Excerpted from Coffee and Tea New Europe Exhibition and Symposiums Vienna, Austria

The first "P" factor is Product, or, what exactly is the coffee product that we are trying to manufacture: The second "P" factor is the Problem, or what problems are being experienced using the present grinding technologies? *("Ultrafine" refers to Turkish, Grecian, Lebanese and similar grinds). The third "P" factor refers to the new Process, or grinder design for manufacturing that defines Product. And the fourth "P" would be what we might call "P" ("P" Prime), which is the resulting new ground coffee product

The first "P" was understanding the product that we were trying to make. For purposes of this discussion, we will define the Turkish, Grecian and Lebanese type coffee as "Ultrafine". "Ultrafine" style coffees were the earliest methods of brewing coffee, and one might call them the original "instant" coffees, long before freeze dried and agglomerated. The coffee drinking population of "Ultrafine" type coffees is estimated at 700 million people throughout the world, and since the earliest days "stones" and "plates" have been used to grind this coffee into a fine powder. To get an idea of how fine this might be, let's do a little comparison.

Now, comes the second "P" or the Problem. As one can imagine, to make such a fine grind requires a great deal of energy. Imagine taking a coffee bean and hitting it with a hammer. The first time you hit it, it breaks into a coarse grind or, something on the order of a French press or drip type grind. If we hit the hammer on the bean several more times, it would progressively get finer and finer and, eventually, become something on the order of a Turkish coffee grind. In essence, the energy that is represented by the hammer and the muscles in your arm is the same type of energy that is needed to make a coffee grind progressively finer. Since one of the basic laws of thermodynamics says that all energy goes eventually to heat, the energy that is required to make this fine grind coffee eventually results in a great deal of heat being transferred to the coffee. With the typical plates and stones that are utilized now in the manufacture of "Ultrafine" type coffees, the energy needed to make the grind is transferred into the product.

This situation causes several problems: The critically important flavor and aromatic constituents of the coffee are volatile, or sensitive to heat, and evaporate or "boil off" at these elevated temperatures.

There are several temperature levels at which volatile, aromatics evaporate. Some are as low as 40 degr. C, others at 60 degr. C, while others are at 80 degr. C; however, virtually all evaporate by the time 100 degr. C is reached.

The second problem, related to the first, is the inability to produce coffee on a continuous basis. The typical Turkish grinder must be shut down when it reaches 100 degr. C and a cooling grinder temperature to be reduced close to ambient. Obviously, this is a major interruption to production and can reduce the capacity of a grinder by 75%.

The third problem, related again to the above, is that involving the color of the coffee itself. The best place to develop a coffee, and its color is in the roaster. Grinders have never made very good roasters, and the development of darker and darker coffee in these grinders is inevitable considering the amount of heat that is generated in the grinding process.

We can summarize then that the problems are heat generation, which causes the loss of flavor and aromatics in the coffee, the interruption of production, the darkening of the coffee color inside the grinder, and the grind particles size itself.

The third "P" is the new Process, or the design of the new Model FT "Ultrafine" coffee grinder. Pictured below is an overview of a typical type of modern coffee roller style grinder. As can be seen, the coffee enters the top section through the distribution feeder, and is progressively ground finer and finer. Upon discharge from the grinding chamber, it enters into a homogenizing or normalizing chamber where coffee densification, chaff elimination and cooling occur.

• The coffee temperature had to be monitored and controlled throughout the grinding sections to insure the optimal coffee conditions.

• Control of the loading of each motor throughout the grinder had to be maintained.

• Automatic control of the feed rate into the grinder to match the motor loading had to be insured.

• Water cooling on all rollers as well as the normalizer/homogenizer had to be included as an integral part of the unit.

• The most crucial element of the Model FT was that involving durability and wear. Since the grind that was being achieved was "Ultrafine", the tolerances obviously were going to be far more stringent than ever required previously; additionly, due to the amount of energy and work that was to be performed in the grinder, an accelerated amount of wear could be expected.

To address this problem, we relied on ultra-hard materials that have been developed by the U.S. Space program (NASA). By utilizing these licensed, propriety materials, we have been able to virtually eliminate wear from occurring on the grinding sections. Not only does this remove the element of maintenance and down time from the operation of the FT, but also ensures the critical tolerances necessary to make this grind, are maintained.

Now, for the final "P" or P' ("P" Prime), we look at the new "Ultrafine" product achieved on the Model FT "Ultrafine".

Summarizing, the problems that have been inherent in the grinding of "Ultrafine" coffee, such as Turkish, Grecian, Lebanese and others, are now eliminated through the use of the MPE Model FT "Ultrafine" roller style grinder. The results are a cool, uniform coffee grind produced on a grinder that is capable of running 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.

Written by Glenn A.John, International Editor, Tea and Coffee Trade Journal