Many of you have probably heard about the healing properties of green coffee, its incredible health benefits, and even its effectiveness for weight loss. But is that really the case? Let's find out what green coffee is and what green coffee beans side effects are. Why should you roast your coffee and not consume it green as many believe?
What Is Green Coffee?
Coffee beans are the grains of a coffee tree. After harvesting, they are peeled and dried to obtain raw materials for further processing. In unroasted form, the grains have a beige-greenish hue and smell like dried peas. This is what we call green coffee.
For centuries, people have appreciated the drink made from roasted coffee beans, but lately, more and more people are talking about the remarkable benefits of green, raw beans. It is claimed that they have a high content of antioxidants - much higher than in roasted coffee. And therefore, the “green” drink is good for health and even helps burn fat. In online stores, you can buy an exceptional green coffee for weight loss - whole grains, crushed, or in the form of an extract.
What Is The Real Difference Between Raw And Roasted Beans?
It's time to find out what kind of product green coffee is and the main thing – why should you roast your coffee and not consume it green?
Availability Of Green Coffee
Unfortunately, the process of purchasing green coffee is much more complicated than its black counterpart. This is due to several reasons:
- The green version of coffee is difficult to find on sale. To purchase it, you should contact specialized coffee shops and stalls.
- The price of green coffee is much higher than the cost of similar black beans.
At the same time, such a high cost is not justified, as green coffee is, in fact, a semi-finished product.
Qualities
You can hardly find any convincing studies that would confirm the effectiveness of green coffee for weight loss. Coffee beans really have a lot of antioxidants, but their content does not decrease after roasting! Moreover, it even grows because the elements that “sleep” in the raw grain are activated under high temperatures. The only component that is partially lost after heat treatment is chlorogenic acid. But it does not help the body burn excess fat.
Temperature
You need to understand that heat treatment of coffee releases essential oils and reveals the amazing aroma of the grain, and sterilizes it. The green grains actively contact harmful bacteria in the process of harvesting, processing, and transportation, and it is not the healthiest of green coffee beans side effects. At temperatures above 200 ⁰C, bacteria and some fungi are destroyed. In addition, roasting stops the fermentation process typical of raw grain. It cannot be healthy to consume such a raw drink, indeed.
Taste
Unlike roasted coffee, the green beverage does not have a pronounced taste and aroma, and therefore you can not enjoy it. By the way, raw grain is several times harder than roasted: you can't grind it like regular coffee - a home coffee grinder just can't withstand such a load.
Myths About Green Coffee
It is better to forget about the myths about the miraculous properties of green coffee and instead prepare a cup of the usual drink - with a terrific smell and incredible taste!
Myth 1: Effective for weight loss
It's time to find out why you should roast your coffee and not consume it green if you want to lose weight. You probably know about AFS experiments that have praised green coffee to the skies. The US Federal Trade Commission fined the resourceful executives of AFS Company for $ 3.5 million. Why?
- First, only 16 people took part in the experiment.
- Secondly, during the experiment, all possible rules of purity of the experiment were violated.
- Third, the study was paid for in full by AFS management.
- Fourth, its organizers kept secrets that some participants withdrew from the “race” due to bad health while taking the experimental drug.
Further, few control studies conducted with green coffee extract showed that the only parameter distinguishing it from roasted coffee is the increased presence of a substance called chlorogenic acid. It improves metabolism and, as a consequence, can promote weight loss. However, its concentration in green coffee is not high enough to be truly effective. It is much easier to buy the same acid at the pharmacy in the form of a concentrate and not risk it with raw coffee.
Myth 2: Green coffee is healthier than black
And here, we come closer to the story of two participants in the experiment who left the race due to deteriorating health. As it turned out, green coffee beans side effects can harm your health a lot. can have quite serious side effects. There are three reasons for this: pesticides, fungus, and bacteria. All three types of dangers wait for us because green coffee does not undergo heat treatment, which completely destroys all harmful substances that can linger in the beans.
Myth 3: You can grind and roast green coffee at home
It is possible, but, as we mentioned before, your drink will have a weird, unpleasant taste. The raw beans can’t be processed with the help of an ordinary coffee grinder - if you try to grind them, you will break it with a probability of 95%. Your attempts to roast green beans on your own, unfortunately, are useless in most cases.
If you are lucky to buy green coffee in ground form, your chances of benefiting from it increase. The drink will taste like a decoction of whole oats.
Myth 4: Green coffee has more antioxidants and useful elements
Why should you roast your coffee and not consume it green? Even if you buy already ground green coffee, its benefits will not exceed the use of roasted beans. The magic starts when you start roasting green beans, turning them into that delicious product with a special aroma that we love so much.
Maillard reaction
As soon as the grains begin to darken, the Maillard reaction starts. The internal pressure in the beans increases enough to break their super-strong cell walls, creating a crack sound. At this stage, melanoidin, a substance that changes the color of beans, appears. They also help change the taste of coffee.
After the first crack, the reaction changes from endothermic (beans absorb heat from the drum) to exothermic (beans emit heat). At this stage, the grains become more porous, and the oils migrate to the cell walls.
Strecker Degradation
Then Strecker degradation comes: amino acids react with molecules, forming new compounds such as aldehydes and ketones. This reaction is necessary for the creation of a coffee aroma. But chlorogenic acid breaks down into caffein and quinic acids, which give the grains tartness and bitterness.
The taste and chemical composition of the finished grains can vary greatly depending on the degree of roasting: the stronger it is, the lower the acidity and caffeine level. Grains that have undergone less heat treatment will have more chlorogenic acid (the same that is considered the most useful part of the green grain), but you no longer run the risk of catching an unknown infection that raw beans can hide.
Thus, for those who want to get the most out of coffee and avoid green coffee beans side effects, we recommend making your favorite drink from the beans of the weakest roast. This can be an ideal compromise between an inner coffee lover and a supporter of healthy eating.
Coffee Roasting
Raw coffee beans are dense green seeds, consisting of about half of carbohydrates in various forms and half of a mixture of water, proteins, lipids, acids, and alkaloids. It is not recommended to drink green coffee in its pure form, and those who say that you can lose weight with it are very mistaken. Therefore, green grain needs to be subjected to heat treatment to change the structure of the grain, its biochemistry during roasting.
How To Roast Coffee
Roasting coffee means cooking it. Why should you roast your coffee and not consume it green? The purpose is obvious - to prepare a product as tasty as possible, to open the maximum potential of raw materials. You “cook” not in the kitchen but on professional technical equipment – roasters. The roast-master takes the role of chef, and it is he who decides what and how to roast.
A coffee roaster is simply a stove that transfers heat to the grain through convection, conduction, and radiation. There are two main types of roasters: one roasts coffee due to convection, the second mainly transfers heat through thermal conductivity (conduction) of roasting drums. Each of them works differently but is good in its way, and you can roast coffee perfectly only if you are a skilled roaster.
Roasting Stages
Roasting green coffee creates countless chemical changes, creating and destroying thousands of compounds, but if you simply and briefly describe the process of roasting coffee, it will be as follows:
First, you need to prepare the equipment and choose the recipe (profile) according to which you will roast coffee. At what temperature you will load green coffee into the roaster, how long you will roast, how and when you will raise the temperature.
Then the green coffee is loaded into the heated roaster, where it passes the first stage - the “drying phase.” During the first few minutes, the grains lose moisture most intensely, and the change in chlorophyll causes the grains to change color from green to yellow.
After 75-80% of the total frying time, you hear that legendary “first crack” (professional term), similar to popcorn crackling. The first “crack” mainly comes from the fact that the moisture inside the grain heats up, expands, and when it has nowhere to go, it comes out, destroying the structure of the pulp and helping to get rid of many green coffee beans side effects. During this period, the coffee turns brown but due to the caramelization of sugars.
From the first “crack” to the end of roasting is called “development time.” During this period, the taste and aroma of coffee are finally formed.
If you continue roasting, you can bring it to the second crack that is possible due to the burning of sugars and cell walls. The color of coffee during the second crack will be almost black, and oils will come out on its surface.
The final stage in roasting coffee is its unloading on the cooling table, where it is essentially important to stop all processes inside the grain, quickly cooling it to room temperature.
Coffee Changes When Roasted
Green and roasted coffee have to compromise. To understand why you should roast your coffee and how it helps to avoid green coffee beans side effects, look at the internal and external changes that roasted coffee has:
- It changes color from green to yellow, then to yellow-brown, then to brown, and then to black.
- It almost doubles in size.
- Its density, on the contrary, is halved, and the grain becomes more fragile.
- It loses 12 to 24% of its weight, depending on the initial humidity and the degree of roasting.
- More than 800 aromatic compounds are produced inside the coffee bean.
In addition, most popular coffee drinks, hot and cold, require masterfully-roasted and freshly-ground coffee beans. However, the drink can be made from greens that have not been previously fried. It depends on what you expect from your drink.