What’s in a cup of coffee?
What’s in a
cup of coffee?
Good Stuff
Water
Water is a super solvent, helping to extract flavors and oils from coffee beans. A good cup of coffee is 98.75 percent water and 1.25 percent plant matter. Caffeine is a diuretic, so coffee newbies pee out the water quickly; java junkies build up resistance.
Caffeine
16 billion pounds of coffee beans are grown annually to deliver this most powerful of wake-me up ingredients. It’s an alkaloid plant toxin (like nicotine and cocaine), a bug killer that stimulates us by blocking neuroreceptors for the sleep chemical adenosine.
3,5 Dicaffeoylquinic acid
This is an anti-oxidant acid. Protects cells from free-radical damage.
Trigonelline and Niacin
A molecule of niacin and methyl group that breaks down into pyridines (these give coffee its sweet, earthy taste and also prevent the tooth-eating bacterium Streptococcus mutans from attaching to your teeth). So coffee can help fight the Cavity Creeps! Trigonelline breaks down the most when coffee is hot,. This releases niacin or vitamin B3.
Yukky Stuff
Acetylmethylcarbinol
Its a skin and eye irritant.
Putrescine
What makes spoiled meat poisonous? Ptomaines like putrescine are produced when E. coli bacteria in meat break down amino acids. Naturally present in coffee beans, it does smell wicked.
2-Ethylphenol
Creates a tarlike, medicinal odor. Yuk…it’s also a component of cockroach alarm pheromones, chemical signals that warn the colony of danger.
Dimethyl disulfide
A product of roasting the green coffee bean, this compound is just at the threshold of detectability in brewed java. Respiratory system irritant.
Video
Willing to try something different and superhealthy? Check out Dianna’s raw, organic coffee frappe:
Keywords
Ground coffee, coffee mate, cold coffee, raw coffee, instant coffee, commercial coffee, gourmet coffee, roasted coffee, coffee drinks, coffee beans, coffee types, coffee recipes, chemicals in coffee, flavoring in coffee.
Based on an article by Patrick di Justo in Wired.
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