Displaying items by tag: carbohydrates

Welcome to this month’s issue of coffee science. In our last series we discussed the role of two alkaloids: caffeine and trigonelline and their role in coffee’s composition. This time we’ll explore some of coffee’s more common compounds, namely carbohydrates and proteins, and discuss how these seemingly ordinary compounds contribute to coffee’s alluring aroma.

March 27, 2009 - This month, we were asked by Tea & Coffee Trade Journal to write a brief article discussing the complicated science behind coffee. Well, here it is!!

Carbohydrates are perhaps one of the largest family of compounds in organic chemistry. As the name implies, carbohydrates are simply hydrated carbon molecules with complex structure. Perhaps the most well known 'sugar' is that of sucrose, or table sugar, but this is only of several hundred types of carbohydrates in nature.