Originally Posted by phillyaggie

I worked as a process engineer at Maxwell House's biggest plant in North America... helped them with start-up and commissioning of a new process unit which take the leftover beans from the perc unit (beans that've already been through the industrial-strength percolation process) and feeding them into this high-temperature, high-pressure counter-current steam flow reactor. The beans pumped from down and steam injected from top of a 70-foot reactor column. You get more "juices" out of the beans, about 12-15% more. But it's also a little more bitter and the sugars and not what you want...so there's more processing after that, mostly hydrolizing. The beans coming out of the reactor are almost bone dry, get pressed to get remaining "mother liquor" and then get sent to the plant's steam generator to be burnt as fuel.

Very efficient process. But imagine the kind of coffee you get. I have an insider's view of it....