Coffee merchandising

Generally speaking, the trade and the consumer are concerned chiefly with those factors which enter into coffee goodness. These are the caffein content and the caffeol. Caffein supplies the principal stimulant. It increases the capacity for muscular and mental work without harmful reaction. The caffeol supplies the flavor and the aroma,—that indescribable oriental fragrance that woos us through the nostrils, forming one of the principal elements that make up the lure of coffee. There are several other constituents, including certain innocuous so-called caffetannic acids, which, in combination with the caffeol, give the beverage its rare gustatory appeal.

In the roasting of green coffee, part of the original caffein content is lost by sublimation (vaporizing), and caffeol is formed. Chemists recognize two groups of constituents which are formed during roasting and are soluble in water,—heavy extractives and light aromatic materials.

The heavy extractives include caffein, mineral matter, proteins, caramel, and sugars, “caffetannic acid,” and various organic materials. Some fat will also be found in the average coffee brew, melted from the bean by the heated water and carried along with the solution. The light extractives are collectively known as caffeol.

Caffein has a slightly bitter taste, but, because of the small percentage present in a cup of coffee, it contributes little to its cup value. Nevertheless, it furnishes the stimulation for which coffee is generally consumed. The caffein content of Coffea arabica, green, is 1.5 percent.

The mineral matter, together with certain decomposition and hydrolysis products of crude fiber and chlorogenic acid, contribute toward the astringency or bitterness of the cup. The proteins are present in such small quantity that their only role is to raise somewhat the almost negligible food value of a coffee infusion. The body, or what might be called the licorice-like character, of coffee is due to the presence of bodies of a glucosidic nature and to caramel. The degree to which a coffee is sweet-tasting or not is, of course, dependent upon its other characteristics, but probably varies directly with the reducing sugar content.

The term “caffetannic acid” is a misnomer, for the substances called by this name are in all probability mainly coffalic and chlorogenic acids, neither of which is a true tannin, nor do they evince but few of the characteristic reactions of tannic acid. Some neutral coffees will show as high a “caffetannic acid” content as other acid-charactered ones. Careful chemical analysis has shown that the actual acidities of some East Indian coffees vary from 0.013 to 0.033 percent. These figures my be taken as reliable examples of the true acid content of coffee, and, though they seem very low, it is not at all incomprehensible that the acids they indicate produce the acidity in a cup of coffee. They probably are mainly volatile organic acids together with other acidic-natured products of roasting.

We know that very small quantities of acid are readily detected in fruit juices and beer, and that variation in their percentages is quickly noticed, while the neutralization of this small amount of acidity leaves an insipid drink. Hence it seems quite likely that this small acid content gives to the coffee brew its essential acidity. A few minor experiments on neutralization have proved the production of a very flat beverage by thus treating a coffee infusion. Acidity of certain coffees most apparently should be attributed to such compounds rather than to the miscalled “caffetannic acid.” For personal proving of this statement, put a small pinch of the weakly alkalin baking soda (NaHCO₃) into a cup of coffee and note the difference that it makes.

The light aromatic materials and other substances that are steam-distillable (i. e., which are driven off when coffee is concentrated by boiling) are important factors in determining the individuality of coffees. These compounds (caffeol) vary greatly in the percentages present in different coffees, and thus are largely responsible for our ability to distinguish coffees in the cup. It is these compounds that supply the pleasingly aromatic and appetizing odor to coffee.⁠[1]

Like all good things in life, the drinking of coffee may be abused. Indeed, those having an idiosyncratic susceptibility to alkaloids should be temperate in the use of tea, coffee, or cocoa. In every high-tensioned country, there is likely to be a small number of people who, because of certain individual characteristics, cannot drink coffee at all. These belong to the abnormal minority of the human family. Some people cannot eat strawberries, but that would not be a valid reason for a general condemnation of strawberries. One may be poisoned, says Thomas A. Edison, from too much food. Horace Fletcher was certain that overfeeding caused all our ills. Overindulgence in meat is likely to spell trouble for the strongest of us. Coffee is, perhaps, less often abused than wrongly accused. It all depends. A little more tolerance!

Trading upon the credulity of the hypochondriac and the caffein sensitive, in recent years there has appeared in America and abroad a curious collection of so-called coffee substitutes. They are “neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring.” Most of them have been shown by official government analyses to be sadly deficient in food value, their only alleged virtue. One of our contemporary attackers of the national beverage bewails the fact that no palatable hot drink has been found to take the place of coffee. The reason is not hard to find. There can be no substitute for coffee. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley has ably summed up the matter by saying, “A substitute should be able to perform the functions of its principal. A substitute in a war must be able to fight. A bounty jumper is not a substitute.”

A brief summarization of available information on the pharmacology of coffee indicates that it should be used in moderation, particularly by children, the permissible quantity for adults varying with the individual, his constitution, mode of living, etc., and ascertainable only through personal observation.

Recent scientific research has destroyed many bugaboos manufactured by the traducers of our national beverage; for one, the alleged harmful effects of the caffein content. We now know that the small amount of caffein in the coffee cup is distinctly beneficial to the majority and that it is a pure stimulant having no harmful reaction.

Then there was the notion that cream in coffee made the beverage indigestible. The statement was made that milk or cream caused the coffee liquid to become coagulated when it came into contact with the acids of the stomach. This is true, but it does not carry with it the inference that indigestibility accompanies this coagulation. Milk and cream, upon reaching the stomach, are coagulated by the gastric juice, but the casein product formed is not indigestible. These liquids, when added to coffee, are partly acted upon by the small acid content of the brew, so that the gastric juice action is not so pronounced, for the coagulation was started before ingestion, and the coagulable constituent, casein, is more dilute in the cup as consumed than it is in milk. Accordingly, the particles formed by it in the stomach will be relatively smaller and more quickly and easily digested than milk per se.

Used in moderation, coffee has invariably proved a valuable stimulant, increasing personal efficiency in mental and physical labor. Its action in the alimentary regime is that of an adjuvant food, aiding digestion, favoring increased flow of the digestive juices, promoting intestinal peristalsis, and not tanning any part of the digestive organs. It reacts on the kidneys as a diuretic, and increases the excretion of uric acid; which, however, is not to be taken as evidence that it is harmful in gout. Coffee has been indicated as a specific for various diseases, its functions therein being the raising and sustaining of low vitalities. Its effect upon longevity is virtually nil. A small proportion of humans who are very nervous may find coffee undesirable, but sensible consumption of coffee by the average, normal, non-neurasthenic person will not prove harmful but beneficial.

Until the campaign of education recently conducted by coffee men in the United States, many neurotics received with gladness the tales of the harmfulness of coffee. They eagerly welcomed the doubtful substitutes, coffee minus the caffein, or some nauseating cereal preparation. They were convinced that by avoiding coffee they could cure their nervous condition.

Commenting upon the campaign of enlightenment, the New York Medical Journal & Medical Record said:

This is an able summing up of the question of the alleged harmfulness of coffee. Those who may wish to examine the evidence pro and con will find it detailed in the chapter on the pharmacology of coffee in All About Coffee. Opinions, names, and full references are given there.

The Whole Truth about Coffee

For more than three years the Massachusetts Institute of Technology made an exhaustive investigation of coffee. This investigation was made at the invitation of the coffee trade of the United States to determine by scientific research the whole truth about coffee and coffee making. It involved a total cost of $40,000 and was one of the most thorough investigations ever made of any food product.

The result of this scientific research, as announced by Professor Samuel C. Prescott, director of the institute’s Department of Biology & Public Health, shows that coffee is a wholesome, helpful, satisfying drink for the great majority of people.

The report covers many hundreds of pages, for every aspect of coffee and coffee making was studied, but in just one paragraph of 92 words Professor Prescott swept aside all the old prejudices and superstitions, and gave coffee the cleanest bill of health that could be wished. He said:

It may be stated that, after weighing the evidence, a dispassionate evaluation of the data so comprehensively surveyed has led to no alarming conclusions that coffee is an injurious beverage for the great mass of human beings, but on the contrary that the history of human experience, as well as the results of scientific experimentation, point to the fact that coffee is a beverage which, properly prepared and rightly used, gives comfort and inspiration, augments mental and physical activity, and may be regarded as the servant rather than the destroyer of civilization.