|
Abstract
|
From the back cover:
For the best part of two centuries investigators have tried with varying degrees of success to identify the compounds which give roasted coffee its characteristic aroma and taste.
The analytical methods and the state of progress in chemistry at the end of the 19th century did not allow for the separation, isolation and identification of the multitude of trace chemicals which are present in roasted coffee. By 1900, scarcely a dozen compounds had been identified. Since the beginning of the sixties, with the advent of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, the number of identifications has increased tremendously. To date, 850 compounds have been identified in the flavor of roasted coffee and 300 in the smell of green coffee. In this work, the authors systematically review the non-volatile constituents of green coffee, including their structure, and discuss their important contribution as flavor precursors during the roasting process. They also trace the chronological discovery of the individual chemicals and critically examine the validity of their identification, highlighting the enormous progress, which has been realized during the 20th century and particularly in the last 40 years. For convenience, the constituents of green and roasted coffee have been distributed into chemical classes according to structure, systematic and empirical names, their CAS Registry Numbers and occasionally their FEMA classification. Comments are made on the origin or the formation during roasting of each individual compound. |