Did your mother ever tuck you into bed at night and then say "Good night sweetie...now begin blocking your neuroreceptors to allow the sleep chemical adenosine to begin working."

Neither did mine.

But she could have, because it is precisely those adenosine-blocking properties that makes coffee's 'zing' so 'zingy'--the zingy stimulation found in the drug caffeine to be precise.

Caffeine, found in all cups of coffee, is, to put it bluntly, a bug-killer in it's chemical foundation, sharing it's makeup with cocaine and the smoker's delight, nicotine. These alkaloids in coffee keep you awake and they are what you fork over your buck for at Starbucks. (Or, for you Canadians out there--your 'Loonie' at Tim Hortons.)

H20 (alias water) is proportionally speaking, the largest ingredient of a cup of coffee, and is the catalyst which pulls from the coffee bean the oils and those all-important flavors, so that the bean's magic can do it's stuff on your nervous system. If your coffee is too strong, and your caffeine intake is new to your system, you will find yourself running to the washroom in a hurry--it's a diuretic.

You may dislike the medicinal taste of Listerine in the morning, but it's nothing compared to the 2-Ethylphenol smell that is responsible for the uncanny ability of cockroaches to run before you even see them--it's a pheromone that signals danger. Maybe it's also why too many cups of Nescafe and you feel like you want to run around the block a few times yourself?

No cup of coffee would be full-bodied without the sour taste of quinic acid. This is, unlike the cockroach pheromone, a helpful chemical being found in the anti-flue drug Tamiflu and gives coffee its slightly sour flavor. On the plus side, it's one of the starter chemicals in the formulation of Tamiflu.

Another positive, for we humans, found in coffee is this acid, which helps protect cells against free-radicals and their nasty habits. Coffee's antioxidant leverage is definitely a smiley face factor.

:)

You don't want to know what dimethyl disulfide is responsible for, once it has been roasted out of the green coffee bean. Let's just say it produces a smell that rhymes with 'pit'. You can detect it in your morning brew if you really try--but don't. Let sleeping dogs lie, I say.

Everybody loves movie-popcorn the minute the buttery goodness hits our olfactory sensors when we walk into the theatre lobby. This buttery chem is also a component in your Starbucks stimulator and it is for this ingredient that we buy so many millions of dollars worth of Orville Redenbacher's pride and joy every year.

Well the name says it all. Putrescine is not something you want to go out and buy and shake liberally over your Sunday roast, but it works on the nose the opposite way from the chemical mentioned just above, being present in all coffee beans naturally and responsible for the creation of 'ptomaines' which come into existence when E.coli attacks amino acids in meat. Broadly speaking there is nothing potently dangerous in this, but it does give the unmistakable odor of the outhouse on it's own, without the other ingredients in coffee to 'tame' it.

Finally, here's another thumbs-up for coffee.

This chemical not only adds sweetness to the taste of your Folgers morning drink, but prevents tooth decay by way of 'pyridines' which puts up a protective barrier against those nasty bacteria that swarm around your mouth looking for some teeth to munch on.

'Drink more coffee' could become your dentist's new advice!

Coffee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coffee is a brewed beverage prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the coffee plant. They are seeds of coffee cherries that grow on trees in over 70 ..

Biology
CultivationCoffee is a brewed beverage prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the coffee plant. They are seeds of coffee cherries that grow on trees in over 70 countries....

Cultivation
Coffee is a brewed beverage prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the coffee plant. They are seeds of coffee cherries that grow on trees in over 70 countries....en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee - 234k -

Starbucks Coffee Company
Headquartered in Seattle, they purchase, roast and sell high quality whole bean coffees, rich-brewed coffees, Italian-style beverages and a variety of pastries.

CoffeeGeek - News, Reviews, Opinion and Community for Coffee and ...
Offers reviews of coffee appliances, news, and articles.coffeegeek.com

coffee: Definition from Answers.com
coffee n. Any of various tropical African shrubs or trees of the genus Coffea, especially C. arabica, widely cultivated in the tropics for their

Coffee @ nationalgeographic.com
The history of coffee, descriptions of different varieties, map of coffee- producing countries and a discussion forum.

Gourmet Coffees Coffee Makers - Green Mountain Roasters
(Nasdaq: GMCR) Shop online for signature blends, specialty roasts, k cup coffee, seasonal flavors, organic, single cup brews, decaf coffees, gifts, accessories, more