WO2012009730A1

WO2012009730A1 - Method for processing coffee and coffee processed by this method

Info

Publication number: WO2012009730A1
Application number: PCT/VN2011/000003
Authority: WO
Inventors: Manh Cuong Hoang
Original assignee: Manh Cuong Hoang
Priority date: 2010-07-12
Filing date: 2011-07-06
Publication date: 2012-01-19

Abstract

The invention provides for a method for processing coffee to produce coffee product of special aroma and flavour meeting the demand of civet coffee consumers in the world. In particular, the invention provides for a method for processing coffee by using digestive enzymes of an animal to treat coffee fruits in its digestive system so as to obtain as the final product coffee beans with the exceptional aroma and flavour of the civet coffee. In addition, the invention also provides for steps of treating coffee beans after being collected by drying at appropriate temperature and wind speed.

Description

METHOD FOR PROCESSING COFFEE

AND COFFEE PROCESSED BY THIS METHOD

Technical field of the invention

The present invention relates to harvesting, treating, processing and storing agricultural products, in particular to harvesting, treating, processing and storing coffee.

Background of the invention

Coffee has been a welknown agricultural product for long time, and it has been widely cultivated, harvested and used in daily life. Coffee food products in general and coffee drinks in particular are kind of delicacy of various territories around the globe. Drinks made of coffee are always pleasing and stimulating, and hence become the favourite of many people.

Extensive research has been conducted in many countries with view to enhance coffee quality and its use. Coffee beans usually contains from 1 to 2% weight caffeine, from 10 to 15% weight coffee oil, about 8% sugars like sucrose, about 11% protein, about 5% ash and about 6% chlorogenic and caffeic acid. Other constituents include cellulose, hemicellulose, trigoneline, tanic acid and volatile oils. Researches have been focused on how to increase the beneficial components of coffee beans as well as their aroma so as to bring about the pleasant and excellent flavour of coffee drinks.

US patent No. 3,983,002 (Takaichi Ohya et al.) relates to the use of hemicellulase, a cell-wall digesting enzyme, in enhancing the extractability of coffee. Similarly, US patent No. 4,904,484 (Small Leonard et al.) disclosed

l process for treating coffee beans in a solution containing an effective enzyme under high pressure to reduce the bitterness of the coffee product. According to this present invention, both roasted and unroasted coffee beans could be processed by a method of using a solution containing cell-wall digesting enzymes, cell-storage-component-digesting enzymes or phenol oxidase enzymes or mixture thereof under the pressure of at least 250 psi (1722,5 KPa). This processing method reduces the treatment time needed to remove guaiacol compounds and other bitter tasting phenolic compounds, they all contribute to the difference between the normal coffee and the civet coffee, namely the bitter, burnt and smoky type flavour impression. Usable enzymes include cell-wall digesting enzymes such as cellulases, hemicellulases (like rohalases, marketed by RohmTech), pectinases, glucanases, mannase and ligninases, or cell-storage- component digesting enzymes such as amylases, glucosidases, mannosidases, dextranases, proteases such as papain, coralase L 10, exoproteases, endoproteases, phosphatases, phospholipases, lipases and nucleases. Phenolic oxidase enzymes can be monophenol oxidase or diphenol oxidase, like tyrosinase or phenolase.

Use of microbials, in particular Aspergillus oryzae ferment to incubate ground coffee to bring in improved coffee flavour and aroma was provided in Japanese patent No. JP H1-112950A. The disadvantages of this method is that microbial ferments are used for ground coffee, renderring it difficult to remove microbials Aspergillus oryzae from coffee products. In order to overcome this disadvantage, Vietnamese patent application No. 1-2006-00659 provides for means to process coffee by incubating coffee beans with microbials such as yeast, fungi or lactic microbe.

Other processes to treat coffee by use of chemical compounds were disclosed aiming at enhancing the special flavour of coffee. In particular, US patent No. 2,119,329 provides for a coffee product with rich flavour which could be produced by adding small quantity of oxidising agent to green coffee beans. Sodium hypoclorite, in amount of about 0.25% by weight of the coffee, could be added, usually by spraying the beans with an aqueous solution of hypoclorite. Meanwhile, US patent No. 1 ,640,648 disclosed method for reducing caffeine in green coffee beans by treating firstly with alkaline agent to convert the caffeine into an alkaloidal state, and then the beans are roasted and decaffeinated in a single step. Also by the way of using alkaline agents, US patent No. 312,516 (Schilling et al.) provided for a possible way to bring about the full and strong coffee flavour by coating coffee the roasted beans with alkaline salt, such as bicarbonate of soda or borat. This alkaline salt is dissolved in water and sprayed onto beans which are still hot from roasting. Similarly, US patent No. 3,644,122 (James A. Yeransian) disclosed a process for treating coffee with alkaline material to produce coffee extract with better quality and colour. At the same time, US patent No. 1,822,227 (Lendrich et al.) disclosed a process for treating coffee by decomposing the chlorogenic acid in coffee beans with a heated solution of sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide and mineral acids. The beans are subsequently neutralised before roasting.

Coffee aroma and flavour are of complex and unstable composition. More than 700 compounds have been reported and identified as coffee headspare volatiles. Oxidation in coffee packaging leads to decrease and loss of the important components contributing to the coffee aroma and flavour. Research has revealed that the oxidation of the strong aromatic component dimethyl sulfide into a nonvolatile odorless compound, namely methyl sulfoxide, one of the contributors to coffee flavour deterioration. Oxidation also leads to a number of chemical reactions between coffee soluble components and coffee volatiles. Moisture in air also contributes to the deteriorating effect of oxygen on coffee flavour. Methods to store coffee so as to prevention the oxidation process usually is the one that stores coffee in air-tight containers under vacuum or inert gas. However, these methods are not completely effective, and could partly prevent only oxidation driven by the presence of atmospheric oxygen. Moreover, nitrogen could not completely displace oxygen, while the vaccuum packaging removes a portion of the desirable flavour components. Thus, US patent No. 6,337,098 (Kevin C. Spencer et al.) provided for a method for improving the aroma and/or flavor of coffee by direct chemical control. In particular, the coffee storage is performed by a process of steps of using noble gases such as argon, krypton, xenon, and neon, or mixture thereof, substantially saturating the coffee with the gas or gas mixture, maintaing said saturation substantially throughout the volume of the closed space and during substantially all the time that said coffee is present in said closed space. This method is meant to maintain the reduced ratio of 2- methylfuran/2-butanone (M/B, one of the coffee aroma indexes, according to Kallio et al., 1990) at level of 30% during the whole process.

Another way to improve the coffee quality is to apply certain physical conditions (temperature, humidity, pressure, etc.) to reduce undesirable components of coffee. Skilled people in the art of coffee proceessing are aware of the fact that the undesirable components of coffee consist of 2 groups: the first group of ether soluble irritant compounds and hydroxy tryptamides. The classic treating is reducing or removing these undesirable components by washing the raw coffee in organic solvents such as chlorohydrocarbon to remove the wax-like layer containing hydroxy tryptamides from the surface of the coffee beans. Chlorohydrocarbons are also used to extract coffeine from raw coffee. After washing the raw coffee in an organic solvent, the thus treated coffee beans are exposed to steam, optionally under high pressure, to again remove the organic solvent employed in the previous washing step since solvents of this type are not allowed in food industry. This steam treatment at the same time reduces the concentration of ether soluble irritant substances. Such treatment is not regarded as appropriate to the need of healthy and beneficial treating. Instead, US patent No. 4,015,022 provides for a method for reducing the content of irritant substances in coffee by means of high temperature treament wherein the high temperature treatment is effected by means of hot air of a relatively high humidity, and this treatment is followed by a cooling step at a reduced pressure. Such treating order could be repeated several times successively. Also by physical means, Vietnamese patent application No. 1-2007-02784 provides for means of washing green coffee fruits/beans with hot water at temperature between 50°C and 100°C to remove contaminated microbes, thus delaying the deterioration process in coffee fruits caused by the contaminated microbes during storage period (after harvesting).

As human needs strongly grow, coffee quality should not be only improved but also be exceptional, meeting various taste and flavour expectations of the consumers. Therefore, coffee with special aroma and flavour became the ultimate need of the modern life in general, as well as of the coffee industry in particular. Moreover, chemical or physical processes for coffee treatment with human intervention have an important disadvantage of failure to be environment friendly and causing concern in respect of healthy nourishment. Thus, the approach of treating coffee by microbiological means with use of enzymes is of special interest. By this means, a process for treating coffee by biological methods is known as producing a very special coffee product, namely coffee beans obtained by the use of the digestive enzyme of a living animal, instead of a system of artificial enzymes in accordance with US patent No. 4,904,484 (Leonard E. Small et al.). In particular, this coffee product is obtained from droppings of animals, in particular civets, that have consumed coffee fruits. Such coffee product with exceptional quality is known by "civet coffee" having its origin from Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. In Indonesia, especially places such as Sumatra, Java, Bali and Sulawesi, the animal mentioned in relation to this coffee product is the palm civet and the coffee product has became globally well-known by the name of Kopi Luwak. In the Phillipines, the animal is Alamid (paradoxurus hermaphroditus philippensis) and the final product is called Kape Alamid, quite the same as Kopi Luwak. In Vietnam, the animal involved in this special product is civets, in particular small civet (palm civet) {Viverricula indica). In Brazil, there is a bird called Jacu, which also eats ripen coffee fruits, and like civets, defecates coffee beans in the forest. Local people collect the product and call it "Jacu bird coffee".

In practice, after the fresh coffee fruits are ingested by animals, in particular civets, the digestive enzymes of the animals will decompose the fruit cover and the fruit content. Coffee beans are what civets cannot digest, and hence excrete in their droppings. What interesting is that coffee beans have passed the digestive system of the civets and hence their aroma and taste have changed a lot under the action of the digestive enzymes of the civets, thus contributing to the special flavour of the coffee product. After excreted from civets, this product is being collected, dried, brayed, washed and then roasted at very high temperature (about 250°C) to bring about a product of exceptional aroma and flavour which is always highly demanded by coffee connoisseurs. Not withstanding the fact that the coffee beans are collected from animal feces, the product has been confirmed clean and meets all food standards for human use. The quality is contributed by the processing after collection from civet droppings, including steps of drying coffee beans in the sun and husking to remove the cover. Prior to use, the coffee beans will be roasted at high temperature (about 240°C) and hence the contamination level is low. Cleanness and nutrition quality of the civet coffee was already tested and reported by Professor Massimo Marcone at Guelph Universtiy (Canada) (see Massimo F. Marcone, Composition and properties of Indonesian palm civet coffee (Kopi Luwak) and Ethiopian civet coffee, Food Research International, Volume 37, Issue 9, 2004, pages 901-912). Professor Marcone confirmed that the level of contamination of gut bacteria in coffee Kopi Luwak is low because of its being roasted at high temperature around 249°C. Professor Marcone also confirmed the significant differences in flavour and colour between civet coffee and others. In his opinion, the protein content of the civet coffee beans has been substantially digested by the animal enzymes leading to the decrease of its bitterness.

Even though the productivity of this special coffee is much lower than that of other coffee products, its exceptional flavour has made it a superior food and highly demanded in the world. Civet coffee is generally provided by a limited number of suppliers including those in the coffee producing regions such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Etiopia, and Brazil. Despite the fact that there are currently no technical standards to evaluate civet coffee, those skilled people in the art of coffee cannot deny that civet coffee has always been highly demanded by coffee connoisseurs.

Civet coffee is not among wide spread products. Moreover, along with the decrease in the number of civets, being a rare animal in the tropical jungles, which is even more serious due to the deforesting activities, the sources and supply of the natural civet coffee hugely decrease. To meet the high demand of this special coffee product, many coffee producers have been applying a process called "wet production of civet coffee", according to which coffee is imitated the natural civet coffee by the use of chemical agents such as flavouring agent F9900 (from Singapore), flavouring agent No. 419436 (of French origin) and flavouring agent SRI 35 (from France), contributing to an aroma which is very much like the special aroma of the civet coffee. However, such civet coffee production is not recommended, and such an artificial civet coffee product has not been favoured by consumers. A number of civet coffee producers have been trying another approach in rearing civets, feeding them with coffee fruits and collecting the coffee beans from their droppings. As the civets select and consume coffee fruits them instinctively, the thus obtained coffee quality is not much different from that of the natural civet coffee.

Therefore, the present invention provides for a method for processing coffee to produce civet coffee with improved quality so as to meet the high demand of the consumers in respect of this special product.

Summary of the invention

The invention provides for a method for processing coffee to produce coffee product having exceptional flavour so as to meet consumers' demand of civet coffee around the world. In particular, the invention provides for a method for processing coffee by the use of the digestive enzymes of an animal to treat coffee fruits in the digestive system of that animal so as to collect as the final product coffee beans of special aroma and flavour of the civet coffee.

Another aspect of the present invention provides for a method for processing coffee fruits by using the digestive enzymes of Asian palm civets (also called common palm civets or Toddy cats) having general Latin name paradoxurus hemaphroditus, herein called Asian palm civet), this process is preferrably performed just after stimulating the digestive system of the Asian palm civets, wherein the step of stimulating the digestive system is preferrably performed by feeding the Asian palm civets with boiled meat before giving coffee fruits into their digestive system, preferably the quantity of this boiled meat is about lOgram/Asian palm civet, preferably the time interval between the stimulating step and the step of giving coffee fruits to Asian palm civets is about 5 minutes.

Another aspect of the present invention provides for a method for processing coffee beans collected from the droppings of Asian palm civets by controlling the temperature, time and wind speed of the step drying the thus collected coffee beans under the sun so that the fermentation process continues in uncooked coffee beans, which contributes to establishing of the civet coffee aroma and flavour, and at the same time helps to prolong the storage term of coffee beans without loss in the special aroma and flavour of this exceptional product.

Detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention

The process in accordance with the invention has been applied in massive scale. A number of specific examples which are not meant to limit the scope of the claimed process are disclosed below.

Ripen coffee fruits consist of many layers: thin outer skin layer which is as tough as the skin of tomato fruits, thick pulp, and a husk layer (also called skull layer) which is a hard pectin layer, and a silk layer coating the coffee bean. When Asian palm civets eat coffee fruits, the civets will chew the outer skin off in situ and and swallow the remaining. In the coffee beans collected from the droppings of the Asian palm civets, the pulp has already been digested while the coffee beans are usually preserved within the hard husk layer. Before being roasted, this hard layer will be husked off (just like husking rice), then washed in water. The roasting temperature in the range from 250°C to 320°C (may vary) can render the coffee products completely disinfected.

There are 8 species of palm civets in Vietnam, but only 2 species among them eat coffee fruits, namely the masked palm civets (or Himalayan palm civet) and Asian palm civets. A grown masked palm civet is usually about 8kg while an Asian palm civet is as small as about 3 kg. The coffee product with the involvement of the Asian palm civets is normally favoured by the coffee producers because the masked palm civets are bigger, their teeth are larger, therefore they usually break the husk of the coffee fruits while eating them and consequently causing an ordor to the coffee beans.

As tropical forest in general and the forest in Vietnam in particular are becoming much narrower, the number of natural Asian palm civets accordingly decreases. Thus, Asian palm civets (paradoxurus hemaphroditus) are classified in the group of wide animals, consequently the breeding of Asian palm civets must be registered with the State Authority. Such registration requirement renders it complicated to rear civets for the purpose of production of civet coffee. In nature, Asian palm civets themselves choose coffee fruits to eat and thereafter excrete coffee beans in the jungle. While being bred, the Asian palm civet are given to select coffee fruits among those selected in advance by human being.

According to the present invention, the selection of coffee fruits for the Asian palm civets is performed so as to have 100% fresh and ripen red coffee fruits, without any pink or orange-brown fruits; they must all be absolutely clean from worms or bugs.

Next, before going into the digestive system of the Asian palm civets, i.e. before being selected by the Asian palm civets, the coffee fruits should be washed with cool water at the temperature in the range between 20°C and 25°C to clean coffee fruits from the chemical agents that have been used in growing coffee, or those chemical agents that have been used to prevent the coffee fruits from being withered.

Since Asian palm civets are animals, their digestive system would be stimulated to produce more enzymes in the presence of stimulating factors, and under the action of these enzymes the coffee fruits with be further treated and consequently contribute to making a special flavour in the coffee product. The inventor found that one of options to stimulate the digestive system of the Asian palm civets is to do so by the use of food. As Asian palm civets are living organisms, feeding hungry Asian palm civets with a little food will activate their digestive system and hence render it producing more digestive enzymes as well as making the digestive system ready for better metabolism. However, since Asian palm civets quickly digest foods with the average excretion time in the range between 2 and 3 hours, the ready status of their digestive system does not last for long, consequently the interval between the stimulating point (giving food to the civets) and the point giving coffee fruits to the civets should not be too long. In a preferred embodiment, this interval should be about 5 minutes.

In order to stimulate the digestive system of the Asian palm civets by giving them food as mentioned above, one or several favourite foods of the Asian palm civets could be used. Preferably, this food is meat. However, fresh (uncooked) meat could have been contaminated with bacteria, and when passes the digestive system of the Asian palm civets could badly affect their digestive enzymes system, thus badly affecting the quality of coffee while passing and being treated therein. Therefore, it is preferred that the meat used to stimulate the digestive system of the Asian palm civets is cooked, e.g. boiled meat.

In addition, it should be understood that the step of feeding Asian palm civets with food before giving them coffee fruits is only to stimulate and therefore the amount of food to be given to the Asian palm civets should not be too much. Preferably, this food amount should be barely enough to wake up the digestive system of the Asian palm civets, to render the digestive system ready for treating the coffee fruits. In particular, if the food amount used to stimulate the digestive system of the Asian palm civets is more than necessary, the digestive enzymes produced in the digestive system of the Asian palm civets for the purpose of the treating coffee will be invoked to digest that food. According to the present invention, the meat amount to be used to stimulate the digestive system of the Asian palm civets in Vietnam (including the grown Asian palm civets) should be about 10 gram boiled meat only each civet.

After the digestive system of the Asian palm civets is stimulated in the way described above, coffee fruits which were selected and washed with cool water as described above are introduced into the digestive system of the Asian palm civets by means including, but not limiting to feeding Asian palm civets with these coffee fruits. Next, coffee beans will be collected from the droppings of the Asian palm civets.

Once being collected, coffee beans will be next dried. This step could be performed by means including, but not limiting to, drying coffee beans under the sun. During such drying process, the internal fermentation in uncooked coffee beans continues, therefore the drying regime is also regarded as important factors contributing to the fermentation process, consequently affecting the coffee beans quality and their flavour. According to the present invention, an appropriate coffee drying regime significantly depend on factors including temperature, humidity, wind speed, and time. If the drying temperature for coffee beans is too low, the coffee beans would be moist and hence could be mouldy and spoiled. If, however, the coffee beans temperature during the storage is high, the products will be quickly dried, renderring the fermentation early terminated, consequently the coffee products would not have the expected taste and flavour. According to the present invention, the coffee drying temperature should be in the range between 35°C and 40°C.

Wind speed during the drying process is also another important factor affecting the coffee quality. Preferably, the wind speed should be maintained in the range between 2.70m/s and 3.00m/s. The step of treating coffee beans collected in accordance with the present invention allows the internal coffee fermentation continues so as to produce the special flavour and taste that are highly favoured by consumers.

The drying process normally lasts for several days, preferably up to about 4 days, preferrably within from 1 day to 2 days.

To prolong the storage up to 24 months, the coffee beans should be further dried under the sun or dried by heating so as to reach the coffee beans' moisture level of about 12%.

By the above mentioned processing method, the dried coffee beans have the moisture level of about 12% and are presevered in their husk. This layer will be husked off just immediately before the roasting step, hence anaerobic conditions or vacuum or inert gases etc. are not required.

Testing

By performing the above described method, the obtained civet coffee is a special product meeting the high demand in the world. The quality of the civet coffee products processed in accordance with the invention has been tested at the Center of Chromatography Education and Development at the Polytechnic Universtity in Hanoi by chromatographic methods as further described below.

Testing method

Uncook coffee beans are analyzed by a number of key factors including the protein content, the lipid content, the total carbohydrate content, the cellulose content, aflatoxin and the caffeine content. The protein content can be determined by the total nitrogen content by way of demolishing a sample with the use of a concentrated aquaeous solution of H₂S0₄, then distillation to obtain NH₃. The total protein content is calculated on the basis of ammonium tetraborate.

The lipid content of the dried uncooked coffee beans are extracted with the use of organic solvents, then distilled and quantified.

The total carbohydrate content is determined on the basis of the reducible sugar content quantified by ferricyanide method (the Graxinop method).

Cellulose in uncooked foods is a stable component in the presence of strong acids and strong bases, and it would not be degraded under the action of weak acids. Other compounds accompanying cellulose such as hemicellulose, lignin, etc. are usually less stable in the presence of acids and bases and hence would be easily oxidised, decomposed and dissolve into solution while being treated by alkaline solutions or by a mixture of nitric acid and acetic acid. The cellulose content of uncooked coffee beans is determined on this basis.

The aflatoxine is determined by a method including an extracting step, washing in corresponding solvent system and high pressure liquid chromatographic analysis (HPLC).

Test samples

Three uncooked coffee bean samples, including a normal coffee sample, a sample of civet coffee without stimulation and a sample of civet coffee with stimulation (namely the product obtained by the process of the present invention by stimulating the digestive system of Asian palm civets and then feeding them with coffee fruits) were tested on July 1, 2010.

Test result

The tests revealed that the key components of the coffee beans collected from the droppings of those Asian palm civets with stimulated digestive system are within the coffee quality norms. These data are not intended to compare the perceptible criteria such as the aroma and the flavour of the tested coffee samples partly because the tested coffee beans are uncooked, while the final coffee products for use are cooked (roasted) coffee beans, i.e. they should have also gone through further internal fermentation and other metabolism processes during the storage, processing and roasting.

o. Analysis criteria Civet coffee Civet coffee (with Normal

(without stimulated coffee stimulated digestion in the

digestion) Asian palm

civets, the process

for the invention)

1 Aflatoxine Bl < 0.1(^g/kg < 0.^g/kg < 0.^g/kg

2 Caffeine, mg/g 9.872 10.782 1 1.593

3 Moisture, % 7.91 8.32 10.23

4 Total protein, % dry mass 16.09 16.34 17.34

5 Lipid, % dry mass 5.02 5.24 8.05

6 Total carbohydrate, % 63.59 61.43 54.55

dry mass

7 Cellulose, % dry mass 13.45 13.33 13.12

8 Others, % dry mass 1.85 3.66 6.94

The disclosure of the above invention is not intended to be limited by the specific examples above. It is understood that with the above description, the skilled in the art could come up with a number of changes and modification to the specific embodiments, such as the selection of the stimulator for the digestive system of the civets before feeding them with coffee fruits, the interval between the step of stimulating th civets' digestive system and the step of giving coffee fruits to the civets, the food amount used to stimulate the digestive system of the civets before feeding them with coffee fruits, the temperature regime, time and the wind speed for the processing and the storage after collection from the droppings of the civets etc. without departing from the inventive idea or going beyond the scope of the present invention defined in the claims below.

Claims

1. A method for processing coffee to produce coffee product with special aroma and flavour, wherein this method comprises of the following steps:

a. including ripen fresh red coffee fruits into the digestive system of the Asian palm civets (p radox r s hemaphroditus) whose digestive system has been stimulated in advance;

b. collecting coffee beans from the droppings of the Asian palm civets; c. drying;

d. storing and processing the obtained coffee beans;

e. roasting coffee beans at high temperature.

2. The method in accordance with Claim 1, wherein the coffee fruits used in this method are ripen red coffee fruits.

3. The process in accordance with any of the above Claims, wherein the coffee fruits are washed with cool water at the temperature in the range between 20°C and 25°C before processing.

4. The process in accordance with any of the above Claims, wherein the stimulation of the digestive system of the Asian palm civets is performed by feeding the Asian palm civets with light food shortly before including coffee fruits into its digestive system.

5. The process in accordance with Claim 4, wherein the stimulation of the Asian palm civets with food is performed about 5 minutes before including coffee fruits into its digestive system.

6. The process in accordance with Claim 4 or Claim 5, wherein the food used for the Asian palm civets before including coffee fruits into its digestive system is boiled meat.

7. The process in accordance with Claim 6, wherein the amount of boiled meat used for the Asian palm civets before including the ripen coffee fruits into its digestive system is lOgram meat for each Asian palm civet.

8. The process in accordance with any of the above Claims, wherein coffee beans obtained from the droppings of the Asian palm civets are treated by drying under the sun at the temperature in the range between 35°C and 40°C and with wind speed in the range between 2.70m/s and 3.00m/s.

9. The process in accordance with Claim 8, wherein the step of drying coffee beans is performed until reaching the coffee beans' moisture below 12%.

10. Coffee obtained by the method in accordance with any of the above Claims.