Posted on 05/15/2009 7:23:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Most people when asked about coffee will say ‘don’t drink too much, it’s not good for you’, ‘don’t drink it at night, it will keep you awake’. That might be true for a small minority, but for the majority of us there are many positive reasons why drinking a cup of coffee could well be doing us good.
Coffee is one of the drinks available to keep us alert and to keep the brain firing on all cylinders. There are other drinks that can provide caffeine, the compound responsible, but none offer the other health benefits of coffee.
In recent times there have been many scientific papers that have linked the consumption with reductions in chronic illness. A study in Japan indicated that two cups of coffee a day resulted in a 40% decrease in the chance of getting cirrhosis of the liver.
Research in Finland suggests that middle-aged adults who regularly drink a cup of coffee may have a lower risk of developing dementia later in life. There has even been a study that has shown that having a cup of coffee a day will reduce the chances of committing suicide by 13% per cup.
A healthy diet with good nutritional balance is well recognised as important in reducing the risk of many diseases. Our mind automatically turns to fruit and vegetables, never coffee. Yet, coffee contains chlorogenic acids and these have been shown to reduce the harmful effect of cholesterol. Research has also revealed coffee has beneficial effects in reducing some cancers, types of diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.
Yet, like all good things, there is a limit. For most people, 400mg of caffeine is about the daily maximum and that equates to about four to five cups of coffee.
And that is not all. Coffee is a major international commodity with over five million tonnes produced annually across 50 plus countries. It makes a major contribution to the economy of many of those countries.
It’s time we all looked at coffee in a new light, time to offer coffee as a health drink.
If you want a truly wonderful cup of coffee you need to either start roasting it at home yourself or find someone who roasts fresh and will sell it to you. It's the only way you will get not only coffee that is in the top 10% of the crop, but an actual fresh cup of coffee. Once a coffee is roasted and left exposed to air, its flavor begins to degrade after about four days. Whole bean holds its flavor longer than ground, since you expose more surface area to air once you grind the bean, but if it's not kept in air-tight containers, well...you get the picture. All those impressive looking bins of bulk coffee at the grocery store that run you $10/lb. and up are stale.
You might think I'm exaggerating about the freshness of the roast, but I have to tell you that when I got my first cup of truly fresh coffee I was amazed that there could be so much difference. So much so that I started roasting my own at home and have introduced home roasting to many of my family and friends.
Like with gasoline: the value of the dollar plummeted, so the price of imported commodities skyrocketed. Throw in an increased demand, poor crop yields, and other factors - prices go up.
$13 for 33oz? meh, still cheap. Real coffee is at least twice as expensive.
I LOVE that stuff. You can get a large can (2+ lbs.) at Walmart, store brand, for six dollars and change. Worth every cent. The only store brand I ever found that didn't taste like they added ground up nutshells for filler.
It’s called a “vice”. Very popular among humans.
Now, do I have enough pocket change for a Mt. Dew...
“My office is a very ugly place to work today, the coffee machine is broken.”
I run 2 coffee clubs in my building and if we ran out of coffee I would be lynched!
I never roasted my own beans but I used to buy only beans and grind them daily for my pot of morning coffee. Best coffee in the world that way. I only drink it black BTW, no cream or sugar added, ruins the taste.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 11 (UPI) -- Drinking coffee may be good for your health, U.S. researchers say.
Oh crap! That means the Obama administration will declare it a drug, and find some way to either outlaw it or tax it.
Thanks a lot, researchers......
I've gone only a few days in all those years without at least one cup of coffee (and didn't like it worth a damn). I'll eat coffee crystals raw if I can't get it any other way and have done quite a few times while in the infantry.
My coffee cup is about double the size of a normal coffee mug. I drink at least five of those every day on a work day. More if it's an off day. Plus I scarf the free coffee at work.
I can drink a cup right before I go to bed and sleep, no problem. In fact, sometimes it seems like a nice cup of coffee makes me sleepy.
I prefer Italian coffee- Lavazza- made in one of those Italian stove-top pots. I have an extra large one that fills my big coffee cup up and I put in about an inch of milk and three sugars. 
Best thing in the world and it's one of those little pleasures I look forward to on my off day. I add a pinch of nutmeg if I can't get Lavazza.
Coffee is a good thing. It is one of the top five things in life that I have ever encountered (sex and chocolate being in there as well).
Acid reflux, hiatal hernia...
My granny had both, swears by this daily regimen:
Cream cheese and saltines
Fresh broccoli, boiled just enough to soften a little
Cup of wheat germ and skim milk
Gently fried beef liver
Applesauce
Chew everything that needs any chewing,
and swallow very small bites
Don’t eat for a few hours before bedtime
Sleep in a slightly elevated position
Cut down on the sugar intake
(If it’s really awful, some over-the-counter famotidine
helps. If you took antibiotics recently and your tummy feels better, you may have an ulcer too; antibiotics can help heal, see doctor about that.)
Caffeine ping!
EXACTLY....plus....people are different SIZES! Someone who weighs 100 lbs probably can't handle the same as someone who weighs 200 lbs!
Viet Nam is the worlds 2nd largest exporter of coffee, IIRC.
Try Trung Nguyen. You can find it online.
But please, use a french press, and forego the drip.
What special equipment do you need to roast your own coffee?
Whole bean will stay fresher and give you a better cup, but even then, if it hasn’t been kept in an air-tight container, you’re getting, at the least, a less-than-fresh cup, and at worst, a stale cup. I had already progressed to whole bean and grinding it myself before I learned about home roasting.
--Johnny Nolan, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
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