A LONG time ago, I used to work at Starbucks. I loved it, it was a ton of fun and I got to meet some great people. My last day of work was the day before my oldest son was born (he was early!). I learned a lot about coffee working there and there are even days that miss the morning rush (crazy I know right?) but I just saw this come out and I had to write about it…

Green Coffee Extract…

The new ‘all natural energy’ in Starbuck’s new Refreshers. Nice video huh? I think my mouth actually started watering watching it, and now that I think of it, just thinking about it is making me thirsty! Now here’s where the rubber meets the road…

If you want to start living natural you have to stop that drool train right in its tracks, because you need to remember to ‘check the ingredients’! So lets look at this ‘green coffee extract’…

Back when I had to take my coffee class as part of my barista training we were taught all kinds of things about coffee. One thing that really stuck out in my mind was how decaf coffee is made! At the time there were two methods: the Swiss Method where they use water to extract the caffeine and a chemical method, which I have long since forgotten the name of. Once the caffeine is extracted from the green coffee beans it is dried and sold to soda manufacturing companies like PepsiCo or Coca Cola for use in caffeinated beverages! In a profitable corporation NOTHING goes to waste! More on this later!

Now as a consumer who has begun to see patterns in the food and drink industry I remembered hearing from a friend that Oceanspray had a great idea for all their cranberries pieces left over after making juice… added some sugar and VOILA Craisins! So now they are making a profit off of the waste of one of their other products… small business lesson here.

So fast forward to 2012… you have a big coffee company that sells its caffeine, but there is the potential to make more money here if they USE that caffeine in another of their own products.

Enter GREEN COFFEE EXTRACT!

From a business standpoint this is genius! BUT we need to focus on how “NATURAL” it is.

You see caffeine does exist in nature! So it is natural! But any time that you take something from nature, process it, extract it and put it in something else it is no longer natural! If you wanted to go eat green coffee beans, and you get a pick me up, that’s natural.

Now I know that there are a LOT of people out there selling this as ‘all natural’ and great for weightloss and all that, but you need to keep in mind, especially when it comes to food that anytime that you consume something that is an extract, you are consuming something in a much higher quantity than you would find in nature. Like they say, it’s better to eat an apple than to drink a glass of apple juice (pasteurized store juice) which took 7+ apples to make, because you could rarely just sit down and eat 7+ apples! So keep this in mind when you see “extract” on anything!

Now if you want to hop over to your local Starbucks and pick one up, it’s totally up to you, but don’t let a company’s “natural” claims trick you into doing it! You alone controls what goes into your body, make sure that when you choose to eat something, you know what’s in it.

~Sarah

And for those of you thinking I’m just picking on Starbucks, I do applaud them for using Stevia (an all natural, good for you sweetener)! As a corporation, they seem to by trying to fill the need that those of us who are more conscious about our health have.

So what are your thoughts on this… Let me know in the comments below!