Breaking Down Your Cup Of Coffee

Sure, The Daily Meal staff probably collectively drinks 50 cups of coffee a week, but we never really bothered to find out what's in it (other than caffeine and maybe a shot of vanilla syrup and some milk). So thankfully, Wired came up with this cute little animated video, breaking down what's exactly in an average cup of coffee.

Turns out, most of coffee is water (well, so, we knew that), but the rest? Long, complicated chemicals like 2-Ethylphenol, which has a tar-like odor and is actually a cockroach pheromone that warns other cockroaches of danger. Not exactly appetizing, but if your pantry has tons of coffee maybe you won't have any cockroaches in your house.

The good stuff, on the other hand, includes acetylmethylcarbinol, a component of butter, which gives the coffee a "buttery" taste. Trigonelline gives coffee an earthy taste, and also fights cavity-causing bacteria, and caffeine of course gives your brain a boost of energy. Not to mention, coffee is also an antioxidant. So in this case, maybe we should say coffee is better than tea? Unless, of course, Wired comes out with a tea video.

Watch the video below.