By now, most life-long coffee drinkers are aware of the potential adverse health effects of coffee – namely, the caffeine, acid, and blood pressure spike. Most people either know someone looking to cut back on coffee, have been advised themselves to step away, or have chosen to cut down. There’s another good reason that’s not talked about as much and that is the discoloration of teeth caused by coffee. Everyone likes to have a nice bright smile but coffee can darken that smile noticeably.
The Experiment
Since the goal of any coffee alternative is to be as much like coffee as possible but without the bad stuff, it’s not intuitive that fig coffee will be easier on your smile. Fig coffee has essentially the same dissolved solids as coffee and is brewed the same way including stronger brewing techniques like espresso, Turkish coffee, and moka pot. The stronger the (fig) coffee, the more staining to expect. We set up a simple test using two hard-boiled eggs to represent teeth and soaked each in concentrated coffee and fig coffee. For coffee, we used a medium roast Honduran blend. The fig coffee was FigBrew’s pure roasted fig Figgee. Both were brewed in a French press at 10x the recommended serving concentration to simulate long-term consumption.
But First – a Shout-out
Before we get into the details of the results, we wanted to take a moment and thank WooBamboo for donating the toothbrushes and toothpaste used to simulate oral care on our sample eggs. We met founder Steve Hyde from WooBamboo at a trade show and were immediately impressed by his passion for eco-friendly and quality oral care products. So far, WooBamboo have replaced over 10 Million plastic toothbrushes with their biodegradable bamboo alternative that is not just plastic neutral but plastic negative. We at FigBrew are committed to being a good partner to our vendors, customers, and the planet and actively seek out partners like WooBamboo wherever possible.
Now Down to Business
The test was straightforward and designed to simulate adverse tooth discoloration in a reasonable timeframe. We used the recommended serving amount each of coffee and FigBrew’s Figgee for 10-oz of water but we brewed each in a French press with only 1-oz of water giving a final product 10x the recommended strength. Next a paintbrush was used to dip into the brewed coffee and paint a “C” on one egg and then dipped in the brewed Figgee to paint an “F” on the other. Both eggs were allowed to sit overnight to soak into the eggshells as much as possible.
The next day, a moist paper towel was used to remove the coffee and Figgee from their respective eggs and then scrubbed vigorously with the WooBamboo toothbrush and toothpaste to simulate brushing teeth.
While both left discoloration on the eggs, the Figgee fig coffee stains were noticeably less than the coffee stains as can be seen from the image above. Not only is fig coffee healthier for you, it leaves you with a brighter smile – yet another reason to make the switch.
