Coffee Mugged

 As I write this blog entry someone somewhere is ordering a decafe vente latte not too smarte from his local barista. Coffee is the ultimate wonder-food. It tastes great warm, tastes great cold, you can take it black and strong, creamy with foam, as an ice cream flavor and so on and so forth. There are so many aspects of coffee to write about. For now we’ll look at the organic vs. non-organic question of this wonderful beverage.
 Coffee, as you know, is an expensive commodity. And, being such, the non-organic grower will do everything in his or her power to protect it from insects and fungi. In essence the monetary value of the coffee is so great that it more than justifies the costs associated with chemical fertilization, pesticides and fungicides.

The significant use of these materials has been verified from many studies as well as in FDA testing. And the general conclusion is that since coffee estates are often in poorly monitored countries, the heavy use of pesticides and fungicides that are illegal in the United States is common. As Dean of Dean’s Beans states, some of the highly toxic or carcinogenic chemicals used on coffee plants include Round-Up, Malathion, Paraquat, DDT, Diazinon, Thiodan 2,4 D Furadan, Timet, Vidate and Terbuphos Regent.
 Not to bore you but the Chemical Engineer in me can’t help but comment that Paraquat for instance is more than a neat sounding name. In this case, it’s a commercial trade name for N,N-Dimethyl-4,4-bipyridinium dichloride….a name only a chemist could love (or say). The important thing however, that’s a tip off, is the fact that it’s a chlorinated compound. These tend to be fairly nasty to living things, especially humans.

 At this time it might be wise to take a short detour and discuss decaffeinated coffee. There are two main processes of decaffeination. One the Swiss Water Method. this process uses water to remove the caffeine. The second major means of decaffeination that is used for approximately 80% of the decaf coffee in production is the Chemical Decaffeination Method. This method uses chemicals like Methylene Chloride to leech out the caffeine. Ladies and gentleman if there’s one thing to take away from this writing its that chlorinated solvents are seriously nasty things. After the beans are exposed to methylene chloride and the caffeine is absorbed into this solvent the residual chemical is then driven off leaving only a decaffeinated bean. In theory, all the methylene chloride is removed. Maybe it is, but maybe it isn’t. There’s only one thing that’s certain and that is if the caffeine is removed with water the worse thing that can happen is that some of the water is left behind. For me it’s no contest. The coffee must be decaffeinated by the Swiss Water Method or it’s unacceptable. By the way, always check for yourself what method is being used. The other day I checked out a bag of Starbucks Decaf and was shocked to read that it was decaffeinated using methylene chloride. Wow.

 So there may be some serious chemistries associated with coffee. Now there are some people who believe that the high heats of the roasting process will dissipate or destroy any toxins. This sounds like a shaky argument to me. Even if it did, sometimes the residual compounds of decomposition are even worse than their parent chemicals. You know maybe it’s me but I think I’ll pass and just stick to coffee made from composted soil, water and sunshine. So for coffee…Definitely Go Organic!

Today there are many sources of organic coffee beans at your local grocers and online as well. In fact, buying online from a high volume supplier may be cheaper and will also guarantee that your organic coffee beans are moving and therefore fresh.
Freshness as you know is one of the keys to a great cup of coffee…. Here’s to you Joe.