These fillers actually resemble coffee once they are roasted and ground, and visually there's almost no difference. What's more, researcher Suzanna Lucy Nixdorf tells Yahoo, "normal people can't taste [the difference]". She also says "Corn is very common because it tastes sweet, and people don't perceive the added sugar. The same [goes] for brown sugar. That is why we need a method [that's] very sensible and not subjective [to determine] if the coffee is pure or not."
In a press release, Nixdorf discussed a test that she developed, which uses statistical tools and lab techniques to accurately determine whether a coffee sample is at least 95 percent "pure". Nixdorf says "I hope the [coffee] industry will [use] this method to really guarantee quality without using fillers." So do the rest of us, Suzanna!
