GEOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF LOCALLY BREWED COFFEE FROM DIFFERENT VENDORS IN NEW BRITAIN, CT

Coffee is a bitter acidic drink that is liked by many because of its stimulating effects. Currently there are over 24,000 coffee shops across the US serving over 150 million daily coffee drinkers. A survey conducted in environmental geoscience class, Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) showed that over 60% of the students drink coffee on a daily basis, while about 20 % drink coffee at least once a week. Although most bottled drink in the US shows label of various elemental concentrations, coffee drinkers do not have such knowledge of what they drink. This study is focused on examining various cations and anions contained in locally brewed coffee from various vendors within area surrounding CCSU campus. The overall goal is to assess daily loading of various elements through drinking of at least one cup of coffee. In order to address this, a total of 40 cups of ‘black’ coffee will be purchased from different vendors, and analyzed for 21 chemical elements using ICP-OES at CCSU geological sciences department. In addition, various anion concentrations within the coffee that include nitrate, chloride, phosphate, and sulfate will be determined using Shimadzu HPLC-IC. Data obtained from our pilot study shows that coffee has a pH range of about 2-3, with a wide variability in the concentrations of various elements such as Ca (15-1920 mg/L), K (540-690mg/L), Mg (40-50mg/L), Na (16-155), P (100-690mg/L), and S (20-77mg/L) respectively. In addition, the overall chemistry of coffee was also determined to be impacted by the quality of the water used for brewing. Upcoming experiments will provide more data that will create increased awareness of various chemical constituents of coffee which will help daily drinkers to make a well informed healthy decision.