The pleasure of coffee without remorse

The amazing bean

Coffee is good for you! This news is music to the ears of coffee lovers like Gerhard Bohne. The Brazilian with German parents is not just a member of the growing international community of coffee lovers, his professional life revolves around the brown bean as well. The crop protection expert from Bayer CropScience helps and advises coffee farmers in his homeland.

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VERSATILE: The dark beans can easily be adapted to national tastes – German drip coffee, Italian espresso, sweet Turkish coffee or American latte macchiato in an extra-large cup.

Northern Europeans like drip coffee, Arabs are fond of mocha with “soul” (coffee grounds), Italians love their small, strong cups of espresso and of course cappuccino with its splendid crown of frothy white foam. The French love white coffee. Americans mix their coffee with milk and a wide variety of flavored syrups such as chocolate, vanilla or nut.

Coffee-drinking is extremely popular, and the boundaries between preferences are blurring. Italian-style coffee culture has now become established worldwide. Yet there is another important reason why the number of coffee lovers is continuing to grow. The brown bean is experiencing a dramatic image shift in regard to its effects on health

Researchers from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, for example, have disproved the widely held misconception that coffee dehydrates the body. British physiologist Ron Maughan arrived at the same conclusion in his paper for the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics: “Two to four cups of coffee a day are no problem for the body’s water balance.” Nor does caffeine have a negative effect on the circulatory system. Andreas Pfeiffer, a nutritionist at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, says: “The blood pressure of regular coffee drinkers increases only slightly after two cups.”

AMAZING HARVEST: Blossoms, unripe green fruits and ripe red fruits can grow on a coffee bush at the same time. Fields therefore require picking by harvesters several times a year.

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AMAZING HARVEST: Blossoms, unripe green fruits and ripe red fruits can grow on a coffee bush at the same time. Fields therefore require picking by harvesters several times a year.

This statement is corroborated by Wolfgang Winkelmeyer from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. Winkelmeyer conducted a study on 150,000 women which showed that there is no connection between coffee consumption and high blood pressure. “We now know that coffee improves the mood, can help prevent cancer and acts as a stimulant for the brain,” says Gerhard Bohne, Head of Marketing, Research and Development at Bayer CropScience in Brazil. Bohne has focused his work on coffee in general and protection of the coffee plant in particular for 20 years now.

Legends aside, the historical fact is that coffee began its triumphal march around the globe from the Yemenite harbor city of Mocha. It reached Europe with the spread of Islam from the Arabian Peninsula (starting in the 7th century) via North Africa. From the sea harbors of Europe, coffee then conquered the rest of the world from the 17th century onwards. The first mention of a Venetian coffee house dates back to 1647. Portuguese smuggled the first plants to Brazil in 1727. Today, Brazil and Vietnam are the world’s largest coffee producers. In 2005 alone, coffee from Brazil comprised roughly one-third of the world’s harvest of approximately 6.8 million tons.

Ein guter Kaffee Good coffee must be black as night, hot as love and as sweet or bitter as life itself. (Arab proverb)

Coffee ranks second on the list of raw materials traded worldwide – right behind oil. “Commodities are a business that is difficult to forecast, not least because of fluctuations in harvests caused by weather conditions,” says Bohne. The optimum mix of temperature, water, wind, sunlight and soil conditions is needed for high-yielding and reliable cultivation. “Sometimes a light frost on just one morning is all it takes to ruin a crop.” Brazilian coffee farmers suffered such a disaster during the harvest year of 1995/1996, when a frost was followed by a drought. Plantation owners have always been at the mercy of climatic conditions, but they now have effective weapons with which to combat other natural adversaries such as the tiny fungus known as coffee rust or the leaf miner moth. “If a plantation is infested by rust, it has to be abandoned. In 1870, India and Ceylon gave up growing coffee and turned to tea instead as a result of this fungus,” says Bohne.

Gerhard Bohne, Head of Marketing, Research and Development at Bayer CropScience in Brazil.

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Gerhard Bohne, Head of Marketing, Research and Development at Bayer CropScience in Brazil.

Bayer CropScience is helping protect coffee plants with a wide range of fungicides and insecticides. “We receive the active ingredients from Germany and then adapt them to the special needs in this country in our application pilot plant,” says Bohne. A combination product effective against both rust and leaf miners is currently especially successful. “It provides the plant with excellent protection during the entire growth period,” says Bohne. However, Bayer CropScience markets more than just active ingredients in Brazil. Gerhard Bohne has also been on the go recently in support of the “Muito Mais Café” (Lots More Coffee) campaign, an educational drive to teach customers how to better protect their plants and make them stronger. Says the Bayer CropScience expert: “Plants with strong roots can absorb more water and nutrients and are more resistant to disease. This produces a much larger harvest.”

Coffee glossary

Global supply and demand

Target group

Aroma
Raw coffee has no taste; roasting is what gives the beans their characteristic flavor. During this process, raw coffees from various countries of origin and of different types and qualities are mixed together and roasted at temperatures of over 200° Celsius. Sugar and other carbohydrates are caramelized, the beans change color from green to golden brown and their weight decreases 15% to 20% while their volume increases by approximately 60%. Many known substances in the beans – and even more unknown substances – are destroyed, converted or created during roasting.

Botany
Experts have categorized 80 different types of plants, although only two of them are of commercial importance. 75 percent of all coffee produced comes from Coffea arabica bushes (highland coffee), the rest from Coffea robusta plants (lowland coffee). On average, one plant produces five kilograms of fruit per year. Less than one kilogram of coffee remains after processing, however.

Constituents
The coffee bean’s most important constituents include carbohydrates, fat, water, proteins, plant acids and alkaloids such as caffeine, minerals and aromatic substances. The proportions of these substances vary, depending on whether they are measured in the raw beans, roasted coffee or finished drink. The composition and amounts of the individual substances also vary according to the type and variety of Coffea plant. In addition, their characteristics are influenced by growing factors such as soil quality, climate and type of cultivation, as well as processing methods and, in particular, by roasting.

Caffeine
Caffeine is a purine alkaloid and an energizing component of foods and beverages such as coffee, tea, cola drinks, mate, guarana, energy drinks and chocolate. It is one of the oldest and most effective stimulants, and one of the most compatible with the human body. 200 milliliters of drip coffee contains about 140 milligrams of caffeine, while the same amount of tea contains approximately 80. Caffeine is just one of 1,000 different substances found in coffee.

Stomach problems
The stomach is irritated by the acids in coffee, not the caffeine. The acid content can be reduced significantly by roasting the beans as slowly as possible. Italian espresso is roasted at an unhurried pace (for up to 24 minutes), but most of the coffees available today are the result of a three- to five-minute shock-roasting process with hot air.

Consumption
The main importers of coffee are the United States (approximately 1.2 million tons) and Germany (568,000 tons). Finland is the country with the highest per capita consumption, however. On average, each Finn consumes twelve kilograms of coffee per year. In terms of total volume, Germany has the second-highest coffee consumption rate worldwide, topped only by the United States. On average, each German drinks nearly four cups of coffee per day. Germany thus ranks eighth in per capita consumption of coffee.

Global supply and demand
Demand rose by 43 percent between 1980 and 2004. Supply fluctuated dramatically: Years of excess harvests were followed by years of undersupply. Harvests have been unable to keep up with demand since 2003.

Target group
Coffee was once the drink of the middle classes. Coffee drinkers were level-headed thinkers – a state of mind compatible with bourgeois virtues such as industriousness and abstinence. In contrast, the nobility preferred a life of sweet idleness – better suited to drinking cocoa. Today, however, coffee is enjoyed by all social classes.