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Coffee drinkers display a distinct pattern of brain functional connectivity

nature.com

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Re: Coffee drinkers display a distinct pattern of brain functional connectivity

#71

Post by rubidium »

thatcat wrote: post #70
havernator wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO coffee is basically three distinct drinks: 1) Really, really, really shitty coffee that just tastes like bitter and stale, always. Often lots of ash tray in the flavor. (instant, many k-cups, some exceptionally bad gas station coffee, very bad pre-ground coffee usually bought in a large tin [though not all of that!]) 2) Normal coffee. It is coffee flavored. It might taste very burnt if it's a dark roast. It might…

Fine fresh roasted coffee will say good as whole beans for at least a week or so IME, it goes bad extremely quickly after being ground though.

It stays good for a month if properly stored, then starts down. Always grind right before brewing.

The first 3-7 days after roasting its not typically at its best yet.

Re: Coffee drinkers display a distinct pattern of brain functional connectivity

#72

Post by havernator »

rubidium wrote: post #71
thatcat wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fine fresh roasted coffee will say good as whole beans for at least a week or so IME, it goes bad extremely quickly after being ground though.

It stays good for a month if properly stored, then starts down. Always grind right before brewing. The first 3-7 days after roasting its not typically at its best yet.

I don't notice much difference on the mid-grade beans until a week out, but the expensive top-end stuff is going downhill on day 4, maybe day 5. It's not ruined yet, but if you paid 50-100% more than for mid-grade beans, it's not ideal.

Re: Coffee drinkers display a distinct pattern of brain functional connectivity

#73

Post by MeinBlutIstBlau »

WalterBright wrote: post #52
porknubbins wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well covid wouldn’t be expected to increase coffee consumption so the supply was ok. As someone into baking before all this- the amount of 5lb flour sacks and tiny yeast packets for $1.50 is there only to satisfy only frivolous occasional bakers. How do I know? Because it you were serious about baking you would buy this yeast and flour for pennies on the dollar in bulk at somewhere like Costco.

I still use a bread machine bought 20 years ago. It's an engineering marvel, and what the yeast is for. But it makes me sad to see BMs dumped at the thrift store for a few dollars. BMs are perfect for no-talent, lazy, frivolous bakers like me. I also like bread that doesn't taste like cake. If I wanted cake, I'd buy cake.

How much better is homemade bread compared to hearty 12 grain bread at the store?

Re: Coffee drinkers display a distinct pattern of brain functional connectivity

#74

Post by WalterBright »

MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #73
WalterBright wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still use a bread machine bought 20 years ago. It's an engineering marvel, and what the yeast is for. But it makes me sad to see BMs dumped at the thrift store for a few dollars. BMs are perfect for no-talent, lazy, frivolous bakers like me. I also like bread that doesn't taste like cake. If I wanted cake, I'd buy cake.

How much better is homemade bread compared to hearty 12 grain bread at the store?

Nothing tastes better than bread freshly baked.

Using a bread machine is stupid simple. Dump the ingredients in, push the button, and come back in a couple hours. You don't even have to clean it (the bread falls off the non-stick surface).

Re: Coffee drinkers display a distinct pattern of brain functional connectivity

#75

Post by chii »

havernator wrote: post #69
moehm wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've not found any method to preserve it longer that actually works. Have you tried vacuum packaging and freezing it? You want to vacuum package it so no moisture is trapped with the beans.

Vacuum packer is a thing I don't have. Might work. I've heard conflicting things about freezing (I've tried it with lesser beans in Tupperware, didn't seem to make much difference either way)

unless the tupperware is completely airtight, oxygen will still leak into the container and cause oxidation. This deteriorates the bean.

The cold temperature will slow evatoration of the volatiles from the bean, but it is unstoppable.

Vaccume sealing will drastically slowdown the oxidation, but since you cannot truly get a 100% vaccume, there will still be some oxygen in the bag, which will cause oxidation anyway. It will just be a bit better than nothing.

And then unthawing the beans requires a moisture free environment (e.g, take it out of the freezer for 24hrs without unsealing it), or the beans will spoil. Once unthawed, i dont believe refreezing will work - it will just spoil it.

So yes, preserving beans' freshness is difficult, and bound to fail eventually. Might as well just pay for fresh beans, and pay for the transportation and packaging (which, i guess is the overhead, and makes buying small quantities more expensive...)

Re: Coffee drinkers display a distinct pattern of brain functional connectivity

#76

Post by chii »

StavrosK wrote: post #50
tjbiddle wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use high quality beans, keep them fresh in a sealed container aways. Grind for the appropriate brewing technique. Use an AeroPress or a French Press, use water that has been boiled and just finished dropping past the bubbling point. Let it steep, and stir. Drink it black, and get used to it.

> Drink it black, and get used to it. If you're going to end your advice with "get used to it", do you really need everything that came before?

it does take some time to learn the appreciation - like spicy foods.

Drinking it black means you taste the full flavour without the bitterness being masked by milk or sugar. But for me personally, drinking esspresso without milk is only good if the beans are excellent, and brewed to perfection by a proper barista (a level of skill i have yet to truly attain - that's why i buy my esspresso instead of making it myself).

But a milk-based coffee drink like latte or cappacino doesn't require that level of quality, and would still taste really good. So for the home, i recommend making milk drinks yourself, with medium quality fresh beans, while you buy esspresso from a trusted barista/cafe that you know is using great (single origin!) beans.

Re: Coffee drinkers display a distinct pattern of brain functional connectivity

#77

Post by chii »

lysp wrote: post #24
mensetmanusman wrote: post #5

Coffee is the best drink ever, but how do we get it to taste as good as it smells?

Best way to get flavour out of coffee is cold brew (not cold trip). Leave coarsely ground coffee in water for 12-24 hours at room temperature and then filter the beans out. Lasts for about 2 weeks in the fridge and you can have it straight, with ice, water or milk. Some coffee shops use this technique to find out the flavour of coffee prior to using it for hot coffee. As the heat denatures some of the proteins in cof…

I find cold brew doesn't bring out the body of the coffee - it's too "thin". If i grind too fine, it would be too bitter.

A "hot" brew is similar, but you get to smell the volatiles while brewing (which you lose if cold brew).

TBH, i'm not a fan of cold brew.

Re: Coffee drinkers display a distinct pattern of brain functional connectivity

#78

Post by [deleted] »

mastazi wrote: post #60
chadcmulligan wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia? Do we have good coffee?

Yes we definitely do in my experience. I was born and raised in Italy and I've lived in Australia during the last 10 years. Before coming down under, I had a job where I had to move frequently so I've experienced coffee in many other countries as well. Australia is up there with Italy in my opinion. I've also heard good things about some parts of the US but I don't have first hand experience.

[deleted]

Re: Coffee drinkers display a distinct pattern of brain functional connectivity

#79

Post by throwaway554345 »

chii wrote: post #77
lysp wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best way to get flavour out of coffee is cold brew (not cold trip). Leave coarsely ground coffee in water for 12-24 hours at room temperature and then filter the beans out. Lasts for about 2 weeks in the fridge and you can have it straight, with ice, water or milk. Some coffee shops use this technique to find out the flavour of coffee prior to using it for hot coffee. As the heat denatures some of the proteins in cof…

I find cold brew doesn't bring out the body of the coffee - it's too "thin". If i grind too fine, it would be too bitter. A "hot" brew is similar, but you get to smell the volatiles while brewing (which you lose if cold brew). TBH, i'm not a fan of cold brew.

For people who want a cold drink but still want a hot coffee’s flavor, an Iced Americano, where an espresso is brewed directly onto ice, is very close.

Re: Coffee drinkers display a distinct pattern of brain functional connectivity

#80

Post by graderjs »

ianai wrote: post #61
graderjs wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's not surprising. I think for any psychoactive compound you are going to have some profile of brain activity that's triggered by that psychoactive. And it's also the nature of brain connectivity that if you repeatedly trigger a certain pattern of activity you will reinforce the corresponding connectivity. In other words each psychoactive triggers a particular circuit and the way the brain responds to trigg…

Interestingly, they saw the same pathway patterns in non-coffee drinkers upon drinking coffee. I wonder whether the effect isn’t particularly “hardwired”, but is only constantly being re-stimulated with daily coffee consumption.

Right, but if you look at Fig 1 the center of mass are higher for NCD pos than CD, so there's a definite trend but it's not the same. What makes this stronger is that CD had no coffee for 3 hours prior to the start of the study (and because the study began with interview, and ended with MRI, and was roughly 3 hours long, CD could have been off coffee for around 6 hours).

So in CD I think the difference can only be accounted for by pathway changes, not bloodstream caffeine, meaning it is hardwired for habitual CD. But it is interesting that they see the same network traces occurring in NCD given coffee. It would be cool to see how long it took NCD pos to go back to baseline.

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