What's the secret of Nescafé Cappuccino?
Foams have a long history in foods, being
used to give texture and lightness, like the beaten egg whites used to
bake soufflés or meringues. The foam on top of a drink, however, is
ephemeral. It needs to last only as long as it takes to drink the product,
but it must also flow smoothly like a liquid and must be easy to prepare.
The secret of Nescafé Cappuccino lies in innovative high-tech
micro-structural science and engineering to create instant foam by
dispersing micro-bubbles of gas in a specifically formulated milk-based
creamer.
The challenge of instant
aesthetics
Traditional
Italian Cappuccino is made by gently pouring steam-frothed milk onto the
surface of brewed coffee. Correctly made, it comes with the brown coffee
below and the white milky foam above. The secret of the Foam Booster is to
get the same aesthetic and gustatory pleasure in Nescafé Cappuccino as in
the best coffee shops of Italy.
Trapping gas in glass
The Foam Booster contains milk proteins
and milk sugar, namely lactose. When spray dried like milk powder, but
under very precise processing conditions, the protein-lactose mixture
gives a glass-like material containing micro-bubbles, almost like a
Swiss cheese. The holes are then loaded with nitrogen to create the
Foam Booster powder which is then mixed with coffee powder and creamer,
resulting in the novel Cappuccino product.
When
reconstituted in hot water, the booster instantaneously releases the
gas trapped in it. The gas bubbles lift the lighter creamer particles to
the surface generating an instant, creamy, milky-white foam, while the
heavier coffee particles stay below to give the familiar dark brown colour
of coffee.
Download
PDF for NESCAFE Foam Booster 