What is caffeine?

Caffeine is naturally the reason coffee is so popular around the world, but it is unwise to try to explain how caffeine works in the brain. No scientist dares to smile and say that he has solved the problem of how the brain responds to various mental stimuli. So there's no need to repeat the vague words that caffeine affects the brain's central marginal dopamine system and creates pleasure. Talk about decaffeinated coffee. This is a very cool topic.

Caffeine belongs to the group of alkaloids in phytochemicals, along with substances such as nicotine, cocaine, morphine and lycopine, all of which are bitter. Caffeine is also the number one culprit of coffee addiction. If you want to enjoy strong coffee every day without being disturbed by addiction, you have to remove caffeine from the coffee. Caffeine is usually eliminated by more than 97% before it can be considered a true decaffeinated coffee. Don't worry about losing the bitterness of coffee without caffeine, caffeine accounts for only 10% of the bitterness of coffee.

This process usually takes place before the green coffee beans are roasted. By steaming coffee beans, transferring most of the caffeine to the bean surface, and then washing it with solvent, you can eliminate most of the caffeine.

There are 8 to 1000 chemicals in coffee, and it's not easy to get rid of 1% to 2% caffeine without upsetting their balance. There will always be smart people in the world. In 1903, a German businessman named Ludwig Roselius first figured out a way to remove caffeine-- some said that he thought his father's health was affected by caffeine, and there were legends that he discovered it by accident-- anyway, he found caffeine easily dissolved in organic solvents such as benzene and chloroform, and patented it and created a coffee brand called Sanka. It sells well for a while.

However, benzene can be a carcinogen, inhaling high concentrations of benzene vapor or accidentally taking benzene solution can cause acute poisoning, toxicity quickly inhibit the central nervous system, but also on the hematopoiesis, respiratory system. Oral administration of 10 milliliters will warp. Chloroform, that is, trichloromethane, is highly toxic, which can not only anesthetize the central nervous system, but also damage the heart, liver, kidney and other internal organs. Under light, chloroform reacts with oxygen in the air to produce highly toxic phosgene. If you want to poison your boss's coffee, that's fine, otherwise, what do you think?

Later, dichloromethane was selected for the experiment. In addition to caffeine, it only dissolves a very small amount of other substances and is easy to volatilize. If there is any residue, it can be driven away by heating. Caffeine was taken care of.

By 1980, dichloromethane was recognized as a carcinogen, and although the residue of dichloromethane in coffee usually did not exceed the required 1/100000, the word toxic hardly led to sense of security. So dichloromethane is replaced by organic solution acetate ether. Because this substance is found in many fruits, we can fashionably call it "pure natural decaffeination".

Another high-tech way is to extract caffeine into carbon dioxide, but not gaseous, solid, and liquid carbon dioxide, but a unique form of supercritical carbon dioxide at high temperatures and high pressures.

The Swiss water solution method is obviously the most creative, using only water from beginning to end. First wash the coffee bean water, and then use a filtration system to simply "filter out" the caffeine in the water. In the end, all the coffee chemicals except caffeine returned to the coffee beans. Sounds smart and safe.

However, whether it is acetic acid ether, Swiss water dissolving method, or carbon dioxide extraction, these technologies are mature and safe, and which one you choose depends entirely on your personal preference, which must be emphasized.