Over the last decade, many scientific studies have been conducted on coffee and its health benefits.
In fact, more confusion than clarity has been created. A single cup of espresso contains many substances ranging from antioxidants to the much-known caffeine.
If you suffer from chronic diseases, particularly those related to the digestive or cardiovascular system, consult your doctor, he will certainly know your medical history and can give you more precise indications.
In this article, you can read information little known by regular consumers and kept well hidden by roasters, especially those very large and using industrial processes. The question you want to answer is not whether coffee is good or bad, the question is:
What's in my coffee?
The coffee supply chain
We are used to seeing the coffee as a brown powder, scented and compact ready to be inserted into the coffee maker. Since those powders all look alike, we are led to think that they are all the same, but they are not.
Before arriving at this result there are many steps that give aromas, flavors but above all preserve beneficial substances and eliminate substances harmful to health.
Harvesting and selection
Although not everyone knows that coffee is a fruit, it looks like a cherry, the bean is contained inside. Like any fruit at the time of cultivation can be ripe, rotten or unripe. This involves a subsequent selection before any other processing. The process is manual, therefore it increases costs a lot, when you pay too little for the coffee at the supermarket, you already have the security of not having a selected product.
Washing
Let's suppose that the coffee has been selected, the rotten fruits, those with parasites and worms and those contaminated have been eliminated, some defects always remain, for a high-quality energy drink you need a washing process that eliminates leaves, waste, twigs, stones and everything that should not arrive in your cup.
Transport
Suppose the coffee has been selected and washed, now it's time for transport. Without using half terms, often hidden by the magic of marketing, the beans are transported in jute bags. This material tends to lose lint, the only way not to make them end up in your espresso is by proper roasting (see below).
The bags are loaded on huge merchant ships and shipped to our beautiful country, in fact, the plantations in Italy can be counted on the fingers of one hand, most of the product comes from Asia, Africa and South America.
Once in our ports, it is cleared through customs, taken to the importers' factories and then...
And then it depends on what we're talking about, the high-quality espresso is sampled and sent to the lab to be analyzed. Like any other food grown can always happen contamination by pesticides, pests, external agents, etc. ...
If, on the other hand, we are talking about a product intended for mass consumption and which must cost little, it is sent directly to the roasters for the roasting phase.
ATTENTION: We are not talking about scoundrels who do not respect the law, on the contrary it is all in accordance with the law, simply importers send what is required by their customers.
Roasting
Suppose that the coffee has been selected, washed and analyzed, we arrive at the most important process for processing: roasting.
For those who are not in the sector, a transformation similar to that of popcorn takes place. The beans release their substances, eliminate toxins, lose weight and increase in volume. But...
But?
But the coffee is sold at a price per kg, and transport is paid for by volume. To save money, the roasting time is reduced. To get an exceptional product, you should toast for about 20 minutes (depending on the result you want to get).
In order not to lose too much weight, we use industrial toasting on a belt of less than 8 minutes, so as not to lose too much product, but above all not to lose too much money!
In such a short time, not all the bacteria are killed and not all the substances harmful to our organism are expelled.
Roasting is also the phase in which all the defects of the coffee can be hidden. Those who have already saved too much on selection and have chosen a raw material that is too poor, cannot afford to roast even too little to conserve weight, otherwise, the result would be undrinkable!!
Poor coffee to be "recovered" is roasted longer.
A tip: when you go to the bar and see that the beans are too dark and oily, order more.
Distribution
We have arrived at a finished product, our fruit left from distant plantations is finally ready to be served, indeed, to be precise it must be left to rest for 4 or 5 days. But no worries, a product that must cost little must be bought and sold in large quantities, so first the old coffee is disposed of maybe 6 months earlier and only at this point will be sent to retailers.
How do I know if the coffee is bad?
The price
The first indicator is the price. We all like to save as much as possible, but we must be aware that if coffee costs too little it is not only to do the consumer a favour, but also all the players in the chain have saved somewhere.
This is true when you buy coffee for the mocha or in a capsule if you usually consume it at the bar, the only way is to trust the bartender. For all those who consume espresso in capsules, there would be a whole discussion about the quality of plastics, but we have already talked enough.
The packaging
Another indicator of quality is the packaging: at the supermarket the coffee is all in bags of 250 grams vacuum-preserved so the product can last for months and months. But why store so much a product that is consumed by tons in our country?
The answer is simple, the product is old, after 15 - 20 days from roasting the coffee begins to lose texture, aroma and flavor.
Usually, the coffee of excellence is found in a jar in the large-scale retail trade, while it is ground on the spot in roasting companies that have not yet been overwhelmed by the crisis.
Not to be overlooked is certainly also the labeling, if in the large-scale retail trade the products are controlled at best, if you buy on the Internet, especially in the market of compatible capsules you have to pay attention to some details.
Is there a batch number for product traceability?
Is it indicated who packed the product? In which country is the product processed? In which factory?
What are the percentages of Arabica? What are the percentages of Robusta?
Symptoms
You may notice the low quality of the espresso from some symptoms that are often overlooked. The first indicator is certainly the taste, although everyone has their own taste, in most cases, everyone recognizes a bad product.
Sometimes a few minutes after you have finished drinking from the cup, you feel a feeling of discomfort on your tongue just like when you eat a persimmon fruit, this indicates that the coffee has not been toasted enough.
The heartburn is another indication of poor quality, the mixture is unbalanced in favor of a cheap single origin. Of course, if you suffer from gastric disorders you may have problems even with the highest quality, in which case better consult your doctor.
If the coffee is not washed and selected, stones may remain between the beans, which are completely shredded during the grinding phase. In the long term, introducing stones into the body can lead to burning in the urine and inflammation of the kidneys, especially in people who are more sensitive to this type of disorder.
Conclusion
When you ask: is coffee good or bad? You think coffee is all the same. As you could read, unfortunately, it is not only about taste but also about disorders and health consequences that a bad supply chain can have.