What is bean-free coffee? What is the difference between bean-free coffee and regular coffee? Can I taste coffee without coffee beans?

Some time ago, because of the soaring price of coffee beans, some coffee shops in South Korea took the opportunity to launch "bean-free coffee" without beans, and then set off a heated discussion on the Internet. What is bean-free coffee? It means that the material of this cup of coffee does not involve any "coffee beans". It uses other ingredients instead of coffee beans to make "coffee", and finally gets a cup of "coffee" with "coffee flavor". And then a lot of friends expressed curiosity, bean-free coffee? How can it smell like coffee without coffee beans?

Although Qianjie has not yet experienced the taste of bean-free coffee, this question can still be answered. After all, bean-free coffee appeared hundreds of years ago, and it appears very frequently, so it is nothing new. For example, in the early 19th century, bean-free coffee was forced to sweep the whole of Europe. In order to hit the British economy, Napoleon banned trade between continental Europe and Britain by issuing a Berlin pardon, which directly led to the interruption of the supply of coffee beans. At that time, coffee had already become a daily drink in Europe, deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and even Napoleon himself could not resist the delicacy of coffee. What should I do?

At this time, Napoleon made one of the most questioned but at the same time the most effective decision, that is, to use chicory root (Chicory) instead of coffee beans to make coffee!

As the picture shows, chicory root is the root of chicory, it is a kind of non-toxic and harmless plant. The root of chicory, like the roots of most plants, is brown in appearance and secretes a white bitter liquid when broken. And it is the main material to replace coffee beans! By baking, then crushing it into powder, then mixing it with water in the way coffee was made at that time, and finally filtering it out, a cup of bitter drink with "coffee flavor" was born! Although it may seem absurd, this practice has achieved remarkable results at that time, as well as in other subsequent periods. Due to the disruption of the supply of coffee beans, people who have long been brainwashed by coffee have no choice but to use bitter drinks made from chicory root to meet their stomachs. Even later, when chicory roots were in short supply because of excessive demand, people found another way to use other grains to replace chicory roots and coffee beans to make bitter drinks with "coffee flavor".

It should be noted that the practice of replacing coffee beans with chicory roots was not invented by Napoleon. This practice appeared in Germany as early as the 18th century and set up factories for production, so it can also be said to be the ancestor of "soy-free coffee". As mentioned in the article in front of the street, there are many other grains besides chicory root that can be used as a substitute for coffee beans. Common are burdock, chrysanthemum seeds, oil sedge, fan lentils, figs, jujube seeds and so on, which can be used as a substitute for coffee beans to make drinks with "coffee flavor". So back to the point, how can there be coffee without coffee beans?

Through the previous story, I believe many friends in Qianjie have guessed it. Yes, the so-called "coffee smell" actually refers to the "baking smell" produced by the food in the baking process. Early coffee had only one degree of roasting, and that was very deep roasting. Because the roasting technology of coffee at that time and the quality of coffee beans were not up to the standard (today's standard), there was only one option for deep roasting. In this way, the uneven baking will not be caused by the poor baking technology, and the baking aroma produced by deep baking can also be used to cover up the defective taste.

The so-called baking aroma refers to the aroma provided by the substances produced by Mena and caramelization during baking. For example, furan (furan) aromas bring sweet aromas of caramel, while Pyrazines aromas bring nutty and roasted aromas. And this kind of aroma can not only be produced by coffee, but also can be produced by other materials such as cereal and bread. For example, inulin in the root of chicory can be caramelized after baking to produce furan aroma. In addition, there are many substances in common, the most noteworthy of which is the melanoid produced during baking, which can directly affect the appearance of food. We all know that the deeper the coffee is roasted, the darker the beans will look, which is the role of melanin, and this effect will be brought directly into the coffee liquid. The darker the roasting of the coffee we use when making coffee, the darker the color of the liquid.

Then other foods will have the same effect by baking, so not only the aroma, but also the color of "coffee" made from non-coffee beans will be very close to real coffee. To sum up, we can know that the main reason why beans-free coffee has a "coffee flavor" is that the material itself has the same substance as coffee beans and produces the same aroma components in the roasting process, so it is possible to make a similar "coffee flavor". Well, with the development of the times and the improvement of technology, Qianjie believes that the current bean-free coffee must be more than as simple as before, but this does not belong to the category discussed in this article, so Qianjie will not repeat it too much.

-END-