Roasting Conditions, Grinding Level and Brewing Method Highly Affect
the Healthy Benefits of A Coffee Cup
Research Article Open Access
Introduction
All around the world the 80-90% of adults regularly consume cofee
but their drinking habits dramatically changes on the basis of lifestyle,
social behavior, preferences, economic aspects as well as the age.
For instance, young people widely prefer more energy drinks than
cofee. However, cofee consumption is continuously growing due to
the recent attention of consumers concerning the healthy benefts of
cofee beverage. By now a wide literature appears to be concluding
that cofee consumption is related to a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes,
coronary heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease
and several cancers [1]. Tese efects seem caused by the strong
antioxidant activity, the inhibition of lipid peroxidation [2-4], as
well as the signifcant increase of plasma glutathione concentration,
because of the presence in cofee of diterpenes (cafestol), polyphenols
and melanoidins depending on the type and origin of cofee beans,
roasting degree and brewing procedure [5]. Tus, several authors
speak of “cofee paradox”, fnding in cofee, afer roasting, a number
of potentially dangerous compounds, if considered alone, but very
healthy, when considered together in the beverage.
However, from a technological point of view, the making of a good
cofee is not too easy. A number of technological steps have to be
carried out to obtain the fnal product (cofee beverage) starting from
the raw material (green cofee) (Figure 1) and some of them have a
crucial importance in afecting the quality of cofee brew.
At frst, as reported elsewhere cofee species, origins and blending
represent the starting points for the chemical diferences among
*
Corresponding Author: Dr. Carla Severini, Department of Sciences of
Agriculture, Food and Environment (SAFE), University of Foggia, Italy, Tel: +39
0881589222; E-mail: carla.severini@unifg.it.
Citation: Severini C, Derossi A, Ricci I, Caporizzi R, Fiore A, et al. (2017)
Roasting Conditions, Grinding Level and Brewing Method Highly Affect the
Healthy Benefts of A Coffee Cup. Int J Clin Nutr Diet 4: 127. doi: https://doi.
org/10.15344/2456-8171/2018/127
Copyright: © 2018 Severini et al. This is an open-access article distributed
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original author and source are credited.
International Journal of
Clinical Nutrition & Dietetics
Carla Severini*, Antonio Derossi, Ilde Ricci, Rossella Caporizzi and Anna Fiore
Department of Sciences of Agriculture, Food and Environment (SAFE), University of Foggia, Italy
Int J Clin Nutr Diet IJCND, an open access journal
ISSN: 2456-8171 Volume 4. 2018. 127
Severini, et al. Int J Clin Nutr Diet 2018, 4: 127
https://doi.org/10.15344/2456-8171/2018/127
cofee brews. Generally belong to genus Cofea about 70 species but
the Cofea Arabica (Arabica) and Cofea canephora (Robusta) are
commercially the most important. Tey display important chemical,
physical and sensorial diferences caused by the diferent climatic
conditions in which they are developed [6]. As example, the Robusta
contains more cafeine than the Arabica with values in the range of
1.2-2.4% and 0.9-1.5%, respectively. However, apart these diferences,
it is worth noting that the blending of Arabica and Robusta in diferent
ratios is a common practice in cofee industries by which they obtain
unique sensorial properties enabling to increase the international
competitiveness.
During roasting a huge number of changes occur on the cofee
beans. Teir volume becomes twice the green beans, while the weight
decreases of 15-20% mainly for water evaporation. Also, chemical
composition signifcantly modifes. Cafeine content decreases due
to sublimation and dragging with vapor, while several thousands of
chemical compounds are obtained improving the sensorial profle of
the beans and enriching their antioxidant activity.
Abstract
Background: Te cofee drinking habits strongly vary as efect of several points, such as culture, lifestyle,
social behavior, preferences, and economic aspects. However, it has been widely recognized that regularly
drinking two or three cofees per day provides several health benefts. Nevertheless, the total intake in
healthy compounds is largely afected by several variables among which the roasting, the grinding and
the brewing method are the most important. On these pillars we have analyzed the efect of roasting,
grinding and three brewing methods on the content in phenols, cafeine and antioxidants of cofee
samples.
Methods: Tree roasting degrees (light, medium and dark) and three grinding levels (fne, fne-coarse
and coarse) were used to prepare Espresso, American and Turkish cofee samples for a total of 27
experimental conditions. Physical and chemical analyses as well as cafeine content, polyphenols and
antioxidant activity were analyzed for each experimental condition.
Results: As efect of roasting, the antioxidant activity of cofee brew increased due to melanoidins
produced at high temperature while the ‘native’ polyphenols of the green beans were signifcantly lost
during roasting. Grinding level afected the kinetic extraction more than pressure, dose and particle size
although a signifcant variation was always observed. As consequence regular espresso of 25 mL may
contain from 80 to 120 mg of cafeine depending of the variance in grinding process. Overall, a regular
cup (200 mL) of American cofee resulted to contain average values of 280-350 mg of cafeine, 500-1200
mg of gallic acid and 500-1200 mg trolox.
Conclusion: American cofee was the richest in cafeine, polyphenols and antioxidant activity when
considering a regular cofee commonly consumed at bar. A more precise standardization of the grinding,
when consuming cofee at bar, is one of the most important future step to tackle the wide variability in
quality estimated among repeated cofees.
Publication History:
Received: November 17, 2017
Accepted: January 23, 2018
Published: January 25, 2018
Keywords:
Cofee bioactive compounds, Cofee
brewing methods, Grinding levels,
Roasting process