Coffeee~~~

Coffee is a beverage, which most Americans drink, but nowadays, coffee is one of the most popular beverages worldwide. For some people, a cup of coffee during every morning is necessary for them. For me, I'm a coffee lover too, maybe is because of my mom likes coffee. There are different kind of coffee beverage such as mocha, cappuccino, double espresso, Yuan yang, coffee blended, liqueur coffee and many more.
Coffee was first consumed in the 9th century, when it was discovered in the highlands of Ethiopia.From there, it spread to Egypt and Yemen, and by the 15th century, it had reached Azerbaijan, Persia, Turkey, and northern Africa. From the Muslim world, coffee spread to Italy, then to the rest of Europe, to Indonesia, and to the America.

HOW COFFEE MADE?

The process of making coffee is a complex procedure.

1. The first step in the process of coffee making is picking up every cherry carefully. The picking of cherries has to be very precise because if the cherry is picked up to early it will lack of essential sweetness, but if the cherry is picked up to late it will be sour.

2. The second step is the process in which they take out all the soft juicy fruit of the cherry and leave the coffee bean pealed. This is called “despulpado.” During this process the coffee is separated the by altitudes, and quality.

3. The next step is fermentation, in this process they leave the coffee beans in long tanks for the coffee to release all the honey left from the pulp.

4. Then washing the coffee beans. During this process the beans are placed in large tanks filled with water pressure, which leaves the beans with no honey leftovers. It also separates the coffee beans by quality, the beans that float are the low quality beans and the ones that are in the bottom of the tank are the good quality beans.

5. During the drying process all the beans are arranged in a patio outdoors, the wind and the sun are in charge of drying the beans.

6. The last step roasting the coffee, in this process is where the roaster will decide the taste of the batch of coffee being roasted. All these steps to follow are the steps coffee beans go through before consumers can actually drink it.

WHY COFFEE MAKES US AWAKE?

This is because the coffee contains caffeine.
Caffeine

But why caffeine has such a strong effect on us? Caffeine operates using the same mechanisms of amphetamines, cocaine, and heroin to stimulate the brain, though with milder effects. It manipulates the same channels as the other drugs, and that is one of the things that gives caffeine its addictive qualities.

There is a chemical in our brain called adenosine, that binds to certain receptors and slows down nerve cell activity when we are sleeping. For a nerve cell, caffeine "looks like" adenosine and it binds to the adenosine receptors. However, as it's not really adenosine, it doesn't slow down the cell's activity like adenosine would. So the cell cannot "see" adenosine anymore because caffeine has taken up all the receptors adenosine binds to. Then instead of slowing down because of the adenosine level, the cells speed up.

The pituitary gland sees all of this activity and thinks some sort of emergency must be occurring, so it releases hormones that tell the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline. Adrenaline is the "fight" hormone, and it makes your heart to beat faster, the breathing tubes to open up, the liver to release sugar into the bloodstream for extra energy and your muscles to tighten up, ready for action. Because of this, after consuming a big cup of coffee your muscles tense up, you feel excited and you can feel your heart beat increasing.

EFFECT OF CAFFEINE?

Various other studies have shown apparent reductions in the risks of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, diabetes mellitus type 2, cirrhosis of the liver, and gout. A longitudinal study in 2009 showed that moderate drinkers of coffee (3-5 cups per day) had lower chances of developing dementia, in addition to Alzheimer's disease. It increases the risk of acid reflux and associated diseases. Some health effects of coffee are due to its caffeine content, as the benefits are only observed in those who drink caffeinated coffee while others appear to be due to other components. For example, the antioxidants in coffee prevent free radicals from causing cell damage.

On the other hand, coffee consumption can lead to iron deficiency anemia in mothers and infants. Coffee also interferes with the absorption of supplemental iron.

HOW IS COFFEE DECAFFEINATED?

Depending on the type of coffee and method of preparation, the caffeine content of a single serving can vary greatly. On average, a single cup of coffee (about 200 ml) or a single shot of espresso (about 30 ml) can be expected to contain the following amounts of caffeine:

Drip coffee: 115–175 mg (560–850 mg/L)
Espresso: 60 mg (2000 mg/L)
Brewed/Pressed: 80–135 mg (390–650 mg/L)
Instant: 65–100 mg (310–480 mg/L)

There are few ways to remove the caffeine in the coffee:
1. Genetic engineering: Investigation on ways to inactivate the gene that codes for caffeine synthesis, the enzyme which catalyzes the caffeine synthesis. Then coffee plants unable to produce caffeine could be grown.

Dichloromethane

Ethyl Acetate
2. Water extraction: At the beginning solvents like dichloromethane or ethyl acetate were used because they dissolve selectively the caffeine. But because of their toxicity nowadays water is used instead. Hot water extracts both flavor ingredients and caffeine from green coffee beans. Then the extract is passed through activated charcoal and most of the caffeine is removed. Finally, soaking the original beans in the decaffeinated extract restores most of their flavor.

3. Supercritical fluid CO2 extraction: Supercritical fluids have both gas like and liquid like properties, they fill the container like a gas but can dissolve substances like a liquid. In the caffeine extraction process, this fluid is forced through green coffee beans, it penetrates deep into the beans and dissolves most of the caffeine present.
What are supercritical fluids?
A SCF is defined as a substance above its critical temperature (TC) and critical pressure (PC). The critical point represents the highest temperature and pressure at which the substance can exist as a vapour and liquid in equilibrium.

Having coffee moderately is alright, but if we over drinking of coffee will have negative effect on our body. Therefore, controlling drinking of coffee is important!!~~