In praise of Coffee

[R011]

Folger's Classic made with a $20 coffee maker from Walmart served with cream and sweetener.  Tim's or McDonald's for take out.

[TrustMe]

I recently read about how coffee is so much better if you use Evian (or other bottled water) instead of tap water. Has anyone else tried it? i've converted to it.

[bojan]

Friends swears by distilled water. I have never noticed big difference. In theory different elements in water will dissolve different things in coffee in different ways, but differences in solubility are minimal and as such as a chemical engineer I am skeptical about human taste being able to discern difference.

BTW, last year, I did not drink coffee for ~3 months. Had some headaches so doctor decided to exclude... something and said "no caffeine for 3 months". Other than being barely functional in the morning (I have low blood pressure, about 100/70 in the morning) I had no other issues. But was still glad when it was over.  

 

Edited June 12, 2024 by bojan

[Ivanhoe]

I use spring water, because:

• local tap water is approximately 85% H2O, 10% CaCO₃, and 5% chloramine, so scale deposits are massive;
• I figure the trace minerals in spring water are a bit healthier than distilled.

As for caffeine, about 2 months ago I weaned myself off of caffeine by using only decaf beans. I was a bit sluggish, but survived; until work decided to get stupid. I fell off the wagon, sadly.

[TrustMe]

I gave up energy drinks and coffee recently, for 3 days I drank nothing but water. All I got was massive headaches all day long, painkillers wouldn't work it was a nightmare.

Edited June 13, 2024 by TrustMe

[Ivanhoe]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fda-recalls-thousands-pounds-ground-150520756.html
 

Quote

 

The Food and Drug Administration this week recalled thousands of pounds of ground coffee across 15 states that it said were mislabeled as decaffeinated.

Hundreds of 12-ounce bags of Our Family Traverse City Cherry Decaf Light Roast Ground Coffee were mislabeled and sold in Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming, according to the FDA.

 

Call me a dyed-in-the-wool traditionalist, but when I drink decaf I don't want cherries to be involved, nor do I envision Traverse City, Michigan as being involved either. I want my coffee to be grown, harvested, and shipped by an enterprising Latino or African, not some hard-drinking Youper wannabee.

[Mike1158]

A simple water filter does me, prevents furring up of my kettle and nespresso machine.

[Rick]

Store bought coffee or not? Major brands or not? Generic brands or not? 

[bojan]

I get my in the local coffee chain, Ethiopia usually, but their house bland sometimes.

[DB]

House bland 😄

If that was deliberate, it was brilliant.

[sunday]

22 hours ago, bojan said:

I get my in the local coffee chain, Ethiopia usually, but their house bland sometimes.

 

38 minutes ago, DB said:

House bland 😄

If that was deliberate, it was brilliant.

Did not catch that.

My English need working.

Yes, brilliant!

[Ivanhoe]

The regional supermarket chain carries some good single-source whole beans, for example Ethiopean Yergacheffe, Peruvian, Nicaraguan, etc. But over the last month prices have gone from $7/bag to $9-10/bag. 

So moving forward I am surfing the price gaming on Amazon, going with whichever single-source whole beans are $7 or below. I have a 4 bag/month subscription set up, but it looks like Amazon is customizing prices to get customers to not pay attention to a $3-4 increase in their subscriptions. So I may just order a month's worth manually, based on whichever has the current lowest prices. 

 

[DB]

Import tariffs, perhaps.

[bojan]

1 hour ago, DB said:

House bland 😄

If that was deliberate, it was brilliant.

"What sits in the mind must slip out sometime" - I much prefer Ethiopia, since I have almost totally switched to cold brew, but GF likes that one as it is less acidic and aromatic. So yes, it is more "bland", through it is still pretty good, way better than any supermarket coffee  
 

[Mike1158]

Lidl nespresso pods, 20 for less than £3.  Thinking of switching to a bean to cup machine as getting the parts (Seals) was tough, getting the instruction?  Impossible.

[X-Files]

Want a Perfect Pot of Coffee? Experts Suggest the 'Golden Ratio.' Here's How it Works

[Ivanhoe]

https://www.popsci.com/environment/how-coffee-gets-made/

 

[Rick]

Test

[Ivanhoe]

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/world-running-out-coffee-arabica-futures-hit-new-highs-brazil-troubles-worsen

Quote

Arabica coffee futures in New York jumped nearly 4% to $4.36 a pound - a new record high - amid renewed concerns that adverse weather conditions may impact Brazilian exports. These concerns were previously highlighted in our mid-September coffee report, which warned of ongoing "weather disasters" in Brazil that could threaten global production. 

 

Quote

In a mid-August report, we cited Maja Wallengren, Danish-born independent coffee market reporter and founder of SpillingTheBean, who warned that adverse weather across key coffee-producing areas in Brazil, including the entire Cerrado Mineiro region and parts of Southern Minas, had experienced "frost damage" severe enough to be a potential "death blow" to the 2026 harvest. 

Well, this is depressing.

[Ivanhoe]

https://cornercoffeestore.com/how-long-does-instant-coffee-last/

Quote

Instant coffee has a crazy long shelf-life of up to 20 years, but for the best flavor, you’ll probably want to drink it within one to two years.

 

Quote

Checking for mold is essential so you don’t accidentally ingest mold spores, which can make you sick.

There was a cocoa bean panic, and now a coffee bean panic. They are trying to destroy our will to live. 

 

[DB]

Are speculators going to eff-up the coffee market like they did with cocoa?

[Ivanhoe]

I assume so.

[Rick]

Any reviews of coffee and chicory blend?

[Ivanhoe]

I avoid chicory like the plague. 

Back about 15 years ago, there were some semi-healthy candy bars (FiBars or something like that). 2 of the flavors were extremely good (my Gawd the Chocolate Mocha flavor tasted better than Snickers), and I couldn't help but eat two or three at a time. 

I also started having pretty painful intestinal cramps. Since the bars were the only new thing in my diet, I checked the ingredient list. The fiber in those bars was chicory root fiber. Stopped eating them, cramps went away. 

 

[Ivanhoe]

https://scitechdaily.com/doctors-astounded-long-held-belief-about-coffee-and-heart-rhythm-was-wrong/
 

Quote

 

In a surprising finding, the first randomized clinical trial revealed that drinking a cup of coffee each day reduces the risk of atrial fibrillation.

Regular coffee consumption may actually help protect against atrial fibrillation (A-Fib), a common heart rhythm problem that causes a fast, irregular heartbeat and can increase the risk of stroke or heart failure.

Although people with heart conditions such as A-Fib are often told to avoid caffeine because it might worsen symptoms, new research suggests the opposite may be true. A collaborative study conducted by the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Adelaide found that drinking one cup of caffeinated coffee per day lowered the risk of A-Fib by 39%.

 

What about 8 cups?