JP7426300B2 - Coffee extraction water production equipment and coffee extraction system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to extraction of coffee from coffee powder obtained by roasting and pulverizing coffee beans, and in particular , to an apparatus for producing water used for coffee extraction, and a coffee extraction method capable of extracting coffee with adjustable coffee flavor. Regarding the system.

Factors that influence the flavor of coffee are known to include the variety of coffee beans, the region of origin, and the method of roasting the coffee beans. In order to brew coffee with the desired flavor, the type of coffee beans and roasting method are usually specified in detail. On the other hand, the water used to brew coffee, that is, the water used to extract coffee, has not received much attention so far. However, in recent years, it has been discovered that even when coffee is extracted by roasting the same type of coffee beans using the same roasting method, the flavor of the extracted coffee can vary greatly if the quality of the water used for extraction differs. It's here. It has also been found that changes in the flavor of coffee have a strong correlation with the concentration of hardness components (calcium and magnesium) and electrical conductivity in the water used for extraction.

For example, when each store in a national chain serves the same type of coffee or the same brand of coffee, the flavor of the coffee may vary depending on the water quality. This brings about the problem of not being uniform. Therefore, in order to make the flavor of coffee uniform, water softeners that remove hard components using ion exchange resins are introduced, and coffee is extracted using water that has been treated with the water softener. However, coffee brewed from water treated with a water softener may have a different flavor than coffee brewed from untreated raw water, and some people do not want to install a water softener because they dislike this fact. Water softeners that use ion-exchange resins require regeneration or periodic replacement of the ion-exchange resin, and require some complicated work to operate in stores such as cafes. Patent Document 1 discloses a method for changing the flavor of coffee by changing the quality of water, which includes a water softening means that removes hardness components from water made of a cation exchange resin, and a water softening means that removes hardness components from water by adding a calcium compound or a magnesium compound. The present invention discloses a coffee maker which is equipped with water hardening means for increasing the hardness of the water and extracts coffee using water whose hardness has been adjusted by these means.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-276351

In order to control the flavor of coffee, it is known to remove hardness components using water softeners using ion exchange resins and to add hardness components to the water for coffee extraction. However, when using a water softener, it is difficult to obtain water with an appropriate level of hardness, and the method of adding hardness requires replenishment of additives, and the sanitary management and storage of additives are extremely difficult. The problem is that it becomes complicated. In order to provide coffee with a uniform flavor regardless of differences in the quality of raw water, it is necessary to suppress changes in water quality. On the other hand, there is also a desire to enjoy a variety of coffee flavors caused by differences in water quality.

An object of the present invention is to provide a coffee flavor adjustment method and an extraction method that can provide coffee with a uniform flavor without changing the quality of raw water and can intentionally change the flavor of coffee. An object of the present invention is to provide a coffee extraction water manufacturing device and a coffee extraction system used for the purpose of the present invention.

The coffee extraction water manufacturing device of the present invention mixes raw water, permeate water discharged from the reverse osmosis device, and concentrated water discharged from the reverse osmosis device at an arbitrary mixing ratio. It has a mixing device that can.

The coffee extraction system of the present invention includes the production device of the present invention and a coffee extractor that is supplied with outlet water of a mixing device in the production device and extracts coffee.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide coffee with a uniform flavor without depending on changes in the quality of raw water, and also to intentionally change the flavor of the coffee.

It is a figure explaining the manufacturing method of water for coffee extraction. 1 is a diagram showing a coffee extraction system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Next, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a method for producing water for coffee extraction according to the present invention. In the production method shown here, supplied water such as tap water is treated with the activated carbon device 11 to obtain raw water, and water with adjusted hardness and conductivity is produced from the raw water. The generated water is supplied to the coffee extractor 20 and used to extract coffee. The activated carbon device 11 not only removes free chlorine contained in the supplied water, but also adsorbs and removes odorous substances such as humic substances. If the feed water is of sufficiently good quality and does not contain free chlorine, it is possible to use the feed water as it is as raw water without providing the activated carbon device 11. In the figure, the outlet water of the activated carbon device 11, that is, the raw water, is expressed as "activated carbon treated water." The coffee extractor 20 may be, for example, a drip-type coffee maker that heats supplied water and passes coffee powder through it to extract coffee and pours it into a container such as a cup.

A portion of the activated carbon treated water is supplied to a water softener 12 and a reverse osmosis (RO) device 13 . The water softener 12 is equipped with a cation exchange resin adjusted to Na type, and removes hard components in the activated carbon-treated water. The outlet water of the water softener 12 has a hardness of approximately 0 and a conductivity comparable to that of activated carbon-treated water. In the figure, the outlet water of the water softener 12 is expressed as "raw soft water." The reverse osmosis device 13 is provided with a reverse osmosis membrane 14 inside, and the permeated water passes through the reverse osmosis membrane 14 and ionic substances are removed, and the ionic substances do not pass through the reverse osmosis membrane 14. The concentrated water is discharged. Since ionic substances including hardness components have been removed from the permeated water, the conductivity of the permeated water is close to 0, and the hardness is also approximately 0. In the figure, the permeated water of the reverse osmosis device 13 is expressed as "pure water." On the other hand, since the concentrated water contains more ionic substances than the supplied activated carbon-treated water, it has both higher hardness and electrical conductivity than the activated carbon-treated water, that is, the raw water. In the figure, the concentrated water of the reverse osmosis device 13 is expressed as "raw concentrated water". In the present invention, the reverse osmosis device 13 is not only equipped with a reverse osmosis membrane 14 having a salt rejection rate of over 90%, but also has a membrane called a nanofilter membrane with a salt rejection rate lower than that. Can be used. That is, a nanofilter device may be used as the reverse osmosis device 13. When using a nanofilter device, the pure water that is the permeated water contains some hardness components and also has a slightly high conductivity.

A portion of the raw concentrated water is supplied to the water softener 15. The water softener 15 is also equipped with a cation exchange resin adjusted to Na type, and removes hardness components from concentrated raw water. Since ionic substances other than hardness components are not removed, the electrical conductivity of the water at the outlet of the water softener 15 is higher than that of activated carbon-treated water, and the hardness is approximately 0. In the figure, the outlet water of the water softener 15 is expressed as "concentrated soft water." In the system shown in FIG. 1, five types of water are obtained from the supplied water: activated carbon-treated water (raw water), raw water soft water, pure water, raw water concentrated water, and concentrated water soft water. These waters each have different hardness and electrical conductivity, and by mixing these waters, mixed water having desired hardness and desired electrical conductivity can be obtained. If mixed water with constant hardness and conductivity is supplied to the coffee extractor 20, and a predetermined type of coffee is extracted using the mixed water, the flavor will be improved regardless of the quality of the supplied water. But you can get uniform coffee. On the other hand, if you change the hardness and conductivity of the mixed water by changing the mixing ratio and use that mixed water to extract coffee, you can get different flavors even if the coffee beans and roasting method are the same. Now you can enjoy coffee.

It has been confirmed that the flavor of the extracted coffee (here, three types: sour, salty, and bitter) changes as shown in Table 1, depending on the hardness and conductivity of the water used for coffee extraction. Although the results shown in Table 1 are based on a sensory test, differences in coffee flavor can also be confirmed using a commercially available taste sensor. Examples of taste sensors that can be used include Model TS-5000Z manufactured by Intelligent Sensor Technology.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, basic adjustment of the hardness and conductivity of the mixed water can be performed without providing at least one of the water softeners 11 and 15. If you want to save the effort of regenerating or replacing the cation exchange resin in the water softeners 12 and 15, you can install only the reverse osmosis device 13 and control the mixing ratio of activated carbon treated water, pure water, and concentrated raw water to create a uniform flavor. It is possible to obtain coffee or to obtain coffee with desired flavor variations. In addition, raw concentrated water has higher hardness and conductivity than activated carbon-treated water, that is, raw water, and concentrated soft water has a hardness of almost 0 but has higher conductivity than activated carbon-treated water. In water containing at least one of them, at least one of hardness and electrical conductivity can be made higher than activated carbon-treated water without using additives to increase hardness or electrical conductivity. By using water containing at least one of raw concentrated water and concentrated soft water, it becomes possible to easily enjoy coffee extracted with water having high hardness and high conductivity.

Hereinafter, it will be specifically explained how to obtain water having what kind of hardness and conductivity by mixing water or by using which water alone. Here, it is assumed that the activated carbon-treated water (raw water) has a hardness of 50 mg-CaCO ₃ mg/L and a conductivity of 250 μS/cm. Further, it is assumed that the flow rate ratio in the reverse osmosis device 13 is permeated water: concentrated water = 50:50. At this time, the hardness of the raw soft water is approximately 0 mg-CaCO ₃ mg/L, and the electrical conductivity is approximately 250 μS/cm. The hardness of the raw concentrated water is 100-CaCO ₃ mg/L and the conductivity is, for example, 500 μS/cm, and the hardness of the concentrated soft water is approximately 0-CaCO ₃ mg/L and the conductivity is approximately 500 μS/cm. It is. Table 1 shows what kind of hardness and what kind of conductivity water can be obtained depending on the water formulation. In the table, [1] indicates activated carbon treated water (raw water), [2] indicates raw soft water, [3] indicates pure water (reverse osmosis membrane permeated water), and [4] indicates concentrated raw water. , [5] indicates concentrated water soft water. Further, the description "[A]+[B]" indicates that water [A] and water [B] are mixed.

From Table 2, it can be seen that in order to obtain water with a hardness of approximately 0 mg-CaCO ₃ mg/L and an electrical conductivity of approximately 0 μS/cm, only pure water of [3] needs to be used. In order to obtain water with a hardness of more than 0 mg-CaCO ₃ mg/L and up to 50 mg-CaCO ₃ mg/L and a conductivity of more than 0 μS/cm and up to 250 μS/m, activated carbon of [1] It can be seen that it is sufficient to mix the treated water and the soft raw water of [2], or to mix the activated carbon-treated water of [1] and the pure water of [3]. In addition, in the example shown here, by blending water other than the water treated by the water softeners 12 and 15 (raw soft water and concentrated water soft water) and making it into coffee extraction water, the water treated by the water softener Compared to the case where water is used for coffee extraction using only water, the adsorption load of hard components in the water softener can be reduced, and the regeneration life or replacement life of the ion exchange resin in the water softener can be extended.

FIG. 2 shows a coffee brewing system according to an embodiment of the present invention, which can maintain a uniform flavor of extracted coffee and change the flavor as desired. This coffee extraction system includes an extraction water production device 10 that produces water used for coffee extraction by the method described above, and a coffee extractor 20 that is supplied with water produced by the extraction water production device 10 and extracts coffee. It is equipped with The coffee extractor 20 is, for example, a drip coffee maker, and is preferably a self-service machine that automatically extracts coffee and pours it into a container such as a cup when the user presses a button.

The extraction water production device 10 is equipped with an activated carbon device 11, water softeners 12 and 15, and a reverse osmosis device 13, similar to the one shown in FIG. Concentrated water and concentrated water soft water are produced. Furthermore, the extraction water manufacturing apparatus 10 includes a mixing device 30 for mixing activated carbon-treated water, raw soft water, pure water, raw concentrated water, and concentrated soft water in arbitrary proportions, and a control device 40. The mixing device 30 includes a solenoid valve 31 that is provided for each pipe of activated carbon treated water, raw water softened water, pure water, raw water concentrated water, and concentrated water softened water, and whose opening degree can be set between 0% and 100%. The outlets of these solenoid valves 31 are commonly connected to a connecting pipe 32. The connecting pipe 32 is a pipe for the outlet water of the mixing device 30, and its tip is connected to the coffee extractor 20. Therefore, the mixing device 30 changes the content rate of each of activated carbon treated water, raw water soft water, pure water, raw water concentrated water, and concentrated water soft water in the outlet water of the mixing device 30, including when the content rate becomes 0%. can be done. A hardness meter 41 and a conductivity meter 42 are connected to the connection pipe 32 to measure the hardness and conductivity of the outlet water of the mixing device 30, respectively. The hardness meter 41 and the conductivity meter 42 also constitute the extraction water production device 10.

The control device 40 controls the mixing ratio of activated carbon-treated water, soft raw water, pure water, concentrated raw water, and soft concentrated water in the mixing device 30, and specifically controls the mixing ratio of each electromagnetic valve 31 in the mixing device 30. The opening/closing and the opening degrees of these solenoid valves 31 are controlled. Inside the control device 40, assuming that the quality of the supplied water or raw water is standard, the mixing ratios of activated carbon-treated water, raw water soft water, pure water, raw water concentrated water, and concentrated water soft water are described as several patterns. They have tables. Each pattern corresponds to how the flavor of the coffee changes. For example, in a pattern for creating a flavor with stronger bitterness and saltiness than when raw water is used, a mixing ratio is set such that both hardness and conductivity are high. The control device 40 then controls the mixing device 30 according to the selected pattern.

The mixing ratio specified in the pattern is based on the assumption that the quality of the supply water or raw water is standard, so if the mixing ratio in the mixing device 30 is fixed, the quality of the supply water or raw water is When there is a change in water quality, the properties of the outlet water of the mixing device 30 also change. In order to prevent the properties of the outlet water from changing regardless of changes in water quality on the raw water side, hardness and conductivity values corresponding to each pattern are set as management targets for each pattern, and the control device 40 The actual mixing ratio in the mixing device 30 is changed so that the hardness measured by the hardness meter 41 and the conductivity measured by the conductivity meter 42 match the hardness and conductivity that are management targets. By performing such control by the control device 40, it becomes possible to provide coffee with a uniform flavor of the same type of coffee regardless of fluctuations in the quality of the supplied water or raw water, and also to intentionally Even when changing the flavor, it is possible to obtain coffee with the flavor changed as intended.

Further, in the extraction water production apparatus 10, in order to set the mixing ratio in the mixing device 30, more specifically, a pattern described in a table in the control device 40 is selected and the control device 40 performs mixing according to the pattern. An input 43 may be provided for controlling the device 30. The input unit 43 is, for example, disposed close to the coffee extractor 20 or incorporated into the operation panel of the coffee extractor 20, and is provided so that any one pattern can be selected by a button operation by the user. If an input section 43 is provided in which a pattern can be selected by operating a button, a user who wishes to brew coffee using the coffee extractor 20 operates the input section 43 according to his/her preference. As a result, the control device 40 controls the mixing device 30 according to the pattern selected by the user, so that the mixing device 30 supplies water suitable for brewing coffee with the flavor desired by the user to the coffee extractor 20. Supplied. Users will be able to enjoy coffee with the flavor of their choice.

When the mixing ratio can be set using the input unit 43, the control device 40 executes billing processing according to the mixing ratio set via the input unit 43 and the amount of outlet water discharged from the mixing device 30. You may. That is, billing processing may be executed according to the amount and properties of water supplied from the extraction water production device 10 to the coffee extractor 20. As an example of billing processing, if the coffee extractor 20 is of a vending machine type, the amount of water required to brew one cup of coffee is constant, and the user can choose a special flavor. If a coffee is requested and a pattern is selected, the controller 40 may cooperate with the coffee brewer 20 to impose an additional charge on top of the regular coffee price.

10 Extraction water production device 11 Activated carbon device 12, 15 Water softener 13 Reverse osmosis device 14 Reverse osmosis membrane 20 Coffee extractor 30 Mixing device 31 Solenoid valve 32 Connection piping 40 Control device 41 Hardness meter 42 Conductivity meter 43 Input section

Claims (6)

A water production device used for coffee extraction,
A reverse osmosis device to which raw water is supplied;
a mixing device capable of mixing the raw water, permeated water discharged from the reverse osmosis device, and concentrated water discharged from the reverse osmosis device at an arbitrary mixing ratio;
Manufacturing equipment with Further comprising at least one of a first water softener having an ion exchanger and to which the raw water is supplied, and a second water softener having an ion exchanger and to which the concentrated water is supplied,
According to claim 1 , the mixing device is capable of mixing outlet water of at least one of the first water softener and the second water softener in an arbitrary mixing ratio in addition to the raw water, the permeated water, and the concentrated water. The manufacturing equipment described. a sensor that measures at least one of the hardness and conductivity of the outlet water of the mixing device;
a control device that controls a mixing ratio in the mixing device according to the output of the sensor;
The manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2 , further comprising: Further comprising an input unit for setting a mixing ratio in the mixing device,
The manufacturing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the control device controls the mixing device to achieve a mixing ratio set via the input section. The manufacturing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the control device executes billing processing according to the mixing ratio set via the input unit and the amount of outlet water discharged from the mixing device. A manufacturing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5 ,
a coffee extractor that is supplied with outlet water of the mixing device and extracts coffee;
A coffee extraction system with

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