Reichstein’s early attempts to synthesize the aroma of coffee, which commenced in 1922 and were to last for nine years, sprang from the desire to create a product that would have a commercial application: Reichstein’s family suffered great financial need when his father’s business, and subsequently his health, collapsed under the pressures of World War 1. although not ultimately successful, Reichstein’s experiments identified some fifty compounds which, when combined, could be marketed as an artificial coffee flavor. More fruitfully for science, they also pointed Reichstein in the direction of the synthesis of vitamin C. Reichstein was interested in vitamins because of their potential in medicine. Vitamin C, it was thought at the time, belonged to the class of furans, a chemical bond present in coffee. It was therefore the furan derivatives found in the aroma of coffee that ultimately inspired Reichstein to the synthesis of ascorbic acid [later named vitamin C].