The aim of this article is to compare the solubility, wettability and granulometric distribution of a cocoa powder beverage, which went through the following process: simple blending; blending and lecithination (0.3; 0.5; 0.8 and 1.0% of soy lecithin) and blending, lecithination (0.3; 0.5; 0.8 and 1.0% of soy lecithin) and agglomeration. Comparing the product obtained with the simple blending process and the lecithinated product, the conclusion is that the presence of lecithin improves the powder beverage solubility in all the conditions used. The agglomeration process, after lecithination, improves the solubility of the product, which was determined in this article using the retention index - RI. Comparing this parameter to the different treatments studied, the following results were obtained: RIblend = 2.65%; RI0.3lec. = 2.07; RI0.3lec.aglom. = 0.79%. Regarding wettability, it was observed that the lecithinated products had less time if compared to the powder that went through the simple blending process, and the agglomeration process reduced even more in these times (t blend = 8 min 16 s; t0,3%lec. = 4 min 33 s; t0.3%lec.aglom. = 3 min). No influence of the lecithination process in the granulometric distribution was observed. The agglomeration process caused a modification in this property.
agglomeration; lecithination; physical properties; powder beverage
