Is it true that instant coffee is harmful? Instead of quitting smoking, quit instant coffee?

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The article "No instant coffee, more carcinogens than smoking" has been circulated on major Chinese websites, saying that the concentration of acrylamide, a carcinogen detected in instant coffee, is higher than that of potato chips, French fries, cakes and cigarettes. Drinking instant coffee is far more harmful than smoking. "it's better to quit instant coffee. Instead of quitting smoking, "

How to make instant coffee?

No matter what you think of instant coffee, it is an amazing scientific achievement. The factories that make instant coffee remove the water from the coffee, and consumers add the amount of water that suits their taste as needed. All the remaining substances are water-soluble compounds in coffee.

Dehydration can be done in two ways: freeze-drying or spray drying.

Freeze-dried coffee refers to putting liquid coffee in a freeze-dryer with dozens of degrees below zero, sublimating the water in the coffee liquid and removing the ice to get dry, irregularly shaped large particles of coffee powder.

Spray drying refers to high-temperature steam drying, the coffee liquid into the high-temperature ejector, spray coffee liquid, coffee also evaporates in the high-temperature environment, leaving dry small particles of espresso extract. The advantage of this kind of hot drying lies in its high productivity.

The difference between making and cooking

Instant coffee brewing is very simple, put 5 grams of coffee powder in the cup, pour into hot water to brew, a cup of coffee can be completed.

For freshly ground coffee, the process is much more tedious. You need to grind the coffee, extract it professionally, and finally discard the coffee grounds and clean it up, but when you try the pleasure of making your own coffee once, it's like opening the door to a new world and falling madly in love with it ever since, because you can try many different brewing parameters. Powder-to-water ratio, water temperature and other necessary conditions for making a good cup of coffee.

Instant coffee always tastes the same, while freshly ground coffee gets different flavors and tastes because of many changes in extraction details.

So who is better?

The overall situation in the market seems to be divided into the dissolving faction and the grinding faction, so what's the big difference between the two?

1. Cost and convenience (Cost & Convenience)

There is no doubt that instant coffee costs less per cup. All that needs to be done is to boil a pot of hot water, so it is very convenient.

2. Quality and flavor (Quality & Flavor)

The biggest factor affecting the quality of coffee has always been the coffee bean itself. Because instant coffee pays more attention to cost, it mostly chooses coffee beans of lower quality. In the process of production and extraction of instant coffee, the flavor and flavor compounds of some coffee will volatilize and disappear.

It is not impossible to use high-quality coffee beans to make instant coffee, but it is rare in the market; freshly ground coffee will also use poor-quality coffee beans, but you can buy a cup of high-quality coffee whenever you want.

3. Health (Health)

Drinking instant coffee is bad for your health? In fact, this is not the case. There are many rumors that drinking instant coffee can lead to cancer, but they are all baseless rumors, and there is no clear evidence that instant coffee is more beneficial or harmful than freshly ground coffee.