What's the Difference Between Freeze-Dried and Instant Coffee? What Does Freeze-Dried Coffee Mean? Which Is Better: Freeze-Dried or Freshly Ground Coffee?

Introduction to Freeze-Dried Coffee

With the popularization of freeze-dried foods, freeze-dried coffee, which had been dormant for years, has successfully enjoyed the "dividends" of the era, becoming the "rising star" in the instant coffee world in the past two years. However, FrontStreet Coffee has found that many friends have certain misunderstandings about freeze-dried coffee, and these misunderstandings are not insignificant.

For example, there have been recent instances of people treating freshly ground coffee powder as freeze-dried coffee for brewing; there are also cases where people believe that freeze-dried coffee can perform on par with freshly ground coffee in all aspects.

The reason why friends have such misunderstandings is actually not difficult to understand. After all, from an appearance perspective, freeze-dried coffee blocks do indeed look somewhat similar to freshly ground coffee powder (as shown in the image above); businesses also often promote freeze-dried coffee under the guise of being similar to freshly ground coffee, which inevitably leads to misunderstandings. But in reality, freeze-dried coffee and freshly ground coffee are not the same concept, and they have no comparability whatsoever.

What is Freeze-Dried Coffee?

Everyone must already be very familiar with freshly ground coffee - it refers to coffee made from freshly ground coffee beans, then brewed on the spot. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee will not elaborate on this here, but will focus on explaining freeze-dried coffee. Strictly speaking, freeze-dried coffee is a type of instant coffee, but it differs from traditional instant coffee in its production process. Most traditional instant coffees use the "spray drying method" invented by Nestlé in 1937 for production! This method utilizes the principle of heat drying to dry atomized coffee liquid into coffee powder. FrontStreet Coffee will briefly introduce the production process here: first, industrial-scale large-batch coffee brewing is performed to dissolve the substances in the coffee, then a nozzle is used to atomize the coffee liquid into countless small droplets sprayed into a high-temperature drying chamber. Because the coffee liquid is dispersed, moisture is very easily evaporated, leaving behind instant coffee powder in the form of powdered solids.

Because the production cost of this process is relatively low, it has become the mainstream production process for traditional instant coffee. However, because it uses high temperature to evaporate moisture, the flavor also volatilizes during the process, leaving only the inherent taste of coffee. It is mostly used to make "2-in-1," "3-in-1" products, or "instant black coffee" with competitive pricing.

The freeze-drying process, on the other hand, is somewhat more complex, but precisely because of this, it can retain relatively more coffee flavor. The freeze-dried coffee process also starts by dissolving the substances from the coffee, but the concentration of the coffee liquid is relatively higher. As we can see from the image below, it has a consistency as thick as chocolate syrup.

Then these concentrated coffee liquids are transferred to a -5 degree environment for condensation. After condensing into a paste-like consistency, they are transferred again to a freezing chamber below -40 degrees to be frozen into blocks. Once these coffee blocks are completely frozen, they are crushed into small particles of 2-3mm, which is also why freeze-dried coffee powder usually comes in small block forms. The final step involves sending these particles into a vacuum dryer to sublimate the moisture within the particles - this is the most expensive step in freeze-drying production! Under vacuum conditions, water directly sublimates into gas rather than liquefying. The dried particles after this process are what we call freeze-dried. Because flavor substances are relatively less affected during the processing, freeze-dried coffee can retain more coffee flavor, but the price is consequently higher. And because freeze-drying is also a category of instant coffee, it also needs to be restored to coffee liquid using hot water.

Is Freeze-Dried Coffee as Good as Freshly Ground Coffee?

In summary, everyone can understand that freeze-dried coffee is a type of instant coffee made through freeze-vacuum drying technology. At this point, FrontStreet Coffee believes that many friends will still have this question: since it can retain more coffee flavor, will it taste as good as freshly ground coffee?

The answer is definitely not. Because the flavor improvement of freeze-dried coffee is a result compared with traditional instant coffee. When compared with freshly ground coffee, freeze-dried coffee falls somewhat short in both flavor and mouthfeel. It is more suitable for coffee enthusiasts who pursue efficiency but are unwilling to completely compromise on low quality. But if you seek flavor and complexity, then freshly ground coffee would still be more suitable for you~

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473