Physical characteristic of instanised chocolate beverage powder produced with palm sugar and sucrose as sweeteners

Cold cocoa beverage is one of the derivative products of cacao. It has sweet taste and refreshing sensation which is popular in tropical countries. Sweetener is added mainly to reduce the bitterness of the cocoa powder. Normally, before adding ice cube, hot water is used to dissolve cocoa drink powder. Nevertheless, this method is not efficient. Therefore, a method that can produce cocoa drink powder which can be easily dissolved is required. This study aimed to investigate the impact of palm sugar: sucrose (P:S) proportion and drying duration on the characteristics of cocoa drink powder made using continuous-type steam jet agglomerator. The result showed that the solubility, bulk and tapped density increased as the proportion of palm sugar and drying duration increased. However, the lightness tended to be comparable and moisture content after drying process decreased as the proportion of palm sugar increased.