Coffee as a beverage is usually consumed ‘black’ or ‘white’ depending on the taste of the consumer. A variety of milk and non-dairy products in both liquid and powder forms may serve to fulfil a coffee whitening function. Cream is a concentrated emulsion of milk lipid globules in skimmed milk, and it is separated from milk either by gravity or centrifugal force.
Different types of creams are primarily classified according to their fat content (g/100 g) as double cream (45–50%), cream or full cream (30–40%), single or half cream (15–25%), coffee cream (15–18%), and light coffee cream (less than 10%).
Method of mixing cream and coffee—
(a) Adding cream to coffee without sugar.
(b) Adding cream to coffee and sugar.
(c) Adding coffee to cream without sugar.
(d) Adding coffee to cream and sugar.
Coffee cream is a shelf-stable product with a fat content of more than 10%. It is homogenized and UHT-processed, filled aseptically, or sterilized in the container. It is a popular product that is mainly used for whitening coffee, as well as for imparting a pleasant flavor to coffee.
It is also used in the preparation of food and drinks, and for direct consumption. Coffee cream has a minimum shelf-life of 4 months at room temperature, and it normally contains 10–12 g fat/100 g, and, less often, 15–20 g fat/100 g. Its shelf life is similar to the shelf life of UHT milk.
The fat emulsion in cream is frequently destabilized to the extent that some of the fat will rise to the surface when the cream is used in coffee. This fat which separates appears on the surface of the coffee in the form of glistening oil droplets or globules which are easily discernible to the coffee drinker. This phenomenon, when it occurs in coffee, is usually referred as "oiling off."
In order to satisfy the requirements of coffee stability coffee cream must firstly possess instant solubility properties i.e. satisfy the dispersibility, wettability and solubility criteria normally required when fat-containing powders are added to water. The second requirement is that the creamer, on dissolving in coffee, should not coagulate or give rise to a sludge-like precipitate or sediment.
Coffee cream
