Is Bacteria In Coffee Good For You?

Healthy bacteria are essential for your gut health and immunity. Two Australian companies have created special coffees containing supposedly good bacteria. But is bacteria in coffee good for you?

An Australian company goodguts makes probiotic coffee called Gut Alchemy that manage to survive digestion to reach your gut alive.

In contrast, coffee created by Queensland-based Coffee Roasters Australia in association with Griffith University, has created the first postbiotic coffee blend using dead bacteria.

This new postbiotics coffee blend called BruLife can be used as Nespresso pods or freeze-dried coffee powder.

BruLife say they have “25 Billion Good Bacteria in each Sachet & Capsule!” Sounds scary but it is supposed to be good for you!

BruLife have three coffee blends…

• Inspire. This blend contains Lactobacillus paracasei bacteria, Ginkgo Biloba, Gotu Kola, Organic Siberian Ginseng (Eleutherococcus), Schisandra Extract, Bacopa Monnieri Extract, Maltodextrin, Vitamins (Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Vitamin E, Folic Acid (Vitamin B9), Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12).
• Immune. This is the main coffee blend containing all five postbiotic bacteria and roasterd Brazillain coffee beans.
• Renew. This blend contains 3000mg pure collagen in addition to Lactobacillus plantarum bacteria.

BruLife uses a blend of organic Ethiopian, Colombian, and Nicaraguan coffee beans.

The coffee is roasted, blended, and packed in BruLife’s facility on the Gold Coast, Australia.

All of these bacteria are shown to be beneficial for your gut health, your microbiome, and your immunity.

What Are Probiotics?

Probiotics are “friendly” or “healthy” live bacteria that help support good health when eaten or drunk. Probiotic bacteria can be found in fermented foods, yogurt, or supplements.

Not all probiotic strains are the same. Different strains offer different benefits and some probiotic strains survive manufacturing, shelf life, temperature, and digestion better than others.

Many probiotics are destroyed by stomach acids so don’t make it to your gut alive or in the numbers that your gut needs to operate optimally.  

However, the probiotic coffee developed by goodguts is supposed to survive the acids and bring balance back to your microbiome. It does this by producing lactic acid which supports good bacteria you already have in your gut while displacing the harmful or ‘bad’ bacteria that can lead to tummy troubles. (goodguts).

Goodguts also claim that their probiotic is 10 times more likely than yogurt cultures to make it to your gut alive and get to work.

The probiotic they use in their Gut Alchemy coffee beans is 20 probiotic doses of Bacillus coagulans GBI 30-6086 (USA).

What are Postbiotics?

There are two concepts of postbiotics…

1. They are the bioactive molecules that probiotic bacteria produce when they consume prebiotic fiber (healthline).
2. They are prebiotics that have been killed by heat. That is, a collection of dead but beneficial bacteria.

BruLife uses bacteria killed by heat before they put it in their coffee.

What are Prebiotics?

Prebiotics are food for our good gut bacteria and they nourish the gut bacteria. Prebiotics are specific types of fibre, nondigestable carbohydrates in our food, that our gut cant digest but feeds the bacteria in our gut. Some people find that prebiotics can cause symptoms like wind and bloating. (goodguts).

What is a Probiotic Coffee?

A probiotic coffee is a roasted coffee with one or more strains of bacteria added.

Drinking this type of coffee supposedly helps supports your health and immune system.

What is Lactobacillus?

Lactobacillus is the largest genus within the group of lactic acid bacteria and plays an important role in human health.

 Lactobacillus is the most common probiotic found in food, and it is diverse in its application to maintain human life and well-being (BruLife).

What is Bifidobacterium?

Bifidobacterium are one of the major genera’s of probiotic bacteria that make up the gastrointestinal tract microbiota in mammals. They help the host perform essential functions such as digestion and staving off harmful bacteria (BruLife).

What Does Bacteria Coffee Taste Like?

You can’t taste any of the probiotic or postbiotic bacteria. You only taste the roasted coffee.

The Gut Alchemy coffee is made from 100% Arabica coffee beans from South America. It has the following taste characteristics…

“Full-bodied coffee that carries through milk with honeycomb, spiced biscuit and vanilla. Finishes with clean, lingering complexity. It has won multiple awards.”

BruLife’s Immune, Inspire, and Renew blends are all made from Arabical coffee beans from Brazil so they all have the taste characteristics of

“Medium acidity and body. Dark cacao and roasted nut aroma. Notes of milk chocolate and roasted nuts with a sweet redcurrant acidity“

The blends differ in their bacterial and other components.

Other Bacteria Coffee Blends

Researchers from the National University of Singapore recently published data on a new fermented coffee beverage that includes probiotic bacteria and yeast. In particular, they use live Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. boulardii. However, there does not yet seem to be a commercial product as yet.

Other coffees may be advertised as containing probiotics, but this is usually through the addition of mushrooms or as part of a ‘superfood’ or diet coffee.

I will try and keep this post updated with other new genuine probiotic or postbiotic coffees as I discover them!

The Importance Of Gut Health

Your gut bacteria (the microbiome) is essential for your health (examine.com).

And gut health is quickly becoming a health priority for many people. 

There is an increased focus on probiotics being a part of the solution, but some popular probiotic offerings are incompatible with many diets and health requirements. 

Some people require a novel solution and this can be these postbiotic and probiotic coffees we have discussed in this post.

Conclusion

If you want to improve your immunity and gut health then maybe one of these new bacterial coffees are worth a try?

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Top Stories On Bacteria and Coffee From Websites Around the World

Your coffee maker is a bacterial breeding ground – Bacteria loves coffee almost as much as office workers do. (qz.com)

Lactic acid bacteria: what coffee industry should know? – ScienceDirect – During coffee processing, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from multiple ecosystems (water, native soil, air, and plant) find in the cherry pulp a rich envi… (sciencedirect.com)

Healthy aging: Gut bacteria may prevent disease – New research finds that high caffeine consumers have more diverse compositions in their gut microbiotas with higher levels of anti-inflammatory bacteria. (medicalnewstoday.com)

Nasty germs may be lurking in your coffee maker – Loyola University microbiologist found bacteria like staphylococcus and e. coli in coffee machines (cbsnews.com)

First description of bacterial and fungal communities in Colombian coffee beans fermentation analysed using Illumina-based amplicon sequencing | Scientific Reports – In Colombia, coffee growers use a traditional method of fermentation to remove the cherry pulp surrounding the beans. This process has a great influence on sensory quality and prestige of Colombian coffee in international markets, but has never been (nature.com)

Most coffee makers are crawling with germs and growing mold, experts say. Here’s why – Whether it’s a Keurig or espresso Nespresso, it’s important to keep your coffee maker clean to prevent the growth of bacteria, yeast or even mold. (usatoday.com)

Long-Term Coffee Consumption is Associated with Fecal Microbial Composition in Humans – PMC – Coffee consumption has been related to a preventive effect against several non-transmissible pathologies. Due to the content of this beverage in phytochemicals and minerals, it has been proposed that its impact on health may partly depend on gut micr (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

The 67 types of bacteria growing in your brewer’s drip tray. – A recent study in Nature magazine suggests that coffee maker drip trays are a rich environment for dozens of different types of bacteria. (coffeedetective.com)

The coffee-machine bacteriome: biodiversity and colonisation of the wasted coffee tray leach – PMC – Microbial communities are ubiquitous in both natural and artificial environments. However, microbial diversity is usually reduced under strong selection pressures, such as those present in habitats rich in recalcitrant or toxic compounds displaying a (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

Fermentation of coffee pulp using indigenous lactic acid bacteria with simultaneous aeration to produce cascara with a high antioxidant activity – PubMed – Coffee pulp which is a by-product of coffee production contains considerable amounts of phenolic compounds that can be valorised to produce cascara as an antioxidant beverage. The fermentation and drying conditions of the coffee pulp have a great inf (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

Why many coffee makers are crawling with germs and mold, expert says – Germs, yeast and mold are lurking in your coffee maker if you haven’t cleaned it properly, an expert with the National Sanitation Foundation said. (ajc.com)

Role of Bacteria in Coffee Plantation Ecology – EcoFriendly Coffee – The true biologist deals with life, with teeming, boisterous life, and Learns something from it, Learns that the first rule of life is living. JOHN STEINBECK To date we have written a dozen or more articles on the pro active role of microorganisms in (ecofriendlycoffee.org)

Diversity of lactic acid bacteria associated with fresh coffee cherries in Taiwan – PubMed – A total of 102 lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were isolated from three different coffee farms in Taiwan. These isolates were classified and identified by the restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis and sequencing of 16S ribosomal DNA. Heterofer (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

Caffeine and Its Effect on Bacteria Growth | Journal of Biological Sciences (jbs.camden.rutgers.edu)

How Gross Is Your Coffee Maker? – Germs, growths and giardia? Oh my! (foxnews.com)

Researchers document impact of coffee on bowels: Rat study shows coffee changes gut microbiome and improves ability of intestines to contract – Coffee drinkers know that coffee helps keep the bowels moving, but researchers in Texas are trying to find out exactly why this is true, and it doesn’t seem to be about the caffeine, according to a new study. Researchers, feeding rats coffee and also (sciencedaily.com)

Frontiers | Cultivation and Genome Sequencing of Bacteria Isolated From the Coffee Berry Borer (Hypothenemus hampei), With Emphasis on the Role of Caffeine Degradation – The coffee berry borer, the most economically important insect pest of coffee worldwide, is the only insect capable of feeding and reproducing solely on the coffee seed, a food source containing the purine alkaloid caffeine. Twenty-one bacterial spec (frontiersin.org)

This Beetle is Ruining Your Coffee With the Help of Bacteria – I am writing a book about partnerships between animals and microbes. In the process, I have consumed a frankly obscene amount of coffee, to the extent that the dedication might just read “To coffee, with thanks”. So, it is with mixed emotions tha… (nationalgeographic.com)