What exactly is caffeine? Can you see it? Can you have a bowl of caffeine? How are some drinks decaffeinated?
In: Chemistry
Caffeine is a molecule. It’s a naturally occurring substance found in the seeds, fruit, nuts, and leaves of a bunch of different plants (most famously, the coffee tree.)
It’s most often consumed by drinking it, through various forms of extraction. The seed from the coffee tree (which people call a “bean” because it looks like one) is roasted, ground, and mixed with boiling water to extract its flavour and to extract the caffeine. This makes a caffeinated beverage that we refer to as “coffee.”
You could extract pure caffeine but you wouldn’t want to eat it on its own. You can get it in pill form at health stores if you really wanted to.
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