“Coffee, Caffeine and Me…”

Caffeine is best known for its stimulating effects. It keeps people awake during stressful times, and keeps the body and mind active. Caffeine is most commonly found in coffee, a refreshing beverage that is the product of brewing of the coffee plant’s berries. There are actually two species of coffee plants that are mainly consumed, the C. robusta and C. arabica. C. robusta, from its namesake, is a thriving plant that is highly resistant to diseases as well as heat. C. arabica, the much more expensive variety, on the other hand grows at temperate climate and requires considerable care. Despite C. arabica having a more enticing aroma, C. robusta has a higher caffeine yield.

A little bit of history, coffee was first discovered in 850 when an Ethiopian goatherd noted how his flock suddenly became agitated and energetic after nibbling on the berries of the coffee plant. After trying for himself, the Ethiopian himself felt energized and excited, thus discovering coffee as a stimulant. The Arabs were the first to learn of the brewing process by boiling dried coffee berries and called the brew as qahwe. The beverage (and term) eventually spread in the Middle East to Turkey, them calling it as kahve and then to Europe specifically in France, where the term café soon flourished.

   

Coffee came to Asia and the Americas during the European Colonization Era, where European powers such as the Dutch, French, Portuguese and Spanish used the colonies of Java, Sri Lanka, the Caribbean, Brazil and the Philippines as plantations for the plant. In the Philippines particularly, coffee production made such a good business that until now the provinces of Batangas and Cavite still consider coffee production as their major industry.

Coffee aroma and intensity very much depends on the way the coffee berries were roasted, particularly with the temperature as well as time. From a mere 250 volatile organic compounds from green coffee, roasted coffee beans contain more than 800 volatile organic compounds, 400 of which affect the coffee’s taste and aroma.

Instant coffee is quite different as compared to normal brewed coffee. Instead of getting simply the liquid brew from the roasted coffee beans, instant coffee actually involves freeze-drying of the extract to remove water content and what’s left are solid granules that you eventually dissolve in your cup to make coffee. In essence, the caffeine content should simply be the same (but occurs otherwise). The only thing that’ll make the difference in the drinking experience would probably be the aroma.

What about coffee without the caffeine? If you think about it, decaffeinated coffee essentially comes from the same roasted coffee beans; it’s just that it goes through a pre-extraction step before the brewing part. One of the procedures previously developed was the use of methylene chloride or ethyl acetate (yes, dangerous organic compounds) in combination with water extraction to remove caffeine. Another decaffeination method that was developed was actually the recycling of used coffee grounds. It involved the use of the coffee oils rich in triglycerides to remove the caffeine. In more recent times, thanks to technology, decaffeination now is much safer, with the use of simply water, CO₂ and high pressure. It is important to note that decaffeinated coffee should essentially smell and taste like normal coffee as the decaffeination process involved “supposedly” only removes caffeine.

As for the science behind Espresso, it simply uses high pressure and water against finely grounded coffee beans in order to extract out the organic compounds that make up the nice aroma of coffee. One should take note that some of the compounds being extracted from coffee are actually undesirable when done improperly. It’s interesting, however, that it seems the aroma produced by espresso is actually a combination of different aromas. It’s as if you’re drinking a cocktail with the aromas of chocolate, tea and cinnamon.

It is said that drinking coffee regularly helps improve overall health due to the presence of “anti-oxidants.” This is due largely to the fact that coffee, like tea and chocolate, contain catechins that are responsible for the anti-oxidative effects. What’s ironic however is that both coffee and tea only contain negligible amounts of these anti-oxidants as compared to dark chocolate. Despite coffee coming off from a berry, the various chemical changes that undergo due to roasting changes and probably destroy those catechins that provide its anti-oxidative properties.

Too bad for its anti-oxidative properties… but on the bright side, caffeine does have some upsides. Medically, caffeine has been used as a CNS, respiratory and cardiac stimulant. Ironically, when one has too much of it there are some side-effects (as with taking too much of anything). Even if the toxicity level is above 10g, having a dose of more than 250mg (at least 3 cups of coffee) can cause insomnia, irritability, nervousness, hyperthermia and headache, not to mention cardiac irregularities as well. Like any other food, moderation is key to maximizing the health benefits of certain types of foods.

Did you know?

·      Decaffeinated coffees still have caffeine, but only in small amounts (2 – 10mg/cup; average brewed coffee has 100 – 250mg/cup)

·      Tea has comparable amounts of caffeine (50 – 150mg/cup) to brewed coffee and has actually more caffeine content than instant coffee on average (50 – 90mg/cup)

·      A 12oz can of cola has about half the caffeine content of a cup of instant coffee

·      The Philippines used to be among the top 4 largest coffee producing countries in the world

·      Tea may be the most consumed beverage in the world, but coffee is the most widely traded

·      Cavite and not Batangas is the unofficial coffee plantation capital of the Philippines

·      For a beverage to be considered caffeine-free, international standard only requires upto 97% removal of caffeine (beware decaffeinated coffee drinkers)

·      There’s such a thing as caffeine-intolerance (but this doesn’t lead to indigestion) which causes formation of methyluric acids when ingesting caffeine (as well as theobromine and theophylline which are present in tea and chocolate), that is for people who suffer from gout

Reference:

Dayrit, Fabian. Alkaloids in Health and Commerce, (2010)