81–90 of 180 posts
I wonder why we don't use genetic modifications to get caffeine free coffee?
At least part of the reason coffee plants produce caffeine is as a defense mechanism from insects. If you genetically engineer out the caffeine, your effort to farm the plant just went up if you aren't also able to genetically engineer insect resistance.
I'd love if all psychoactive compounds could be removed from coffee beans. The stress response and inability to sleep I get from decaf beans is pretty much comparable to that from normal beans (and distinctly different from pure caffeine or green tea)
I quit caffeine a decade ago and am an evangelist for doing so; garbage drug. I'm very sensitive to it, and it absolutely wrecks my sleep. But I drink like five cups of black decaf every morning, which probably works out to 10-20% of the caffeine in a normal cup, and am pretty much fine. There's enough caffeine in decaf that I'd be afraid to drink it after 2PM.
I'd love if all psychoactive compounds could be removed from coffee beans. The stress response and inability to sleep I get from decaf beans is pretty much comparable to that from normal beans (and distinctly different from pure caffeine or green tea)
Interesting, either the store is selling you fake decaf, or there's really a whole bunch of other chemicals, other than caffeine, that can mess with your body. I have an unusually strong response to caffeine (a cup of coffee, strong tea, or, on a bad day, even a small glass of Coke). It doesn't really affect my heart (as far as my Apple Watch can tell), but it obliterates my sleep and makes me feel quite a bit more a…
I'm equally sensitive to alcohol. Because it's immediately absorbed into the blood, a sip of scotch will take out my antidepressant in seconds. It's shocking how quickly and how severely even a small amount of alcohol affects me. It's almost like an allergy.
I'd love if all psychoactive compounds could be removed from coffee beans. The stress response and inability to sleep I get from decaf beans is pretty much comparable to that from normal beans (and distinctly different from pure caffeine or green tea)
I had a similar problem. Coffee, decaf, even dark chocolate would be very stimulating and would mess with my sleep, even a single cup in the morning. I tried quite a few things to solve this and ended up discovering that supplementing with molybdenum solved it. Molybdenum is an essential element important in the metabolization of some compounds, including caffeine. It's cheap and may be worth trying. Also, I found th…
EDIT: It would seem that the vitamin C paper [1] concludes the opposite of what [0] states. "These results indicate that the elimination of caffeine in the elderly is not affected significantly by the concentrations of vitamin C achieved during this study."
[0] https://www.coffeeandscience.org/health/coffee-and-caffeine/caffeine-and-metabolism
[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7064899/I love decaf but the main problem is how fragile the stability of the beans are. They go bad quickly. To get the same cup of decaf coffee every day requires more work if you are grinding your own and making espresso. Still, I love them. Personally, I've found the CO2 method to have a lot more flavor than the Swiss Water. I also found the CO2 beans don't deteriorate as quickly as the Swiss Water beans.
The decaf process seems expensive so you might expect the end result to cost more, but it never does. Which means either the producers are making less profit on decaf, or they are using lower quality beans. If the latter is true, which seems more likely, that might explain why decaf sometimes tastes less good, separately from the effect of the process itself on taste.
Boutique-roasted decaf coffee beans often are more expensive. But the logic also doesn't hold: it assumes coffee is being sold at or near the cost of its material inputs, and that's certainly not true. If you have a reasonable built-in margin for your coffee --- and boutique roasters certainly do --- it can be normal and rational to price irrespective of your cost basis. Customers are brand-loyal (especially if they…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Boutique-roasted decaf coffee beans often are more expensive. But the logic also doesn't hold: it assumes coffee is being sold at or near the cost of its material inputs, and that's certainly not true. If you have a reasonable built-in margin for your coffee --- and boutique roasters certainly do --- it can be normal and rational to price irrespective of your cost basis. Customers are brand-loyal (especially if they…
GP observed that either the profit margin or the input cost is absorbing the difference, so I think the logic holds well and you are in agreement :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
GP observed that either the profit margin or the input cost is absorbing the difference, so I think the logic holds well and you are in agreement :)
Not so much? Like I said: decaf beans often are more expensive, and they believe margin hits for decaf are unlikely, which is probably not at all true unless you're talking about Starbucks.
Will an entrepreneur please make high quality (great tasting) decaf coffee ubiquitous? There's a growing anti-drug sentiment that should be a great tailwind. It's hard for me to find as good tasting a bean as it is with non-decaf. I've tried subscription services or pay huge shipping and product premium from some boutique retailer, the beans are always just ok. Decaf still doesn't get enough priority as the product i…
The decaf process seems expensive so you might expect the end result to cost more, but it never does. Which means either the producers are making less profit on decaf, or they are using lower quality beans. If the latter is true, which seems more likely, that might explain why decaf sometimes tastes less good, separately from the effect of the process itself on taste.
Boutique-roasted decaf coffee beans often are more expensive. But the logic also doesn't hold: it assumes coffee is being sold at or near the cost of its material inputs, and that's certainly not true. If you have a reasonable built-in margin for your coffee --- and boutique roasters certainly do --- it can be normal and rational to price irrespective of your cost basis. Customers are brand-loyal (especially if they…