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#GordiFacts are short coffee facts that we publish every Saturday on our Instagram account, gordi.id. It is intended to be informative for everyone, but light enough for you to digest while enjoying a good cup of coffee in a Saturday morning. Here are the facts that we discussed throughout May 2016. Enjoy!

Fact #1 Dark Roasted Coffee Does Not Equal More Caffeine
Did you know that darker roasted coffee does not contain more caffeine? This is a common misconception among regular coffee drinkers. Because darker roasted coffee has certain pronounced bitter coffee flavours, a lot of people perceive it as having a higher caffeine content. In fact, light roasted and dark roasted coffee have nearly identical caffeine content in the actual brewed cup.

Another fact about caffeine, Robusta beans actually have almost double the caffeine

Fact #2 Acidic Coffee
Have you ever heard someone saying “kopinya jangan asam ya”? In Indonesia, we often mistake “sour” and “acidic”. Even in our dictionary, both terms have the same translation: asam. Therefore, most Indonesians often perceive that acidic taste as sour and “bad-for-my-tummy”. Obviously, none of us are physician to back this medically. However, according to many sources, bean defects is the likely culprit behind that stomach pain, not acidity. Acidity, on the other hand, is good because it accentuates the sweetness of the coffee, resulting in a richer complex taste and a more enjoyable cup.

So, try to keep an open mind regarding acidic coffee and try to make sure you’re getting great quality coffee from your local specialty roasters. They normally pick their coffee carefully to avoid major defects.

Fact #3 Am I Addicted to Caffeine?
Our answer is, maybe. Coffee comprises of 99% water and 1% other components. This “other components” includes sugars, acids, oils, and the most notorious one: CAFFEINE. Now, please remember a past situation where you ran into some bullies at school and you only had two choices: to fight, or to run. This “fight or flight” situation turns on your body’s protective mode, resulting in increased alertness, heartbeat, and pupil constriction that makes you more focused. Caffeine stimulates your endocrine system to release a hormone called adrenaline/epipherine. By releasing this hormone, your body will enter the protective mode that occurred in a “fight or flight” situation. That is why you may feel more alert after a cup or two.

The other hormone released when caffeine enters your system is dopamine and glutamate, which occurs in the “rewarding” part of the brain. This reaction is responsible for making your coffee experience more enjoyable and keeps you coming back for more!

Fact #4 Why Is Elevation Important?
Elevation is often mentioned by roasters and distributors on their coffee packaging. The question is, how does elevation affect the coffee you are about to enjoy right now? Coffees grown in regions with higher elevation generally give more aroma and complex flavour compared to coffees from lower elevation. Why? High elevation is a harsh environment for plants to live in. Plants grown at such condition matures slowly, giving time for complex sugars and other chemical compounds to develop. These compounds produces more desired nuanced flavour in the resulting cup.

Another thing to note about high-grown coffees is, they tend to have higher density. This mainly affects the roasting process. A roaster needs to provide enough heat for the coffee beans all the way to the internal cell structures. Therefore, a roaster need to treat the high-grown coffees with different heat profile to make sure an even roast is achieved.

Next time you receive a shipment from Gordi, take a closer look at the coffee description & try to associate the coffee’s flavour with the elevation!

Would you like to get more coffee facts from us? Search #GordiFacts on Instagram or simply follow gordi.id to get more updates!

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