An Illini team of chemists developed what could possibly save you from drinking dirt and mud disguised as java and a quality brew. The droplet analyzer they developed contains 36 different types of dyes which are place on a small sheet of polymer film. Each pigment within the dyes contains pH indicators and special pigments called metalloporphyrins which strongly interact with the aromas and compounds of coffee vapor. The color patterns that are produced from the interaction of the coffee vapor are unique and distinguished enough that the Illinois team has been able to differentiate chemically and quickly 10 different commercial brands of coffee and also at what length the beans have been roasted. The complexity of all of this lies in the composition and characteristics of coffee aromas. The aroma of coffee beans stems from a combination of thousands of different compounds that also vary with temperature and roasting time. This coupled with the fact that these thousands of aromatic compounds are also just minutely different presents this early generation coffee analyzer with the ability to effect the coffee market as it could allow producers and growers to determine rapidly, which batches are best and which batches have bad flavoring.
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http://www.physorg.com/news185782620.html
Posted by Josh Rager
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I found this article very interesting, especially since I have just started to drink coffee. Before I couldn't really tell if the coffee was "good" or "bad" but now as I have started to taste different brands and types of coffee the difference has become apparent. It is also interesting that the pigments in the dyes they use are similar to the class of pigments which chlorophyll and hemoglobin belong to.
ReplyDeleteI've never drank coffee regularly, so I wasn't aware that there was controversy over materials such as much and dirt being used instead of beans. Since apparently this does occur, its great that there's a system to test this, and hopefully it will be implemented as a practice that health officials do when inspecting coffee shops, especially ones that aren't large chains like Starbucks. In addition to aiding the production of higher quality and better tasting coffee, it can prevent companies from falsely advertising their products and potentially harming someone who digested unhealthy coffee.
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