ENCYLOPEDIA

Interesting information about coffee:

Two sorts of beans are dominating the world market:
All over the word there is a big number of types of coffee plants growing. But only two types dominate the trading business. As not all beans are good for processing and may not guarantee the digestible pleasure.
The „Coffea Arabica“ and the „Coffea Canephora“.


Coffea Arabica
It is commonly known as Arabica containing 1,1 – 1,7 % of caffeine. This plant is growing in tropical and subtropical areas from a height of 900 up to 2000 m above sea level. This plant is very sensitive and needs extensive care. The Arabica is a mild, aromatic and well-rounded coffee-type with a noble acid. It is used for high quality blends at 100 %.


Coffea Canephora (Robusta)
Commonly known as Robusta, it contains 2 – 4,5 % of caffeine. As the name indicates, this type of robust coffee is easier to handle than the Arabica. Robusta contains more acidity, is rough, and has more bitter consonants and fewer aromas. You often find it in dark and cheaper espresso blends mixed with Arabica beans.


Coffee is digestible
The coffee beans have occupied the medical research for decades. Nowadays medicals confirm a protection against cancer in liver and colon.
Therefore coffee is not only good for our senses but also for our health. No matter which kind of beans there are in your coffee.



History:

Good work takes a long time
Coffee plants are growing in more than 70 countries of the world. About 25 million of people work in coffee plantations or process the beans in roasteries. Countless persons from all nations are drinking coffee or coffee specialities every day. There is much more behind coffee than just being a drink. Coffee is pure history.

Historical traditions tell us that an Ethiopian monk had roasted cherrystones, colded and pounded it and than cooked it up with hot water. The attributes of caffeine and the aroma helped to let the prayers and rituals become longer and easier 

The triumph of coffee had its initials in the Islamic world. Coffee became a cult-drink for nomads and sultans. This was also caused by the Islamic religion that prohibits alcoholic drinks.

Coffee became known in Europe in the 17th century when the first coffee shipping arrived in Venice in 1624. After that the first coffee shop was opened in Venice. After Italy England was following. Between 1652 and 1690 about 2000 coffee shops and coffee houses were opened on the British Island. So coffee was finally introduced in Europe.

DThe consequence of this expansion was that the areas of cultivation became too small to ensure the supply of coffee. So the French and Dutch started with new plantations in their colonies to gain coffee beans.

No other drink in the world ever had so much influence on the economy, the culture and the people.



Interesting information about coffee

Beans or powder: 
More and more coffee machines have an integrated grinder so beans are advancing. The advantage is that the aroma keeps longer.

Espresso: 
Succeeds best with fine-grounded Robusta beans. Espresso is less rich as filter coffee as the water is flowing through very quickly.

Filter or pistons: 
That’s where opinions differ. As there is a growing supply of better and affordable piston-machines, the filter is loosing its importance

Filter coffee: 
Optimal with Arabica beans and medium grinding. Ideal for persons with high cholesterol. Filter-coffee is stronger than espresso. 

Cans with punch: 
Here fore you best use Robusta beans with medium grinding. This coffee contains the bitterest constituent as it swells for a long time.

Caffeine: 
In one cup of coffee there is about 60 – 100 mg of caffeine.
A cup of black tea contains approximately 20 – 50 mg
A coke approximately 40 mg
One pain killer (only combined preparations) contains about 30 – 100 mg of caffeine.

Caffeine has a positive effect on one’s thinking power. So it is true what is said – that drinking coffee makes one think quicker. Caffeine stimulates the metabolism and makes the organism move. The consequence – one is eager to talk and to work, you get rid of the feeling of reluctance.
During a test it was scientifically proved that persons who drank coffee solved a mathematic problem faster than the ones who were abstinent.


Without caffeine: 
Before roasting, the raw beans come in a steam bath, which extracts the caffeine. This has hardly any influence on the quality of the beans. 

Foam: 
The fine foam on the coffee is no indication for the quality of the beans but for the making of the coffee. Only when the temperature is accorded to the degree of grinding of the coffee and vice versa then you will get this fine foam on the coffee. 

Brown rim: 
If you find a brown rest at the rim of your coup, this is an indication for too finely grounded coffee or that the water may be too hot.

To warm your cup: 
A cold cup is a shock for hot coffee. 
Connoisseurs warm up their cup – for them it is a must.



Gaining of coffee, production and roasting

Coffee in Brasilia
Although Ethiopia is the home of coffee –the Arabs were the first who cultivated it in the 15th century. But quickly others followed and in the year 1610 the first coffee-plants were set in India and 1614 the Dutch started its cultivation. Gabriel Mathieu Desclieux, a French navy officer turned back home to Martinique (an island of the Antilles) and imported coffee plants. Only one of them survived the journey. Nevertheless coffee came to the other Antille-Islands, and to French-Guayana. Around 1727 a Brazilian marine, called Francisco de Melo Palheto brought the coffee to Belém in Brasilia. At the beginning 19th century in Campinas and other cities of the State of Sao Paolo the cultivation of coffee was started. Soon after that, there were plantations in other counties, especially in Piranha.

Nowadays the working processes on the plantations are strictly organized. In special growing-up plantations the seedlings are drawn in the shadow of big trees. About 40 days after sowing the seed will germinate. Due to its looking it received the name „match“. For one year these young plants are to be cared and protected. Then they will be planted on the fields.
Usually the fields are on a slope. The young plants are not set in straight lines but in serpentines. This makes the working with machines on the plantations easier and helps to avoid soil erosions. The first harvest can be brought in after four years. To support the growing and to increase the yield, the plants are irrigated.

The coffee planter leads a steady fight against parasites like the coffee drill and pests such as the leaf rust. These pests are accruing through a fungus that attacks the leaves and can kill the tree. The coffee drill destroys the beans though gnawing at them.
Of course there are fungicides and pesticides, but the constant use would increase the costs of production.

The process of preparing
There are two kinds of proceeding –the wet or the dry method. Like generally acknowledged, the wet proceeding leads to better quality as there may only the mature coffee-cherries be used. Nevertheless in Brazil the dry proceeding is usually applied, as it is easier and cheaper.
First of all, the cherries – even the green and the dry ones – have to be shaken down from the trees into cloths. Through filters they are checked and selected. Than the cherries are washed in special water channels and are put into the sun for drying. The so desiccated cherries are stored in wooden containers before the next step of proceeding. The drying process is the most important process to achieve an impeccable product. This is why on some plantations special dryers with wooden fire are used in order to dry the cherries even when the weather is bad and rainy.

In other Latin American countries and other countries in the world the wet proceeding is applied. This method takes longer and is also more expensive.
Here first the flesh is taken away from the cherries in the so called „pulpier“. The stones fall down in a fermenting vat where they are left for 24 hours. Than the rest of the fruit flesh, the so-called honey, is easy to remove in special water channels.
Now the coffee beans will dry in the sun, similar as in the dry proceeding method. There are planters that dry the beans in drying machines (perforated rotating drums wherein hot air is blown) At the end machines take away the thin coat from the beans and polish the beans. The best quality will be achieved when the coffee-cherries are earend by hand and the assorting after washing the beans is handmade.
The last step is to fill the beans into bags of jute in which they will be shipped. One bag at 60 kg (the usual measure in Brazil) is a worldwide statistical unit. The bags are stored in clean, well-ventilated stock rooms. Now the coffee is ready for sale.



Coffee and the substances it contains
In principle coffee consists of the same substances as other seed products. But here it is not a matter of nutrient contents but of the substances responsible for the aroma of coffee. Part of these are certain tanning agents but also some substances containing nitrogen, i.e. proteins, organic acids and come cellulose substances.


Substances contained in coffee:
Apparent proteins 9 %
Apparent carbohydrates 24 %
Fats and lipoids 13 %
Acids 4,5 %
Caffeine 1,2 %
Nicotine-acid 0,02 %
Mineral substances 4 %
Water 2,5 %
Volatile aromatic essences 0,1 %
Unknown substances 35 %

(The indicated dates are an average for normally roasted Arabica-coffee.
Reference: Katalyse Umweltgruppe Köln, chemistry in foods)

The proper aroma of coffee is developed through the roasting process. Here different sorts and qualities of raw coffee-beans coming from different plantations are put together and heated at temperatures of more than 200 ºC. Sugar and other carbohydrates caramelise, the beans change their colour from green to brown, the weight reduces by 15 – 20 % and at the same time the volume of the beans increases by approximately 60 %. Many of the known and even more of the unknown substances are destroyed, converted or created.
Some of these immeasurable reactions are well explored e.g. concerning the acids of coffee. The Arabica beans have an acid content of 4,5 up to 8,5 %, the Robusta on the other hand beans only 6,5 – 12 %. After the roasting process these beans contain acids of vinegar, lemon and apple, oxal-acid, special coffee-acids so called chlorogen-acids, but also contain traces of butyric acid, that may be aromatic in small quantities, but in larger quantities makes a bad stink-bomb.

Despite of these aromatic substances, coffee would never have become what it is today, if it would not contain a drug, which is called caffeine. A total of 0,8 – 2,5 % of the raw coffee-beans are caffeine – in the Robusta beans it may be even 4 %. The roasting process reduces the caffeine amount only minimally. The caffeine contained in the roasted beans is on average at a 1,2 – 1,5 % level. There are also caffeine-reduced and caffeine-free types of coffee but they do not taste as good, and therefore the caffeine-free coffee is made out of withdrawing the caffeine from normal sorts. Often one forgets that other drinks and even painkillers contain respectable doses of caffeine that are in no way inferior to the ones in coffee.

Amount of caffeine in different substances:

1 Espresso (50 ml) 50 mg
1 cup of filter coffee (125 ml) 80 – 120 mg
1 coke (200 ml) 20 – 50 mg
1 cup of black tea (125 ml) 30 – 60 mg
1 cup of cocoa (125 ml) 2 – 5 mg
1 pain killer 30 – 100 mg
(Reference: Test 9/91)