Frozen Coffee Concentrate
Frozen coffee concentrate is brewed coffee extract concentrated to several times single strength and held frozen, used as a liquid coffee base that is thawed and diluted to make ready to drink coffee, coffee flavoured dairy products and food service beverages.
The concentrate is an aqueous extract of roasted coffee containing the soluble fraction of the bean: chlorogenic acids and their thermal degradation products, caffeine, trigonelline and its breakdown products, melanoidins formed during roasting, and several hundred volatile aroma compounds. Soluble solids run from about 10 percent for a light concentrate up to 40 percent or more for a high solids extract, against roughly 1.2 to 1.5 percent for a cup of filter coffee. Freezing rather than heat sterilising is the point of the product, because the aroma fraction that separates fresh brewed coffee from spray dried instant is largely lost under the thermal load of retorting or of drying.
It is traded as a dark brown to near black liquid, frozen in pails, drums or bag in box, or as frozen blocks and pucks. It is fully miscible with water and with milk. Once thawed it behaves as a perishable food and is oxidation sensitive, so headspace is minimised and thawed material is used within a short chilled life.
We source bulk Frozen Coffee Concentrate from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Guangdong. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
Please send the grade you need, the volume and your destination port, and we will come back with a solution and a price.
or call +86-21-6858 0751
- Function
- Beverage ingredient
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Frozen dark liquid, homogeneous on thawing, free from foreign matter |
| Colour | Dark brown to near black |
| Flavour and odour | Characteristic roasted coffee, no rancid, woody or fermented note |
| Total dissolved solids | Declared per grade, commonly 10.0 to 40.0 percent |
| Coffee based dry matter | 95 percent minimum of total solids |
| pH | 4.8 to 5.6 |
| Caffeine on dry matter | 1.0 to 2.5 percent, regular grade |
| Ochratoxin A | 5 microgram per kg maximum on dry matter |
| Lead | 0.1 mg/kg maximum |
| Arsenic | 0.1 mg/kg maximum |
| Total plate count | 1000 cfu/g maximum |
| Yeast and mould | 50 cfu/g maximum |
| Escherichia coli | Negative in 1 g |
| Salmonella | Negative in 25 g |
Common Markets Grades
Grades are set first by extraction technique and then by strength. Hot brewed concentrate is extracted at elevated temperature and gives a fuller, more roasted profile with higher yield. Cold brew concentrate is extracted at ambient or chilled temperature over many hours, is lower in the acids that leach at high temperature, and carries the smoother, sweeter profile that the cold brew category is bought for. Strength is quoted either as total dissolved solids or as a dilution ratio, commonly one part concentrate to five, eight or ten parts water.
Beyond that, lots are distinguished by bean species and blend, single origin against blended, roast level from light to dark, organic and fair trade certification, and whether the material is decaffeinated. Some concentrates are clarified by centrifugation and filtration to a bright liquid for clear iced coffee, while others are left with fine colloidal material for body. Espresso style concentrate is traded as a separate specification at high solids and high extraction strength.
Applications
- Ready to drink bottled and canned iced coffee, diluted and blended before filling
- Cold brew coffee served on tap or from a chilled dispenser in food service
- Coffee flavoured milk, latte drinks and dairy beverages, where the concentrate is dosed into the milk base
- Coffee syrups and dosing systems for tea shops and coffee chains, giving a consistent shot without brewing equipment
- Ice cream, gelato and frozen desserts, contributing coffee flavour without adding brewing water
- Bakery fillings, mousses and cream patisserie, where a high solids base limits dilution of the matrix
- Coffee flavoured confectionery, ganache and chocolate fillings
- Coffee liqueurs and alcoholic ready to drink mixes
- Protein shakes and meal replacement drinks with a coffee profile
- Sauces and glazes for savoury applications, where roast bitterness balances sweetness
China Manufacturers of Frozen Coffee Concentrate
Top Frozen Coffee Concentrate manufacturers in China.
Company names and logos are the property of the manufacturers themselves. They are listed here because our own directory records them as producing this ingredient. A listing is not an endorsement by them, and we do not represent them or speak on their behalf.
Regulatory Status
Coffee and coffee extracts are conventional foods in the United States, not food additives, and coffee extract used as a flavouring falls within the framework for natural flavourings. Manufacture is subject to the preventive controls requirements for human food, and a frozen ready to drink coffee base is handled under the food safety plan for the product rather than under the juice rules. Decaffeinated material is subject to the residual solvent conditions attaching to the decaffeination process used on the green bean.
In the European Union the directive on coffee extracts and chicory extracts covers coffee extracts. It defines coffee extract, concentrated coffee extract and liquid coffee extract and sets minimum coffee based dry matter contents and reserved sales descriptions for each. Caffeine labelling requirements apply to beverages with elevated caffeine outside the coffee category itself. Codex maintains standards relevant to coffee trade and contaminants, and ochratoxin A in coffee is the contaminant most often specified, with the destination market limit applied to the concentrate on a dry matter basis. Acrylamide, formed during roasting, is subject to mitigation and benchmark level requirements in the European Union.
Manufacturing Process
Green coffee is roasted to the target profile, rested and ground to a grind size matched to the extraction vessel. Hot extraction runs the ground coffee through a countercurrent column or a battery of percolators with water at elevated temperature, drawing the strong first extract forward and using weaker later extracts on fresh grounds so that yield rises without over extracting any single charge. Cold brew instead steeps or slowly percolates ground coffee at ambient or chilled temperature for eight to twenty four hours, then separates the liquor.
The raw extract is separated from spent grounds by pressing and screening, then centrifuged and filtered to remove fines and, for bright grades, colloidal material. Where the extract is to be strengthened further it is concentrated by freeze concentration or by membrane concentration rather than by evaporation, since both retain volatile aroma that boiling would strip. Aroma recovered in any evaporative step is returned to the body. The concentrate is chilled, deaerated, filled into pails, drums or bag in box with minimal headspace, and frozen in a blast tunnel or plate freezer, then held and shipped at or below minus 18 degrees Celsius.
