Coffee Circle Scores Big as Winner on Network TV Coffee Test

In the segment „How good is our coffee“ on ZDF, star chef Nelson Müller tested different coffees for price, taste, quality and ingredients. In the category of ingredients, our Limu coffee was subjected to a test for acrylamide values ​​by an independent institute alongside other leading German brands from Tchibo, Dallmayr & Co. What we were thrilled to hear (but we also weren’t that surprised given what we already knew about roasting) was that the Limu had by far the lowest Acrylamide scores of all the coffees tested. For all the health benefits of coffee, Acrylamide has entered the coffee conversation recently since it is suspected of being a carcinogenic and is formed when roasting coffee.

Try our coffees ›

In short, the most important chemical process in roasting is the „Maillard reaction“ or „non-enzymatic browning“. This process is responsible for the browning of the coffee beans, as well as for the formation of up to 800 aromas, which your coffee can contain. During the course of the Maillard reaction, formation of acrylamide can occur from about 200 ° C. In industrially-produced coffee, which is roasted within a few minutes in the hot-air roaster, much more acrylamide is formed than in the coffee from gentle drum roasting. And that’s exactly why we roast – like most good microroasters – carefully and traditionally, with patience and love.

Significant for German quality awareness in relation to coffee, we stumbled on this quote from the coffee expert Yumi Choi: „This is a running gag in the coffee producing countries. […] There, people make fun of the fact that Germany buys the waste, calls it coffee, and then apparently goes ahead and uses it.“

Naturally we’re pretty excited about any discussion around the topics of harvest, roasting and the taste of coffee be it on ZDF or elsewhere in the media landscape and so anytime we see Coffee Circle involved in that conversation it makes us happy.