Reichstein and Staudinger made an outstanding contribution by characterizing more than 70 flavor compounds in roasted coffee. Since 1960 the list of constituent increased to 300 in green coffee, and to 850 in roasted coffee, respectively.
Many natural flavor compounds were first identified in roasted coffee and were later characterized as key compounds in certain processed foods. The pleasant aroma arising from roasted coffee beans during grinding is as attractive as the aroma of fresh brewed coffee for coffee flavored prepared foods.
However, because these pleasant aromas are especially highly volatile and unstable compounds, these are easily lost during the industrialized processing and storage of coffee products such as beverages.
The protein content in green coffee was reported as 8.7% - 12.2%. More importantly, there exists a considerable amount of amino acids in the forms of peptides and free amino acids,, which is essential to generation of characteristics roasted coffee flavor. Free amino acids in green coffee play central roles in formation of roasted coffee flavors although their contents are generally at a level of 0.15% - 0.25% in green coffee bean.
Coffee flavor compounds
