The traditional view of coffee is that it is a bitter drink and that the bitterness is derived primarily from the caffeine content. Now, the reality is that coffee, when done right, isn’t bitter as advertised and decaf tastes remarkably similar to regular. Which is to say, the flavor isn’t impacted by the caffeine content or lack thereof.
And new research appears to back this up. A recent study in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry finds that coffee actually masks caffeine’s bitter flavor.
As reported by Earth.com, the flavor of caffeine is extremely harsh and distinct, with some folks associating it with the flavor of medicine. Coffee possesses well above the amount needed for humans to pick up on the flavor. And yet, it isn’t there. This led food chemists at the Technical University of Munich to look into what may be happening on a chemical level that covers up such a prominent taste.
The first thing they did was test coffee’s ability to make the flavor of caffeine. Using a panel of expert tasters, the researchers continuously increased the amount of caffeine in the coffee they served until it was perceived by the experts. They found that it took ten times the amount of caffeine found in a normal cup of coffee before the distinct bitterness was perceived.
To determine why, the researchers introduced individual compounds found in coffee into a caffeine solution to see how they affected the perception of bitterness. They found two compounds in particular, chlorogenic acid and melanoidins. Most Sprudge readers will recognize chlorogenic acid, an abundant antioxidant in coffee linked to all sorts of positive health outcomes, but melanoidins are less talked about. Per Earth.com, they are a family of large molecules created during the roasting process. And when added to a caffeine solution, the combination of chlorogenic acid and melanoidins cut the perceivable bitterness in half.
While the exact mechanisms behind the decrease aren’t yet known, researchers theorize it has something to do with the way the melanoidins interact with other molecules. They essentially wrap themselves around other compounds, so it may be the case that the melanoidins, working alongside chlorogenic acid in not yet understood ways, at least partially envelop caffeine molecules, making them too large to be detected by taste receptors on the tongue.
So while there is bitterness in coffee, and that bitterness is the result of roasting, it is also the roasting that releases the compounds that masks the bitterness from caffeine.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
