrial Co. Ltd. is China’s leading producer of Keemun tea, a renowned Chinese black that isfound in many famous blends such as English Breakfast Tea or packed unmixed as a specialty tea. The Chizhou-based company was established in 1950 as Anhui Guichi Tea Factory, a Keemun producer under the state-owned China Tea Co. South Anhui Branch.

"Guichi was the first Keemun tea factory built after the Liberation," said Yin Tianji, president of Guorun, in a telephone interview to Tea & Coffee Asia last March. "The construction took about a year, and we started production in 1951. "During the command economy period, most of our Keemun tea was supplied to Shanghai Tea Imp/Exp Co., one of the biggest state-owned tea exporters."

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ASEAN Tea Sense

By Helen Xu Fei

Tea is produced in many ASEAN countries, including Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Malaysia. Overall, Vietnam and Indonesia are the largest tea producers in area, while output from the rest are marginal. Though not yet a major tea consuming nation, Singapore boosts of a rich choice of gourmet tea from all over the world and some amazing and unique tea culture.

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Tech Tips Brewing Decaf Different Coffees Deserve Separate Brewing Standards

By Randy Pope

Back in the 60s, if you asked for a cup of decaffeinated coffee you would almost always be brought a beverage made from a powder. There just wasn’t enough demand to justify fresh-brewed decaffeinated coffee. Gradually more people demanded decaffeinated coffee, either due to health concerns or just because they want to sleep better at night.

Customers also gained more education concerning coffee, and they came to expect a superior cup. Eventually, they demanded the same quality beverage in a decaffeinated coffee that they got in a regular cup. They wanted high quality coffee made with the same ratios and with similar strength that they got from a caffeinated beverage.

Now in theory, this shouldn’t be difficult to serve: decaffeinated coffee and caffeinated coffee are usually brewed in the same coffee brewer. But even though there is a growing demand for superior tasting decaf, there are no published standards for brewing this significantly different coffee. I want to suggest that separate brewing standards should be used for decaffeinated coffee.

Latest Issue - features

People You Should Know in Indonesia

By Heneage Mitchell

Spray Dried and Agglomerated Coffee
Krishnamurti Sumana
PT Aneka Coffee Industry

PT Aneka Coffee Industry (ACI) was established in 1995 as a joint venture company by PT Prasidha Aneka Niaga Tbk, a subsidiary of Prasidha Group - Indonesia’s largest coffee processor and exporter, Itochu Corporation - Japan’s number one trading house, and UCC Ueshima Coffee Co., Ltd. - a strong player in the retail coffee business.

Originally coffee traders, Aneka went downstream to develop added value products. It now concentrates on instant coffee production (spray dried and agglomerated) at its Surabaya plant.