Some people say that instant coffee is not coffee, so drinking instant coffee is not recommended. Why?

Around the world, people like drinking coffee more and more. The ensuing "coffee culture" is full of every moment of life. Especially for white-collar workers who often stay up late and work overtime, it is very common to have a cup of coffee. Although freshly ground coffee is good, it is not suitable for small partners in the workplace who work at a fast pace, so instant coffee came into being. It can not only refresh the mind, but also improve people's work efficiency. But for instant coffee, many people worry that instant coffee is good for their health! Others say that instant coffee tastes bad and is "garbage" in the coffee industry! Others say that instant coffee is not coffee, and it is not recommended to drink instant coffee. Why? Next, let's take a closer look.

1. What is instant coffee?

Instant coffee is a kind of beverage extracted from brewed coffee beans, which enables people to quickly prepare hot coffee by adding hot water or milk to powder or crystal and stirring. It is commercially possible to prepare instant coffee by freeze drying or spray drying, and then rehydrate it. Instant coffee in concentrated liquid form is also produced. There are two kinds of instant coffee on the market: instant coffee and instant black coffee.

Types of instant coffee:

1. In the early days, most of the instant coffee we came into contact with used high-temperature spraying technology, and the water was evaporated and processed into fine particles by distillation. Because part of the aroma of coffee will be taken away in the process of water evaporation, sugar or other additives are usually added to improve the taste of coffee.

2. Freeze-dried coffee is to freeze the water in coffee liquid in advance by vacuum freeze-drying method of freeze dryer, and then sublimate the frozen water in coffee liquid in vacuum aseptic environment to obtain freeze-drying.

3. espresso is the final coffee liquid obtained by roasting, grinding and extracting coffee beans, which is not as dry as the first two. However, the extraction here can be low-temperature cold extraction, high-pressure extraction and so on. The concentration and taste of coffee liquid are different with different extraction methods.

Second, why do some people say that instant coffee is not coffee?

On the physical level, instant coffee is also made from coffee beans. But the taste is completely different from that of hand-brewed coffee and espresso, which is why it is difficult for people who know the "original taste" of coffee to regard instant coffee as coffee.

The reason why the flavor of instant coffee is missing so much is still to be found in its production process.

1. The quality of coffee beans used as raw materials is not good.

More than half of the world's coffee beans are used to produce instant coffee. Instant coffee is a mass-produced product. In order to ensure the stability of output, cost and quality, manufacturers generally need commercial coffee beans or even Robusta coffee beans that can be provided in large quantities. For those who are used to drinking coffee brewed with fine coffee beans, the flavor of commercial beans or Luo Dou itself is far less rich than that of elaborately made Arabica beans, which can't stand the taste.

2. Inevitable flavor loss in the production process.

As for the aforementioned materials, some instant brands are consciously improving the quality of the coffee beans they use. What's more, they show that they use "more than 80% coffee beans in SCAA cups". But with the current technology, it is still difficult to express those beautiful tastes through instant coffee. Low-temperature extraction and freeze-drying are popular in the process of instant coffee making, in order to preserve the flavor of coffee beans as much as possible. However, in the process of mass production, the aromatic substances contained in coffee beans will inevitably be lost from baking to extraction to drying. At this time, using edible essence to make up for the flavor is also the place where instant coffee is criticized.

Why don't you recommend drinking instant coffee?

Instant benefits are convenient and quick, but no benefits! Washing hands is an advantage except for a little trouble, and when you enter the coffee pit, you will feel that the tedious procedure of washing hands will become a pleasure.

The main reasons why I don't like instant coffee are:

1. Instant coffee is always made from commercial coffee beans.

To be precise, it's almost all Robusta coffee. In order to reduce the production cost, instant coffee uses inferior coffee beans and adds a lot of food additives to make up for the taste, so it has many delicious coffee flavors. In fact, these coffees don't taste good. A lot of sugar, glucose syrup, non-dairy creamer and hydrogenated vegetable oil are added to coffee to cater to the different tastes and preferences of consumers all over the world. That's why instant coffee smells so good.

2. Because there is no need to consider the appearance of raw materials, low-grade raw coffee beans are generally used for baking in mass production. The baking degree of instant coffee often stays at a relatively primary stage, and the baking depth cannot fully reflect the aroma of coffee beans.

3. In the process of making instant coffee, the components that can improve the low-density cholesterol level are removed. In this respect, it is as healthy as coffee filtered with filter paper, but the acrylamide content of instant coffee is 2 to 3 times that of coffee beans. Acrylamide is considered as a potential carcinogen.

The harm of drinking instant coffee?

1, causing diseases

Instant coffee contains a lot of trans fats. Long-term intake of trans fats may increase blood cholesterol, thus increasing the incidence of cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, excessive drinking of instant coffee may cause diseases, which is not conducive to human health.

2, causing obesity

Instant coffee contains a lot of sugar, and the excessive accumulation of sugar in human body is easy to be converted into fat and stored in human body, which leads to obesity, so it is generally not recommended to drink too much instant coffee.

3, aggravate insomnia

Drinking instant coffee is not recommended, because it is easy to aggravate insomnia. However, in the case of long-term lack of sleep, various functions and nervous system will appear disorder symptoms, increasing the incidence of various diseases. Therefore, it is not recommended to drink instant coffee, especially in large quantities, which will greatly increase the probability of insomnia at night and before going to bed.

4, malabsorption

Instant coffee can reduce the absorption of iron in intestine more than drip coffee. A study estimated that when a cup of instant coffee was taken with a diet composed of semi-pure ingredients, the intestinal absorption decreased from 5.88% to 0.97%, while the absorption of drip coffee was 1.64%. It is also estimated that when the intensity of instant coffee is doubled, the absorption of iron in the intestine drops to 0.53%. However, it is obvious that the absorption of iron does not decrease when taking instant coffee before meals 1 hour, but the inhibition degree is the same as that when taking instant coffee after meals 1 hour.

5, carcinogenicity

Compared with regular coffee, instant coffee is associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer in women, while for men, both instant coffee and regular coffee are associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer. However, the current review studies show that there is no dose-response relationship between coffee drinking and bladder cancer, and previous studies may be confused by the uncertain risk of bladder cancer.

The FDA survey shows that the acrylamide content of instant coffee is 3-7 ppb, which is lower than that of conventional coffee (6- 13 ppb).

Personal experience: I like coffee myself, but I don't usually drink instant coffee. I can either buy a coffee machine at home and make it myself. If I go out, I usually order takeout. It is recommended to drink less instant coffee. If it is really troublesome to buy, it is recommended to carefully look at its ingredient list when buying, and only choose pure coffee, and try not to have various additives such as sugar. Although instant coffee has brought great convenience to our life, healthy instant coffee should not be coffee powder+white sugar (or sweetener)+non-dairy creamer+other food additives. Don't drink too much such instant coffee. Healthy instant coffee needs to consider raw material standards and whether there are additives in the production process. For those who often drink coffee, we must pay attention to controlling the intake. Generally, it is best not to exceed 3 cups a day (about 200 ml per cup). If you can choose freshly ground pure coffee, try to drink less instant coffee. If it must be instant, choose one with simple ingredients and few additives.