| Raw Coffee | Roasted Coffee | |
|---|---|---|
| Per Cent | Per Cent | |
| Water | 11.23 | 1.15 |
| Ash | 3.92 | 4.75 |
| Fat | 12.27 | 14.48 |
| Sugar, etc. | 0.66 | 8.55 |
| Protein | 12.07 | 13.98 |
| Caffein | 1.21 | 1.24 |
The high per cent of sugar and other soluble carbohydrates in roasted coffee is caused by the action of heat upon the non-nitrogenous compounds. Coffee cannot be considered a food, because only a comparatively small amount of the nutrients are soluble and available. It is a mildly stimulating beverage. With some individuals it appears to promote the digestive process, while with others its effect is not beneficial. Coffee is more extensively used in this country than tea, and is subject to greater adulteration. It is adulterated by facing and glazing; i.e. coloring the berries to resemble different grades and coating them with caramel and dextrine. Spent coffee grains and coffee that has been extracted without grinding are also used as adulterants. Imitation berries made of rye, corn, or wheat paste, molded, colored with caramel, and baked have been found mixed with genuine coffee berries. Roasted cereals and chicory are used extensively to adulterate ground coffee. Chicory is prepared from the root of the chicory plant, which belongs to the same family as the dandelion. It is claimed by some that a small amount of chicory improves the flavor of coffee. However, when chicory is added to coffee, it should be so stated on the label and the amount used given. The dextrine and sugar used in glazing are browned or caramelized during roasting and impart a darker color to the infusion, making it appear better than it really is. The glazing also makes the coffee retain moisture which would otherwise be driven off during roasting. Coffee contains such a large per cent of oil that the berries generally float when thrown on water, while the imitation berries sink. Chicory also sinks rapidly and colors the water brown, while the coffee remains floating for some time.
There are three kinds of coffee in general use: Java, Mocha, and Rio or Brazil. The Brazil coffee has the largest berry and is usually styled by dealers as "low" or "low middlings." The Java coffee berries are smaller and paler in color, the better grades being brown. Mocha usually commands the highest price in commerce. The seeds are small and dark yellow before roasting.
219. Cereal Coffee Substitutes.
"A few of these preparations contain a little true coffee, but for the most part they appear to be made of parched grains of barley, wheat, etc., or of grain mixed with pea hulls, ground corncobs, or wheat middlings. It is said that barley or wheat parched, with a little molasses, in an ordinary oven, makes something indistinguishable in flavor from some of the cereal coffees on the market. If no coffee is used in the cereal preparations, the claim that they are not stimulating is probably true. As for the nutritive value, parching the cereals undoubtedly renders some of the carbohydrates soluble, and a part of this soluble matter passes into the decoction, but the nutritive value of the infusion is hardly worth considering in the dietary."[[56]]
220. Cocoa and Chocolate Preparations.—Cocoa and chocolate are manufactured from the "cocoa bean," the seed of a tree native to tropical America. The beans are inclosed in a lemon-yellow, fleshy pod. They are removed from the pulp, allowed to undergo fermentation, and dried by exposure to the air and light, which hardens them and gives them a red color. This method produces what is known as the "fermented cocoa." For the "unfermented cocoa," the beans are dried without undergoing fermentation. Fermentation removes much of the acidity and bitterness characteristic to the unfermented bean, and when properly regulated develops flavor. The original bean contains about 50 per cent fat, part of which is removed in preparing the cocoa. This fat is sold as cocoa butter. In the preparation of some brands of cocoa, alkalies, such as soda and potash, are used to form a combination with the fat to prevent its separating in oily globules. This treatment improves the appearance of the cocoa, but experiments show the albumin to be somewhat less digestible and the soap-like product resulting not as valuable a food as the fat. Such preparations have a high per cent of ash. There is no objection from a nutritive point of view to a cocoa in which the fat separates in oily globules.
221. Composition of Cocoa.—The cocoa bean, when dried or roasted and freed from its husk and ground, is sold as cracked cocoa, or cocoa nibs. From cocoa nibs the various cocoa and chocolate preparations are made. Cocoas vary in composition according to the extent to which the fat is removed during the process of manufacture and the nature and extent to which other ingredients are added. An average cocoa contains about 20 per cent of proteids, and 30 per cent fat, also starch, sugar, gums, fiber, and ash, as well as theobromine, a material very similar to theine and caffein in tea and coffee, but not such an active stimulant. Cocoa is not easily soluble, but it may be ground so fine that a long time is required for its sedimentation; or sugar or other soluble material may be added during the process of manufacture to increase the specific gravity of the liquid to such an extent that the same object is attained without such fine grinding. The first method is to be preferred. Cocoa and its preparations are richer in nutritive substances than tea and coffee and have this added advantage that both the soluble and insoluble portions become a part of the beverage. Owing to the small amount used for a cup of cocoa, independent of the milk it does not add much in the way of nutrients to the ration.
222. Chocolate.—Plain chocolate is prepared from cocoa nibs without "removal of the fat or other constituents except the germ." It differs in chemical composition from cocoa by containing more fat and less protein; it has nearly the same chemical composition as the cocoa nibs. It is officially defined as containing "not more than 3 per cent of ash insoluble in water, 3½ per cent of crude fiber and 9 per cent of starch, and less than 45 per cent cocoa fat."[[71]]
By the addition of sugar, sweet chocolates are made. They vary widely in composition according to the flavors and amounts of sugar added during their preparation. The average composition of cocoa nibs, standard cocoa, and plain chocolate is as follows:
| Cocoa Nibs | Composition of Standard Cocoa | Composition of Plain Chocolate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per Cent | Per Cent | Per Cent | |
| Water | 3.00 | — | 3.09 |
| Ash | 3.50 | 4.20 | 3.08 |
| Theobromine | 1.00 | — | — |
| Caffein | 0.50 | — | — |
| Crude Protein | 12.00 | — | — |
| Crude fiber | 2.50 | 5.02 | 2.63 |
| Fat | 50.00 | 32.52 | 49.81 |
| Starch and other non-nitrogenous matter | 27.50 | — | — |