WIRED, What’s Inside Coffee?

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[00:00:06.83] Coffee. It's the lifeblood of your average day. Grind the beans, load the filter, add water, brew, and enjoy. But do you know what's inside that cup of coffee you're drinking?

[00:00:18.29] Mostly, it's water, over 98% of a cup. But the other 2% is the really good stuff.

[00:00:25.94] The first thing you notice is the aroma. Actually, some of the compounds in coffee would be pretty repulsive, if they were present in higher concentrations, like 2-ethylphenol, which has a tar-like medicinal odor.

[00:00:38.92] It also happens to be a cockroach pheromone. The bugs use it to warn each other of danger.

[00:00:44.25] There's also dimethyl disulfide. It's just barely detectable in your cup of Joe, which is looking, since it smells a bit like rotting meat. But, of course, coffee still tastes pretty darn good.

[00:00:56.03] Rich acetylmethylcarbinol lends a buttery taste. No surprise, since it's a component of actual butter.

[00:01:02.23] Trigonelline gives coffee its sweet, earthy taste, and it also battles cavity-causing bacterium Streptococcus mutans, keeping the critters from attaching to your teeth.

[00:01:13.84] But the real health superstar is 3, 5 dicaffeoylquinic acid, which protects your brain from free radical damage.

[00:01:21.39] That's right. Coffee is an antioxidant. Once you've got a few slugs, your favorite ingredient kicks in, caffeine.

[00:01:29.47] It's actually an alkaloid plant toxin, like nicotine and cocaine, but don't let that scare you. In your brain, it blocks receptors for the neurotransmitter, adenosine. Result? You, awake.

[00:01:41.25] Want milk and sugar with that? Well, that's a whole other episode.

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