It is well-known that drinking a cup of coffee can give you a boost when you're feeling a little tired. But apparently the extent of this effect depends on when you drink this cup. At least, that is what PhD student Steven Miller discovered. Miller, attached to the University of Health Sciences at Maryland, recently discovered that the effect of coffee is highest when our cortisol level is lowest. As cortisol levels peak right after we get up, it is best to wait for about an hour before enjoying that first cup of coffee. Cortisol also peaks around lunch time and between 5.30 and 6.30 p.m. He explains that drinking coffee will increase cortisol levels in the blood. When it is drunk when cortisol levels are low, the caffeine will give us that boost we are looking for. If, on the other hand, one drinks it when the cortisol level in the blood is already high, the effect is much less and one will need stronger coffee to reach the same effect. So, no matter how strong the desire right after you get up in the morning, it might be a good idea to just wait a while to get the most out of that cup of black gold.
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Research at the Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore has shown there is good reason to believe that a moderate consumption of coffee enhances long-term memory storage in the brain. A group of volunteers were shown a series of everyday images. Half of them was given a pill with 200 mg of caffeine five minutes after the test, the other half got a placebo. The next day they were shown another series of images, some the same as those shown before, some new ones and some slightly different than those of the previous day. While there was hardly any difference between both groups in distinguishing between the new and old images, the group that got the caffeine pill was better at picking the images that were slightly different than those of the first viewing session. According to the researchers this shows that caffeine enhances the brain's capability for pattern separation, i.e. recognising the difference between two similar but not identical items. And though there is some doubt about the validity of these tests among other scientists, and the researchers do not know how caffeine helps the brain to store memories, a moderate consumption of coffee just might be able to help jog your memory.
Some time ago I came across an article about a perfume that smells like coffee. Turned out it was a limited edition, created by Macmillan Cancer Support for their fund-raising in September 2013. They created three different scents: Coffeelicious, Macpresso and Mochamorning. And though I can understand the idea behind this all, people love the smell of coffee, so why not make a coffee-scented perfume and aftershave, I'm still not too sure if I would like a coffee-scented aftershave. It just might make me crave for a cup of real coffee the whole day long.
A few weeks ago I gave ten good reasons to drink your daily cup of black heavenliness. Just in case they didn't convince you, here are a few more. 1. It helps to burn fat - caffeine is one of the few natural substances of which it has been proven it helps to burn fat. It is scientifically proven that it can increase the metabolism, though more studies are needed to see if consuming coffee over a long period reduces this effect. 2. It contains essential nutrients - coffee isn't just black water, it contains vitamins B2 and B5, potassium and magnesium. 3. It reduces the risk of liver and colon cancer. 4. Less risk of suffering from a stroke - even though it has been proved coffee can increase blood pressure, studies do not support the myth that consuming coffee would lead to more heart and vascular diseases. On the contrary, some research shows that people who drink coffee have a reduced risk of suffering from a stroke. 5. Long life - it will come as no surprise that, given that coffee reduces the risk of a number of diseases, it might help to live longer.
We've all heard of the beneficial effects of coffee before, but just in case, here are ten reasons not to give up on that daily dose of coffee. 1. It is a source of antioxidants - even though fruit and vegetables remain the most important sources, the human body can apparently extract more when drinking a cup of coffee. 2. The smell reduces stress - unfortunately this only works for stress related to sleep deprivation, not for stress in general. 3. It reduces the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, and might even help reduce the risk of ever developing this disease. 4. It reduces the risk of liver cirrhosis. 5. It is thought to act as a mild antidepressant - two to four cups a day lower the risk of committing suicide with 50%. 6. It reduces the risk of skin cancer for women, but only when they consume three or more cups a day. 7. The caffeine in coffee improves sports performance. 8. It reduces the risk of getting diabetes type II by 50%, though you'd have to drink four or more cups a day. 9. It can't stop you from getting Alzheimer's, but apparently it can reduce the speed at which it develops. 10.It improves your intelligence - your reaction time, vigilance and logical reasoning skills all improve when you drink a cup of coffee.
This week we continue with our journey in the footsteps of William H. Ukers, moving from Africa on to Asia. We start off in Arabia, which Ukers states as having given the gift of coffee to the world. According to the writer, the Arabs hospitality evolves around coffee so much that "their very houses are built around the cup of humanly brotherhood", with the central room in a house being the kahwah or coffee room. It is the room where men get together and guests are received by said men. Coffee is roasted and ground at the spot and served black, in some instances flavoured with cardamom seeds, at all hours of the day. He continues saying that Arabs might drink water before having their coffee, but never after, as one "would not [want to] spoil the taste of coffee in your mouth by washing it away with water", which are words to my heart. He makes note of Cafée Sultan or kisher, the original beverage made from dried and toasted coffee hulls, which is still drank to this day in a few countries, like Arabia, Turkey and especially Yemen. Sometimes it is made just by using the husks of the coffee beans, other customs include letting it simmer for a long time with the addition of spices like ginger, cardamom and/or nutmeg. As far as I could gather, coffee still plays a central role in everyday life in Saudi Arabia, with the centuries-old intricate ceremonies of preparing and serving it still being honoured. The men, though, may be found more often in dedicated coffee houses these days. And just so you know, if you ever happen to visit Arabia, it is very rude to refuse a cup of coffee when presented to you, and if you do have a cup, be polite and have an odd number. A full transcript of the book All About Coffee, by William H. Ukers has been made available as part of the Gutenberg project. This series is based upon Chapter 35, World's Coffee Manners and Customs.
Knowing coffee has been around for a couple of hundred years already, it will come as no surprise that there are numerous traditions regarding roasting, brewing and serving it around the world. Browsing the world wide web for some information regarding these different customs, I stumbled across a book that was written nearly a century ago: All About Coffee, by William H. Ukers. With this book as a starting point, we'll kick off a short series with an overview of some of these habits, and we will start in the continent which holds the cradle of coffee: Africa. We have already touched upon a few of the African traditions, more specifically the century-old rituals in Ethiopia and the less widespread use I got to know while living in Tanzania, both customs already encountered by W. H. Ukers almost 100 years ago. He continues describing Moorish cafés in Cairo, Tunis and Algiers, where mazagran was served, a sweetened cold coffee syrup to which cold water or ice was added. It is unsure whether this coffee preparation has survived the test of time as the only direct reference to mazagran I found was a Portuguese cold coffee beverage, which also had lemon juice mixed into it. There are of course numerous iced coffee drinks available all around the world, but none of them were referred to as mazagran. W. H. Ukers travelled widely to do research for his book, and some of the sights he encountered still exist today, though in a slightly changed version, like the coffee houses which he describes elaborately. Though people may no longer sit on mats when drinking their coffee, these cafés still serve as meeting places where people linger over their cup(s) of coffee while discussing the more and less important matters of life. A full transcript of the book All About Coffee, by William H. Ukers has been made available as part of the Gutenberg project. This series is based upon Chapter 35, World's Coffee Manners and Customs.
Coffee smells good, there is no doubt about that. But now it turns out that you can actually use coffee to help smell other things better too. It'll probably sound familiar to the ladies among you: when you go out shopping for a new perfume and you have tried out a few fragrances, you can hardly tell one from the other. It all has to do with nasal fatigue, the receptors in our nose getting less and less sensitive to certain smells, hence making it more and more difficult to distinguish one from the other. Neuroscientist Noam Sobel from the UC Berkely has now proven that smelling coffee in between will cleanse your nasal palate so you can take in all the sweet odours to their fullest again. So next time you want to buy perfume, take your cup of coffee along! And for those out to shop for coffee beans, this trick works the other way around too: after a few sniffs of coffee beans you can clean your nasal palate by sniffing your very own skin.
It is known in Ethiopia, South Sudan and Indonesia, and even though an earlier introduction in the 1800s in Britain proved unsuccessful, a group of British and French scientists believe there might be a future for this drink after all: tea made from coffee leaves. Often overlooked due to the popularity of the coffee cherries, they believe coffee leaf tea to be healthier than either tea or coffee. The brew supposedly has an earthy taste, is less bitter than tea and not as strong as coffee, and it contains less caffeine than either of these two. Moreover, it contains certain compounds that lower the risk of diabetes and heart disease, and a number of chemicals with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. The researchers now hope that due to these and other health benefits this coffee leaf tea might rival with the highly popular coffee and black and green teas. Let's just wait and see, and maybe even try it, as back in 1851, when it was touted as the next tea, there were those who found it undrinkable...
There seem to be no limits as to what coffee can do. Not only can it be used to get you going in the morning, it might do the same for your car! It seems a team of engineers has been working for quite some years on coffee-geared cars. They use coffee chaff pellets, a waste product from coffee production, in a process called gasification: by adding oxygen to the coffee pellets, and heating this mix to over 700 degrees C, a fuel called syngas is formed. This consists of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane, and can be used by a normal internal combustion engine. Using this process, they set a world speed record on February 19, reaching no less than 65.5 mph. Who knows, in the future you might not just make yourself a cuppa in the morning, but also one for your car. In the mean time, you can check out the coffee car's own website to keep updated on the progress.
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AuthorI wouldn't be surprised to find out I was born with a passion for coffee. For the life of me, I can't remember not loving coffee. And by that, I don't just mean drinking it, but everything involved from its cultivation over the processing to the final product that is my loyal companion throughout the day. Archives
February 2014
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