Coffee beans, ingredients

Caffeine Caffeine [l,3,7-trimethyl-l//-purine-2,6(3/7,7//)-dione], molecular formula C8H10N4O2, is a xanthine (purine) alkaloid, found mainly in tea leaves Camellia sinensis) and coffee beans (Coffea arabica). Caffeine is sometimes called guaranine when found in guarana (Paullinia cupana), mateine when found in mate (Ilex paraguariensis) and theine when found in tea. Caffeine is found in a number of other plants, where it acts as a natural pesticide. It is odourless white needles or powder. Apart from its presence in the tea and coffee that we drink regularly, caffeine is also an ingredient of a number of soft drinks. 

Much of the commercial interest has been in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Here, the major driving force is the desire to have conpletely natural processes, which cannot contain any residual hydrocarbon or chlorinated solvents tHumphrey and Keller. 19971. Supercritical carbon dioxide has been the SCF of choice because it is natural, nontoxic, and cheap, is conpletely acceptable as a food or pharmaceutical ingredient, and often has good selectivity and capacity. Currendy, supercritical CO2 is used to extract caffeine from green coffee beans to make decaffeinated coffee. Supercritical CO2 is also used to extract flavor conpounds from hops to make a hop extract that is used in beer production. The leaching processes that were replaced were adequate in all ways except that they used solvents that were undesirable in the final product. 

Another group of natural flavoring ingredients comprises those obtained by extraction from certain plant products such as vanilla beans, Hcotice root, St. John s bread, orange and lemon peel, coffee, tea, kola nuts, catechu, cherry, elm bark, cocoa nibs, and gentian root. These products are used in the form of alcohohc infusions or tinctures, as concentrations in alcohol, or alcohol—water extractions termed fluid or soHd extracts. Official methods for their preparation and specifications for all products used in pharmaceuticals are described (54,55). There are many flavor extracts for food use for which no official standards exist the properties of these are solely based on suitabiUty for commercial appHcations (56). 

Sweet chocolate can contain milk or milk soHds (up to 12% max), nuts, coffee, honey, malt, salt, vanillin, and other spices and flavors as well as a number of specified emulsifiers. Many different kiads of chocolate can be produced by careful selection of bean blends, controlled roasting temperatures, and varying amounts of ingredients and flavors (20). 

Total caffeine consumption will vary with a number of factors that are often difficult to disentangle. For caffeine exposure attributable to coffee, this includes brewing method and preparation type of coffee (Arabica, Robusta, instant), averaging to 1.3% caffeine for roasted beans 39 brand of coffee size of coffee cup and the volume of added ingredients, such as milk, cream sweeteners, and syrups. There are several different brewing or preparation techniques by which coffee can be prepared. Most notably, they differ in their final extraction of caffeine depending on the process. Filter coffee or automatic drip coffee results in approximately 97 to 100% caffeine extraction 37 however, regional differences in the volume of coffee... 

Leaching or solid-liquid extraction are terms that describe the extraction of soluble constituents from a solid or semisolid by means of suitable solvents. The process, which is used whenever tea or coffee is made, is an important stage in the production of many fine chemicals found naturally in animal and vegetable tissue. Examples are found in the extraction of fixed oils from seeds, in the preparation of alkaloids, such as strychnine from Nux vomica beans or quinine from Cinchona bark and in the isolation of enzymes, such as rennin, and hormones, such as insulin, from animal sources. In the past, a wider importance attended the process because the products of simple extraction procedures, known as galenicals, formed the major part of the ingredients used to fulfill a doctor s prescription. 

A couple of other health food stops in the French Quarter are Marty s Health Food Cafe Coffeehouse (207 Dauphine St., b 504-522-5222) and End Of The Rainbow Natural Foods (215 Dauphine St., b 504-529-3429). Marty s features small coffee shop-style entrees of comfort food such as red beans and rice. Not all menu items are vegetarian, so ask for an ingredients list first. End of the Rainbow is a smallish natural foods store conveniently located near the more popular French Quarter hotels. 

Cech (1880) published a short and unsubstantial article on the preparation of a roasted coffee oil. He obtained yields between 8 and 13% from the roasted beans, mentioned the possibility of using it as a liquor ingredient and simply observed the slow formation of fine caffeine needles. 

The active ingredient that makes tea and coffee valuable to humans is caffeine. Caffeine is an alkaloid, a class of naturally occurring compounds containing nitrogen and having the properties of an organic amine base (alkaline, hence, alkaloid). Tea and coffee are not the only plant sources of caffeine. Others include kola nuts, mate leaves, guarana seeds, and, in small amount, cocoa beans. The pure alkaloid was first isolated from coffee in 1821 by the French chemist Pierre Jean Robiquet. 

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