This topic was created by Simon Rockman .
You know that the Italians say that you shouldn't have a cappuccino after 11:00 and that it's a breakfast drink, a faux par akin to Nadurra before the sun is over the yard arm?
Turns out there is a scientific basis for this: chronopharmacology.
True story.
I had to take someone from the marketing department to a supplier in Lecco years ago (don't ask why, it's complicated) and in the cafe around noon he asked for a cappucino.
My Italian opposite number leaned over and murmured "è lui un omosessuale?"
I can't remember my translation to the marketing guy, but it was diplomatic.
Miller claimed that drinking coffee between 8am and 9am may not give you the expected boost due to the natural effect of cortisol on our bodies.
Here's the science. The circadian clock or more commonly known as the internal body clock regulates the sleep-wake cycle and prompts the release of certain hormones and chemicals throughout the day. Cortisol is a hormone and its peak production occurs between 8-9am. This makes us feel more alert and attentive. Therefore, a cup of coffee consumed around that time may actually do nothing to perk you up because cortisol makes your body naturally active.
Scientifically, it is known to plummet sometime between 9:30 to 11:30 am and then again between 1:30 to 5pm. That's probably when a steaming cup of coffee could work like a charm and get you going. At other times, allow your body to naturally energize itself.
Coffee all the time. It's the only way I've found of balancing out all the anti-anxiety meds I'm on.
Actually, while I'll still drink coffee in a social situation, my South American wife got me hooked on Yerba Mate years ago. It is an extraordinarily caffeinated kind of tea derived from a bush in the holly family. You drink it from a gourd that's been all fancied up with leather and silver and use a metal straw (bombilla). It's quite bitter, but I really enjoy the taste. It also requires no special equipment to prepare, other than hot water.
There's a going fad where the Yerba is packaged in tea bags and consumed like a regular tea (in a bigger cup) but it just doesn't taste the same. It used to be really cheap, but Yerba is now what the energy drink people are using to cram more caffeine into the drinks and it is also used in pharmaceuticals so the price for the stuff has gone up. It's about $10/kilo and I use ~3 kilos a month, so it still isn't expensive compared to decent coffee and has the advantage of not screwing with your stomach if you drink lots of it. I highly recommend trying it.
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I was only kidding about the anxiety meds and coffee. It's a sad side effect of US professional life, but I know a lot of people who do just that. Not enough time to rest so they're tired and strung out anxious but need massive amounts of caffeine to keep going. It's kind of like the chronically depressed person who is always drinking. Homer Simpson said it best: "Beer, the source and solution of all my problems".
But I agree, Colombian coffees are fantastic.
Being on several meds for a number of ailments/ conditions, I find coffee does very little in the morning. Later in the day, it does have an effect. I am also conscience of the fact that the body builds tolerance to any stimulant. So coffee is reserved for special occasions in general or if I really need to get the lead out late in the day.
Although, I am one of those who drink it like a tea. I also recommend it for my wife when she is needing chocolate, as it has quite a high concentration of theobromine, and settles her chocolate cravings rapidly.
It is also easier to brew a single serving than it is for coffee (and I say that as an owner of 3 french presses, one espresso machine, 1 drip-brew pot, 1 moka pot, and a percolator). Of course that could be because I roast, grind, and then brew my coffee, and just brew the mate.
But Mate lacks the theophylline to be found in tea and coffee, and that is what makes me relatively chipper. There is also the fact that I just LIKE coffee.
Energy drinks are just not worth considering,
If you're an avid coffee drinker, you can drink morning, noon and night and still sleep soundly. Only those not used to coffee get the "can't sleep" effect, people like me need much higher doses than you get from just drinking coffee.
The only downside of drinking a lot of coffee is that if you don't get any coffee for a day, you get the most sickening vile headache imaginable, and headache tablets do nothing.
Also, fun thing about caffeine: it isn't speed, it doesn't make you less sleepy, it just makes it impossible to fall asleep. Taking caffeine tablets -- each of which is the equivalent of a dozen cups of strong coffee -- when you're very tired is torture, you can explore whole new levels of tiredness. I would wish it on my worst enemy.
Not-So-Brief correction:
Caffeine tables (Vivrin and the like) are usually 100mg of caffeine per tablit, this is roughly approximate to 1 cup of coffee (minus the theophylline that is related chemical, and enhances caffeine's effects).
Brewed coffee is between 80mg of caffeine and 140mg per 8-oz cup.
Not sure if it's common in the EU, but here in the states several of the headache meds (I think Excedrin in particular) have a goodly dose of caffeine for exactly that reason. Of course there's the negative side-effect of getting people who wouldn't otherwise consume caffeine addicted, but that just helps business, right?
I drink strong coffee —freshly ground French roast, for preference— but only as the first meal of the day. (I will, on rare occasion, after a good dinner, have one with liqueur. Or if I'm falling-over tired during the day...) For the rest, I generally drink tea. It's said there's the same amount of caffeine in both, so I'm at a loss to explain.
There is in fact more caffeine per gram of tea leaves than coffee beans.
However you use a far larger amount of coffee beans to make a beverage, which means a regular cup of coffee contains lots more caffeine than a regular cup of tea.
Obviously there is great variation in the amount of caffeine depending upon different types, varieties and preparation methods for both tea and coffee so the exact difference might be a range of say 1.5 to 20 times as much.
Here's a break-down on brewed beverages(I am not certain about the contents of the beans/leaves, this is a listing of the resultant brews):
Coffee, Brewed, Drip: 80-150mg per 8oz
Coffee, espresso: ~80mg per shot
Tea, black, hot: 40-60mg per 8oz
Tea, green, hot: 30-45mg per 8oz
Mate (prepared like a tea): ~100mg per 8oz
There are also the Dimethylxanthine components that enhance the effects of caffiene: Theophylline in coffee/tea, and Theobromine in mate and chocolate
...but it amazes the hell out of my wife when I sometimes brew a fresh half-pot after dinner.
I brew a fresh pot in the morning, for both of us, and if there's any left by noon or 1pm-ish, I'll drink it over ice with a little squirt of chocolate syrup stirred in.
A nice cold brewski, for the times when I'm not drinking coffee.
... apart from when I don't.
I've been swinging between decaf for a few months and a couple of full caffeine flat whites for a few months... for the last few years. I actually feel much more awake, and can stay awake longer when I DON'T drink caffeine. This is presumably because I don't sleep as well (when i do drink caffeine)
I do love caffeine though, and I love that buzz. Stinking headache when I give it up, and boy do I feel mega tired and grumpy for a couple of days.
Overall, I think I'm better off without it. I sleep when I need to. I think if you don't sleep well, it can really fuck your health up long term. I'm in a very small minority though in the IT industry.
The other thing that can mess with your sleep is light of the wrong intensity and colour ('colour temperature', or 'white balance'). You can lie in bed and snooze off whilst reading a dead-tree book by the warm light of a incandescant bulb (or alternative of the right colour), but the typically cool light of a TV, laptop or tablet is the enemy of sleep because it messes with our circadian rhythms.
I use a freeware application called F.Lux on my computer, that changes the colour temperature depending on the time of day and the date (and one's location on the Earth). It basically means that the 'white' on my monitor more closely resembles a sheet of white paper in the room, since by day the room is lit by sunlight and at night by a 'warm' LED.
F.Lux can be disabled for an hour for 'colour accurate work', but it makes you think how the room's ambient light can affect your perception of colours on screen.
I used to drink only coffee until a dozen years ago then I went on to tea which I drink almost exclusively now.
In 2000 when I was living in N Cal I used to amaze my Californian girlfriend by brewing a coffee as a night cap, she and her friends could never understand how I could drink it and go to sleep.
Now I probably drink 8 or 9 cups of tea a day by preference, I just went off coffee in general although when my wife makes coffee with the espresso machine in our bar I will drink that as she only uses the best coffees and more importantly knows just how much to grind the beans and to keep the temperature and pressure exactly right.
It's possible to use the best beans and produce terrible coffee if you don't follow the rules, conversely a not very good bean will produce fairly good coffee if prepared correctly.
Where we are has a lot of Italian tourists in the summer, they will often send one of their number into a place to sample the coffee, if good they will all come in, if not they will all go and not use the place at all.
The normal black tea that most Brits drink has about a quarter of the caffeine that an average coffee has but some teas depending on how they are brewed and for how long can be stronger in caffeine than many coffees.
I'll drink coffee on occasion, But I prefer tea, or even soda.
It's the caffeine I need, being one of the true addicts that actually can't fall asleep without a good dose before bedtime.
That said, for the true coffee drinker, here's your cup!
Once upon a time, most caffs served instant, usually fairly cheap stuff.
Now they've mostly put in an espresso machine, but the coffee is still pretty poor, though not as bad as the instant. It gets tarted up as cappuccino, latte, and so on for a dozen options, but the beans are anonymous and undistinguished
The pretentious big chains are the worst - Starbucks are pretty awful, Cafe Nero better. Coffee One is the best, with real bean choices, but only in the West of England and south west Wales.
What has almost entirely disappeared is the coffee shop offering an interesting range of beans and roasts, with a simple sandwich, cake or biscuit to accompany it. Regional Beans, single estate, custom blends etc. etc.
The best I know is in Saffron Walden (east England near Cambridge, and I live in west Wales), who are the only place I know to offer the Civet coffee. I don't know the name of it, but if you are around there it is near Waitrose, and really worth a visit.
And now I've got to go and put a brew on.
When your SWMBO has to work at 7am, a 50/50 mix of coffee and tea works very well :-)
I call it the "Thinkucinno."
Also what works well is 2 level tablespoons of coffee, milk poured over (very important) THEN hot water at a scientifically determined 89 Celsius poured over that. Guaranteed to wake me up no matter what.
AC/DC
One per day for me. Earl Grey first, then...
1 tsp Mellow Birds
2 tsp sugar
3 tsp coffee whitener
...before I leave the house. I'm aware that I am likely to be derided for equating Mellow Birds with coffee.
It's tea all the way for the rest of the day, including a chai masala when I get into the office, but occasionally have another coffee when I get home.
Coffee seems to be taken far too seriously by some people around our hollowed-out volcano, and believe me, when to drink it is just a side issue.
The heated debate about how long to grind coffee beans was finally settled by a colleague who immersed the aforementioned beans in liquid nitrogen and then smashed them with a hammer. This produced a very satisfactory drink and reminded all present that she had access to liquid nitrogen - and hammers.
The icon? Well somebody once brought in a bottle of "Camp coffee"...
Most of the flavour in coffee comes from burnt and caramelled sugars produced by the roasting.
I have managed to impress some gastronomic 'experts' with a coffee made from burnt baked beans who were all convinced it was a high grade Blue Mountain as I had a left over packet where I put the beans before they arrived.
But why the hell drink anything that might sober you up for gods sake!
It also makes some of the smoothest icecream around: cream, some fruit (or other flavour) and gently beat while pouring the nitrogen through. I've done it helping with science outreach, especially for younger children (and the not so young). Apparently it's something to do with making the ice crystals very small, rather than big and lumpy.
There are different times for different coffees. I believe that the individual should choose what works for them.
For me dairy products do not belong anywhere near coffee. A dark roast, usually decaf, for after dinner.
PS For proper coffee (i.e. espresso), you really can't tell by taste if it's been decaffeinated.
I don't eat breakfast at all, I just have two cups of coffee before lunch. Have been doing this for 15 years now.
Decaf? that is the point with that I wonder, why not drink water then. It is mostly a strange US thing? Decaf coffee is virtually non-existant here in Sweden. Caffeine is not bad, it is GOOD for your body and health in normal doses.
In my opinion the right time is after lunch or at 5 pm.
That is because you need a kick to start over again to complete the day. I wake up at 9 in the morning, have breakfast with tea, and leave for work. After lunch at 3-4 pm i feel really sleepy so i had to drink some thing to wake-up and what good thing than coffee.
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