What is the methodology to discover thousands of compounds from a complex mixture? So this is something that has always amazed me,




  More than 1,000 chemical compounds in coffee,[1] and their molecular and physiological effects, are areas of active research in food chemistry. 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_coffee_chemicals



How is it possible to identify so many separate compounds from just a single matter? What methods are used?
Most compounds can only be analytically quantified individually, so the first step in analyzing a complex mixture is typically to separated the different compounds from each other. For something like coffee, this would typically be done via different types of chromatography (i.e. gas (GC), liquid (HPLC), ion (IC)).  

As the separated compounds exit the chromatography column, they can then be analyzed. This is usually done in real time using a number of techniques; the most relevant in this case is mass spectrometry (MS) following GC or HPLC.  

In short, the primary techniques used to analyzed the compounds found in an organic sample like coffee would be GC-MS and HPLC-MS.