On my desktop, approx. 1/5th of the screen is taken up by a giant top banner for American Scientist, and two paragraphs don't fit on the page. Why do people design websites like this?
The Rise of Coffee
21–30 of 52 posts
Re: The Rise of Coffee
#22Any basic budget advice says to cut starbucks out of your life and make your $5 latte at home, but why stop there? Caffeine pills work out to $0.05/cup-equivalent, aren't going to make you take bathroom trips, aren't going to give you bad breath, and aren't going to stain your teeth. I usually keep a few in my pocket in case I get randomly drowsy in a meeting or if I'm driving far. I haven't looked back, and I used t…
I drink coffee for the taste, not the buzz!
So decaf then?
Re: The Rise of Coffee
#23Coffee (and tea) have some antimicrobial action. They made it safer to drink the water, and did not have the disadvantages of the other alternative, alcoholic drinks.
They do have some antimicrobial effects, but the "made it safe to drink water because nobody in the world could find clean drinking water until the 19th century" idea is a myth. Mainly people drank different things for different purposes. Water was clarifying, ale, whisky and tea were fortifying (beer was basically a source of calories), wine got you closer to the gods, coffee basically got you high / was an energy drink. Tea was the most popular socially-stimulating drink until coffee supplanted it (and in Muslim nations you couldn't drink alcohol)
Re: The Rise of Coffee
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
This probably affects people differently. I know people who can have coffee and fall asleep immediately afterwards, and have little to none urinary symptoms at all; and other people who’ll not sleep and / or need to pee frequently.
Personally, I find tea to be a much stronger diuretic. Even herbal tea (zero caffeine). Coffee used to cause diuretic symptoms, until I reached the point where I drank it every day. I drink tea most days now, but the diuretic effects never subsided. /rant. Bodies are weird.
Note that herbal tea also has zero tea in it usually and so shouldn't be lumped in with tea either.
Perhaps your symptoms are psychosomatic?
Re: The Rise of Coffee
#25Any basic budget advice says to cut starbucks out of your life and make your $5 latte at home, but why stop there? Caffeine pills work out to $0.05/cup-equivalent, aren't going to make you take bathroom trips, aren't going to give you bad breath, and aren't going to stain your teeth. I usually keep a few in my pocket in case I get randomly drowsy in a meeting or if I'm driving far. I haven't looked back, and I used t…
Caffeine pills also release the caffeine in a different way.
I too was a student and I too tried to min/max. I found that caffeine via coffee hit me harder and wore off quicker. A pill was this slow drip effect that left me absolutely screwed for bedtime if I had it any time past 1pm.
Anecdotal but my conclusion is: they're not the same.
Re: The Rise of Coffee
#26The huge variety of unique flavors in coffee from different origins is quite amazing and even now just beginning to be explored. You can now create specific flavors in real time by roasting, grinding and brewing every cup robotically with advanced algorithms at www.sevacoffee.com
Re: The Rise of Coffee
#27Coffee (and tea) have some antimicrobial action. They made it safer to drink the water, and did not have the disadvantages of the other alternative, alcoholic drinks.
That’s because you have to boil the water.
Various compounds, including caffeine, that are present in coffee beans have antimicrobial properties. Additional Maillard reaction products that have antimicrobial properties are created by roasting. Coffee is also pretty acidic - IIRC, dorm cafeteria coffee turned chem lab blue litmus paper a pretty red.
Re: The Rise of Coffee
#28Any basic budget advice says to cut starbucks out of your life and make your $5 latte at home, but why stop there? Caffeine pills work out to $0.05/cup-equivalent, aren't going to make you take bathroom trips, aren't going to give you bad breath, and aren't going to stain your teeth. I usually keep a few in my pocket in case I get randomly drowsy in a meeting or if I'm driving far. I haven't looked back, and I used t…
> Any basic budget advice says to cut starbucks out of your life and make your $5 latte at home
Unless you go to not only for the coffee (social/working space/etc.).
> Caffeine pills work out to $0.05/cup-equivalent
Doesn't replicate the taste or all of the potential health benefits of coffee[0]
[0] https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/what-is-it-ab...
Edit: For purely budget reasons, the parent comment's points are valid.
Re: The Rise of Coffee
#29The huge variety of unique flavors in coffee from different origins is quite amazing and even now just beginning to be explored. You can now create specific flavors in real time by roasting, grinding and brewing every cup robotically with advanced algorithms at www.sevacoffee.com
That machine is very interesting! If you own one of them, would you mind sharing how roast chamber works? I've thought a bit about how that could be done in a fully-automated fashion, but I'm curious to see what solution they came up with.
Re: The Rise of Coffee
#30Any basic budget advice says to cut starbucks out of your life and make your $5 latte at home, but why stop there? Caffeine pills work out to $0.05/cup-equivalent, aren't going to make you take bathroom trips, aren't going to give you bad breath, and aren't going to stain your teeth. I usually keep a few in my pocket in case I get randomly drowsy in a meeting or if I'm driving far. I haven't looked back, and I used t…
> and roast my beans I'm confused. If you were at a level where you were roasting your own beans, I would think that was because you enjoyed the taste of coffee. You enjoyed it so much that you went out of your way to track down non-roasted beans and roast them yourself. This is not an act of cheapness, this is a labor of love. And you decided, "Nah, I just want caffeine. This bean juice is for suckers"? As a coffee…
Because the side effects I was experiencing made it unpleasant. I would have to use the restroom a half hour, like clockwork, after consumption. My teeth were becoming stained, and they've been repaired in the past and the bonding material no longer matched the actual tooth. I got sick of having coffee breath. My financial side of this addiction was smaller than it would have been at retail, but it was still something and making coffee does take time out of the limited day as well.
I really do like the taste, and I still do get an occasional cup about 1-3 times a month from a cafe, but it wasn't great for my body otherwise. I like the taste of cigars and booze, too, and they have obvious cons that preclude regular consumption. Coffee has cons for me too, even if I enjoyed it, so I just cut out my functional consumption for the sake of being alert and replaced it with a pure source that lacked these side effects.