Over the past few years, studies have revealed the surprising amount of benefits that coffee has to offer. From reducing liver damage to improving symptoms of depression, there are many reasons to drink coffee other than its delicious taste. Many of these benefits may be due to a powerful antioxidant in coffee called chlorogenic acid (CGA), which helps the body break down glucose. Unfortunately, much of this antioxidant is lost during the roasting process. However, those who want to get more of this nutrient are in luck, because one scientist has found an efficient way to enhance this health benefit. The invention of coffee flour has arrived, and it is ready to caffeinate your baked goods.

What Is Coffee Flour?

Daniel Perlman, PhD, is the reason why you may soon be cooking with coffee flour. The biophysicist at Brandeis University experimented with green coffee beans and discovered that roasting them at a lower temperature and for a short amount of time (known as “parbaking”) allowed the beans to retain most of their CGA. Perlman then froze them with liquid nitrogen and crushed them into a powder. The result was a wheat-colored flour with a nutty and mild flavor.

Getting Coffee Flour to the Masses

Perlman was able to patent his process in December of 2015, and he is now talking with worldwide food ingredient manufacturers about licensing the product. Perlman shouldn’t have too much trouble, because the flour has already shown promise. It has been used by a number of companies who have tested the flour in their bakery products. Coffee flour has been tried in other foods, such as hummus or nut butters, with excellent results. With this success, we should expect coffee flour to become widely available to the masses fairly soon.

Wait, Isn’t There Already a Coffee Flour on the Market?

Yes and no. There is already a company called Coffee Flour, but their product is made from the fruit of a coffee plant and not the beans. This fruit is called a coffee cherry, and the company takes the fruit and dries it before blending it into a powder that resembles a spice more than a flour. While the company says that their product has health benefits of its own, Perlman’s invention seems to appeal to more coffee lovers because of its flour consistency and health benefits. In addition, Perlman’s flour retains the caffeine that coffee provides, which can take your baking to another level. Perlman says that if you put four grams into your breakfast muffin, you would be getting the same amount of caffeine that you would from a cup of coffee.

Health Benefits of Coffee Flour

We now know that coffee has tons of health benefits, one of which is that it can help increase our longevity. One of the ingredients in coffee that helps us live longer is the antioxidant known as chlorogenic acid. Thanks to Perlman, we can now get this nutrient in larger doses.

What Is Chlorogenic Acid?

Chlorogenic acid is a natural chemical compound which is the ester of quinic acid and caffeic acid. It has been known to slow the absorption of glucose in the small intestine and slows the level of glucose in the bloodstream. This allows the body to rely on fat cells for energy rather than carbohydrates, which may help some lose weight. There is a high amount of CGA in green coffee beans, with anywhere from 34 to 41 milligrams per gram of CGA. Unfortunately, almost all of CGA is depleted when roasting the beans at 250 degrees Celsius for longer than 20 minutes. There are traces of CGA in brewed coffee, but, thanks to this new coffee flour, we can now ingest more of this super nutrient.

The Possibilities Are Endless

The ways to use this new coffee flour are endless. It is extremely versatile, and you can mix it with other flours to bake goods such as muffins, cookies, scones—whatever your heart desires. In fact, you could use it in a smoothie as a supplement, or you could simply enjoy it in some baked goods with a cup of high quality coffee for double the pleasure. Whatever way you take advantage of this new coffee flour, you can feel good about giving your body a good dose of CGA that is great for your health.