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https://techxplore.com/news/2024-05-australian-ultrasonic-cold-brew-coffee.html
A new method to deliver a quality cold brew coffee in less than three minutes solidifies Australia's position as the innovators of modern coffee, according to researchers from The University of Queensland.
Engineers from University New South Wales developed an ultrasonic machine to speed up the cold brew of ground coffee beans—a process that normally takes 12 to 24 hours. The research was published in Ultrasonics Sonochemistry.
Postdoctoral researcher Dr. Jaqueline Moura Nadolny said UQ scientists then tested this brew, finding the taste would satisfy fans of cold brew who rave about its smoother, less acidic and less bitter qualities.
"Once again, Australia has new technology at our fingertips that moves us from traditional methods of coffee making to modern methods, giving consumers a new premium experience," Dr. Nadolny said.
"Our trained sensory panel tastings proved that we can achieve a taste profile very similar to either a traditional cold brew or an espresso in the time it takes to brew a hot espresso."
The UNSW team led by Dr. Francisco Trujillo superimposed their own patented sound transmission system on an existing coffee machine model. The system connects a bolt-clamped transducer with the brewing basket via a metallic horn—transforming the coffee basket into a powerful ultrasonic reactor.
Dr. Trujillo said the ultrasound process speeds up the extraction of the oils, flavors and aroma of the ground coffee.
"We're able to demonstrate that this can be adapted to an existing espresso machine," he said. "We are very excited about developing this technology, which can be used by companies that already manufacture coffee machines, so consumers will be able to enjoy a 3-minute ultrasonic cold brew at home. This also opens the door for coffee shops and restaurants to produce on-demand brews comparable to 24-hour cold brews, supplying the rising demand while eliminating the need for large semi-industrial brewing units and extensive refrigeration space."
More information: Shih-Hao Chiu et al, Coffee brewing sonoreactor for reducing the time of cold brew from several hours to minutes while maintaining sensory attributes, Ultrasonics Sonochemistry (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2024.106885
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 08 2024, @07:39PM (20 children)
I'm guessing this process will not only accelerate cold brew from 24 hours down to 3 minutes, but that it will also release a different profile of bean-components into the brew.
Could be good, could be bad, could be a matter of taste.
What happens when you leave the ultrasonics on for 30 minutes instead of 3?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 08 2024, @08:29PM
Like everything else in Australia. It'll kill you. Unless the drop bears kill you first to steal your extra-potent coffee.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 5, Interesting) by RamiK on Wednesday May 08 2024, @08:46PM (18 children)
The summary betrays how extensive their tests were. It's a proper chemistry / food science paper involving measurements of the various chemicals responsible for the taste of coffee as well as actual taste tests. If you look at table 1, ( https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1350417724001330 [sciencedirect.com] ), you'll see the good stuff was extracted at higher concentration than the bad stuff compared to 24h cold brew. So, they're actually being modest.
Anyhow, the real advantage is that there's no pipes and no dirt & mold buildup since ultrasonic chambers are just stainless steel bowl and no filters are necessary. So, even if ideal conditions it's the same, in the real world it's going to be better.
Btw, the machine would be really cheap to make compared to espresso machines. Like, they're talking about a 100w chamber running at 38.8 kHz and room temperature whereby this ultrasonic jewelry cleaner runs 3L worth at about the same parameter + a 100w heat bed for £125: https://www.allendale-ultrasonics.co.uk/3-litre-dial-ultrasonic-cleaner-100w [allendale-ultrasonics.co.uk]
So, the smaller chamber (bowl) requires a different tube but the BOM would drop along with significantly greater production scale...
Basically, depending on the patenting situation, I think we'll see these everywhere and soon.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 08 2024, @08:59PM (3 children)
I definitely believe in the power of proper food chemistry to manipulate consumer behavior...
I also definitely believe in the stubbornness of connoisseurs (think: Scotch critics, sommeliers, etc.) to disagree with the food scientists regarding what's a good taste and what's a bad taste.
As long as they properly insulate the ultrasonics to keep it "indoor friendly" (they won't, proper sound insulation adds per-unit cost) I wouldn't mind having an option on our K-cup maker for a cycle that doesn't boil the water.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday May 08 2024, @09:48PM (1 child)
I have a 50w (sonic+heater I think) 400cc $10 jewelry cleaner I keep for PCBs and the likes. Runs silent compared to anything involving boiling water.
If memory serves you know your way around noise makers so I'll leave it up to you to taste test and report back :D
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(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 09 2024, @05:56AM
You might think it is running quiet, but when I start mine up, my elderly cat still hits warp 6.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 09 2024, @02:39AM
OK, so, they don't insulate the units properly. You're exposed to ultrasonics. Fewer cavities among children living in households with these machines?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 08 2024, @09:01PM (1 child)
Related Niven reference:
https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/84544o/question_about_a_mote_in_gods_eye_just_finished/ [reddit.com]
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday May 08 2024, @09:54PM
hmm a pressurized french press... it might improve on my old moka pot by a bar or two... hmm...
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(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday May 09 2024, @02:10AM (11 children)
As soon as I saw the headline, I thought... how was this not obvious, it's an ultrasonic parts cleaner with another target... but of course there had to be a lot of tuning to get it there.
Hmm. I don't drink coffee, but I wonder if it'll do as well for tea.
(I use a coffeemaker to brew tea... this is an upgrade from the microwave. Yes, I am a bad person.)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Thursday May 09 2024, @08:55AM (10 children)
Yeah tea has issues with heavy metals as well as specific esophageal cancer risks with drinking it very hot [frontiersin.org] that might get better or worse with this sort of cold sonic processing that are definitely worth looking into.
I do unspeakable things to tea like cooking it on the stove top before adding sodium citrate and artificial sweeteners and sticking it in the fridge... Not to mention my abuse of Pu'er with milk and sweeteners...
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(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday May 09 2024, @02:26PM (9 children)
Contradictory results may be due to some other triggering factor. Frex, there's a particular nasopharyngeal cancer common in China, but nowhere else. Turns out the common factors are consumption of 1) a high salt diet, mainly via soy sauce, 2) in conjunction with a particular mushroom (which had itself produced mixed results in the laboratory). And in Africa, liver cancer is associated with eating grain... ominous, eh? The problem is they store grain in the open, on the ground, and it gets wet and grows ergots, which are in fact the relevant carcinogen.
I bow to your superior evil in the treatment of the hapless tea. What the heck is the sodium citrate for??
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Thursday May 09 2024, @07:53PM (8 children)
It's sour tasting like lemon (=citrate = citrus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisodium_citrate [wikipedia.org]
Maybe you know it as lemon salt? Most supermarkets stock it since people use it for to descale (limescale) kettles as the acid neutralise alkaline residues.
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(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday May 09 2024, @08:12PM (7 children)
Oh! I put lemon pepper on pretty much anything you'd use salt on (and some things you wouldn't, like cheese) but only because I could no longer get lemon salt. If I don't have 3 or 4 of those one-pound Tone's shakers on hand, I think I'm out. :) Thanks, I'll look for this as an alternative.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 09 2024, @11:20PM
I use plain crystalline citric acid, in a shaker.
I buy it in ten pound bags. Amazon.
I treat it as a condiment, as well as a lime descaler / toilet bowl / shower stall spray to keep lime deposits from building up.
For me, shit, flush, sprinkle beats all those bathroom cleaners I used to use once the buildup gets too bad. In the case of the toilet, sometimes stains would occur. I discovered if I sprinkled a bit of sodium chlorite (NaClO2) along with the citric acid in the bowl and swished, the chlorine dioxide bleach released by the citric acid- sodium chlorite reaction would quickly remove the shit stain. Incidentally, chlorine dioxide is used for bleaching paper pulp white. Run the exhaust vent fan if you do this.
Anyhow, I keep these two powders around as they have a lot of alternate uses. I give you a link to get started. Make what you will of it, as have I.
Search for : chlorine dioxide mms
Don't believe everything you see. Even less if they are trying to sell it to you.
I found out about this stuff during the COVID days as a disinfectant spray. Didn't ingest any, though. Not unless I have to as part of an emergency water purification regimen.
As far as COVID goes, I consider it a designer disease released deliberately to spur sales of highly profitable vaccines, as there are a lot of rich, politically privileged rich people out there constantly looking for ways to compel the public to either buy or obey / accept mandates .
And I believe the vaccines don't do a thing but screw up your DNA like a Microsoft Update will break your computer, just compelling one to hope they will fix it. It just gets worse and worse.
Fear and Greed
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Saturday May 11 2024, @09:59AM (5 children)
yeah lemon pepper gets the same job done for other recipes since it has citric acid as an ingredient. another option (for other recipes) is sumac but it's hard to get in most places. the other poster mentioned using citric directly which is probably a good option (arguably better for most recipes) though I prefer using sodium citrate since the ph value is higher and it adds just enough salt to overcome any bitterness. but if you look at iced teas and soda drinks you'll find both being used - sometimes together - so millage may vary.
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(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday May 11 2024, @01:57PM (4 children)
I used to add a little powdered vitamin C into chocolate sauce... curdles it slightly, which changes the texture to more like old time hot fudge sauce, and an interesting flavor combo. Nearest I've ever seen in the commercial market was a pineapple-filed candy that came in Whitman's Sampler in the 1960s, and never seen since.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Saturday May 11 2024, @06:31PM (3 children)
I think what you want there isn't just the acidity but the citrus aroma you get from the oil extracts. e,g, Googling '"recipe" "orange oil" "citric acid" chocolate sauce' landed me this recipe with the buttercream frosting listing about what you want: https://www.sugarhero.com/chocolate-orange-cake/ [sugarhero.com]
Lemon drops do something similar: https://www.southernfatty.com/lemon-drop-candies/ [southernfatty.com]
But honestly it takes a lot of trial and error to reverse an old taste even for pros so I shouldn't be advising on any of this :D
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(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday May 11 2024, @07:25PM (2 children)
I'm somewhere way out beyond supertaster and I taste distinctions entirely lost on normal people (my sister is the same way) ... but yeah, a little more real citrus would be ideal. But I'm also lazy and hate to cook and want whatever to instantly appear, so very little gets done about it. :)
With the choc sauce I'm as much after the texture change, but I may try your links, good ideas there.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Sunday May 12 2024, @07:53AM (1 child)
The recipes were just examples of how orange and lemon extracts are used in similar recipes to get an idea of the proportions (to citric acid). I could have simply said to put in a few drops of extract (orange and / or lemon) to taste. But I hate when recpies say "season to taste" especially when it comes to ingredients I'm not familiar with so I linked some recipes for context.
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(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday May 12 2024, @01:57PM
Well, you cleverly linked a recipe I might like. :)
"Season to taste".... knew someone who would interpret that as "add the whole bottle of Tabasco sauce" -- yikes!
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 4, Touché) by corey on Thursday May 09 2024, @01:52AM (4 children)
As an engineer, I like to separate myself from the academics/scientists. This article mangles them, as usual, but though it was pointing out here that they are very different. Academics like to tinker and explore why things work all day (theory), while engineers like to plan, develop, build and test things (application).
As a side note, why are these universities researching new ways of preparing a coffee? This is what the coffee machine companies, cafes and tinkerers at home should be doing. It's basically product development. I think the universities are going this way these days, I know of a few Defence products that were started in a university as research projects then the researchers went off and started a company to develop the product to sell.
Another side note, also as an Australian, I am starting to think we live in a bubble with regards to coffee and the coffee snobbery of the cities is taking over the country. We like to think we are on the forefront of coffee culture and think we make the best coffee in the world (some people do anyway). But you go to a cafe and the main items you can order are a Flat White, Latte, Cappucino (based on the proportion of what customers order). All of these are bowls of milk with a bit of coffee added. Half the time, at most cafes, the taste of the coffee is really an afterthought so I order a double-shot routinely to taste it. But lately I've moved to a "long black" with a touch of milk which is most similar to what I make at home with an ITALIAN made Bialetti moka pot. Moka pots are where it's at if you want strong dark coffee in my opinion. I've been to Italy and Spain and they don't much bother with milk, it's more black coffee or espresso at the coffee bars.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 09 2024, @02:49AM (1 child)
I hope that you don't mean by "we" this chain - https://www.starbucks.com.au/ [starbucks.com.au]
I've ordered 4 cups of coffee from them, in my life, and threw them all away without drinking them. Burnt coffee is burnt, no matter how the masses might drool over it. You mention Italy - the strongest coffee I've had in my life was made by an Italian in Italy. Strong, but not burnt. Starbucks? Burnt.
I have read a few articles over the years, suggesting that Starbucks isn't nearly as widely accepted outside the US. I suspect there is good reason for that.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Thursday May 09 2024, @08:54AM
Starbucks :: Marketing
They provide a public place to talk with a friend.
Coffee is just an excuse to sit down and chat a spell. But a lot of memories are made in a Starbucks venue, same as memories involving music.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday May 09 2024, @11:46AM
>companies ... should be doing
I would guess that most people who put a lot of money into the coffee business care nothing about coffee or research and everything about making as much money as reliably as possible. This usually doesn't involve innovation, but franchising and familiar products.
Further, I would guess that the people who start coffee businesses out of a love for good coffee are generally struggling financially (against the bigger businesses) and therefore have little time let alone money to invest in research.
Yet another reason to finance independent researchers (academia) with a reliable source of funding... The free market tends to ignore potential progress (and environmental problems) when profits are plentiful.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Friday May 10 2024, @07:50AM
You mean, first engineers build stuff that works all day, then all day, academics try to find out why?