<![CDATA[This study evaluated the effects of initial cooling temperature (70, 80, and 90 °C) and cooling method (vacuum cooling and conventional cooling) on the physicochemical characteristics of Kokolomboi tree honey. A completely randomized factorial design was used with two factors, namely initial temperature and cooling method. The evaluated parameters were cooling time, cooling rate, moisture content, total soluble solids, diastase activity, reducing sugar content, acidity, and color. Vacuum cooling produced the shortest cooling time, 534 s at 70 °C, and the highest cooling rate, −0.063 °C/s at 80 °C; conventional cooling required 1805 s at 70 °C and reached a maximum cooling rate of −0.026 °C/s. The lowest moisture content under vacuum cooling was 12.77% at an initial temperature of 90 °C, whereas the highest value under conventional cooling was 17.57% at 70 °C. Total soluble solids reached 71 °Brix under vacuum cooling at 90 °C and 65.67 °Brix under conventional cooling at 70 °C. Diastase activity was better retained by vacuum cooling, reaching 1.14 DN, compared with 0.63 DN under conventional cooling at 70 °C. The highest reducing sugar contents were 71% and 67% under vacuum and conventional cooling, respectively, at 70 °C. The highest ΔE values were 2.61 under vacuum cooling and 0.82 under conventional cooling at 90 °C. Overall, vacuum cooling accelerated heat removal and provided better retention of several physicochemical quality attributes than conventional cooling, although the process was also associated with greater moisture and mass loss.]]>
