Coffee and Tea, Pre-Class

Coffee was first discovered and brewed in the middle east around the middle of the fifteenth century. Originally, coffee beans were considered to be food. Coffee beans were banned from export from Arabia, but were successfully smuggled out to other parts of the world in 1670.

10,000 Daltons is about 10,000 atoms.

Espresso contains a smaller amount of caffeine than might be expected due to its brewing process. With Espresso, the beans are only exposed to the water for a brief amount of time. As caffeine is slow to dissolve, not much gets dissolved in the water.

Many of the volatile molecules in coffee have significant non-polar regions that make it unfavorable to interact with water, but the molecules are still relatively light. Furthermore, they often have shapes that cannot interact well with similar molecules.

Old coffee beans lose many of their volatile molecules, thus the scent and flavor of the coffee is less enjoyable.

There are ten carbons in terpene.

I'm not sure that I could overcome the mental block of not wanting to eat coffee beans excreted by an animal, and thus I doubt I would want to try kopi luwak.

Tea was first discovered hundreds of years before Christ, and was mostly introduced to the west through the Dutch, thanks to their trading with the east.

During the Han dynasty the finest tea was given to the emperor as a tribute.

Charles II, working with Oliver Cromwell of the East India Trading Company, at the behest of Catherine of Braganza, brought to to the west. William Pitt the Younger later made imports of tea much cheaper.

Americans chose to boycott taxed goods, because they did not like taxation without representation. However, the Company arrived at port with tea the Americans did not want. By the trade agreement, the ships could not leave unless the tea had been offloaded, but if the tea came ashore, the tax must be paid. Therefore, the locals came up with the famous solution - throw the tea in the water.

The British created an opium addiction.

Caffeine and polyphenols reduce mental and physical stress.

Theanine boosts the immune system/ Tea has also been linked to many other health benefits, including lower stress and antidepressant properties.

"For green tea manufacture, the withered leaf is steamed and rolled before drying or firing. This is done to prevent the veins in the leaf breaking and thus stopping any oxidization of the leaf." -Pg. 35, History of Tea.

Black tea leaves are plucked and allowed to dry and wither. Next, they are broken into pieces to allow juices to escape. Then they are rolled up and allowed to become oxidized. Finally, the leaf is dried.

Based on this key, I have no idea how I prefer my tea - I drink tea almost exclusively when I am sick, and infrequently even at that. Thus, I do not have a strongly developed preference for what constitutes a 'better' cup of tea.