Lifelong tea drinker here.
I’m not especially keen on the taste of coffee but I love the smell. And my wife wants a collaborator in her habit!
Are there negative side-effects upon health and well-being from casual abuse of caffeine in the quantities found in a teaspoon of coffee?
Are there positive side-effects?
Am I to suppose from the above that you propose drinking instant coffee? :eek: No wonder you don’t like coffee – instant is disgusting. Even the best of them are burned-tasting and sour. Would you drink tea from instant powder?
This article concludes that tea is a little bit healthier, but coffee in normal moderation (up to four 8oz cups/day) is in no way unhealthy.
I’m in the same boat as you: drink tea as much as I can, really don’t like the taste of coffee. I say stick to what you like.
Ah, a slip - I propose to start drinking perculated coffee.
My wife has now thrown in another argument: caffeine apparently makes you lose weight and I have been out of the gym for a year now.
No, not perked coffee, I really recommend a french press. Actually for years when single I had 2 french presses, one for coffee and one for tea.
You can control the temperature of the water better, and it doesnt scorch the coffee, giving a clearer taste.
Although there is a cold steep/concentrate method where you steep the entire pound of coffee in cold water, and then thin that out with boiling water. I have had coffee made that way and it is good, but you do have to find refrigerator space for a bottle of coffee concentrate…
I suggest you make your wife produce a cite for that. It certainly didn’t help my weight any when I started drinking coffee, especially 'cause I like it adulterated. And if you develop a taste for frou-frou coffee drinks (candy in a cup), fuggitaboutit.
Coffee makes my stomach hurt and keeps me awake when I want to sleep hours later. I wouldn’t advice anyone to start drinking it.
You shouldn’t drink it if you have hypertension or the like. It can push people with heart disease into having a heart attack. Other than that there is no reason consuming caffeine should be a problem. It’s not the fact it’s coffee, it’s that anything with caffeine can do the above. Think of all the energy drinks they now sell that are loaded with caffeine.
I’m an advocate of cold-brewed coffee and don’t dilute it. I make a container of eight cups and it sits on the counter (gone in three days). We drink it iced, with milk and sugar, and it’s far superior to brewed coffee. It can also be heated in the micro if you want hot coffee, doesn’t turn bitter, and delivers full flavor, unlike hot brewed. There is another thread somewhere in Cafe Society that describes the method, which is very simple.
Someone else mentioned getting an upset stomach, but if you use milk in your coffee, it buffers the effect. Also, cold-brewed coffee seems to not have that acidic effect.
There’s really no good evidence of that, you know.
Latest findings summarized here in this 2007 review of the literature on this topic: Coffee, caffeine, and coronary heart disease
Why pick between tea & coffee? I drink both! Coffee in the early day, tea in the evening.
Here is the hierarchy of coffee quality
Tops:
Cold Brew
French Press
Mid:
Drip
Bottom:
Perk
Below Ground:
Instant
Using fresh ground coffee will improve the quality of the brew, as will using good coffee vs. cheap coffee.
I use fresh ground good coffee and Drip. I never got the hang of Cold Brew (it seemed much weaker than my normal brew, I’m not going to double or triple the amount of coffee per cup) and French Press is too much trouble for me, because I don’t have a good tea kettle. If you have a good tea kettle for boiling the water, French Press is nice. I’d avoid going Perk, if that’s an option.
I like my French press, but it is a bit messy (in my hands). Also, Cooks Illustrated magazine did a cool study of all the different methods of coffee brewing, and the simple Melitta drip method won!
I recommend using filtered water if it’s convenient. (I have a Brita water filter jug always sitting in the fridge anyway, so I use that.)
Really, I think that we should concentrate on two things here. As someone who’s trying to learn to like coffee, we want to give you advice that:
To that end, I think that you should go to an actual coffee store (not the supermarket). I would lay odds on them having one at a local mall. Pick up a reasonably high quality, but not ghastly expensive, whole coffee bean that’s not listed as “Dark Roast”. Don’t get any fancy flavors like chocolate or macademia nut to start with (you might like the actual food, but it’s not uncommon to still dislike the coffee version). Ask them to grind the beans for you on the spot.
Don’t put it in the freezer when you get home - stick it in a tupperware container or the like. When you’re ready to make the coffee, make sure that the pot is clean, and measure the ingredients out carefully. Try a sip of the black version of the finished coffee, but have half-and-half (not milk) and sugar ready to experiment with. The half-and-half will reduce bitterness and add some sweetness, while the sugar simply sweetens in addition to the bitterness, so lean more towards the former at first.
Yes! Please start drinking coffee. Also go to Starbucks and buy their best expresso machine and make sure to get Starbucks coffee, but get unground. Oh and you will need a coffee grinder also available from Starbucks. Oh shoot you might as well get good starbucks cups while you are there.
What? Why yes, I might own some stock.
Well, it is addictive. I’ve never found any other negative effects since I’ve been drinking coffee, but some people are against addiction in and of itself.
Example: During basic training we were prohibited from using tobacco or caffeine products. When we graduated after 10 weeks, the cigarette could wait but I had to have coffee immediately. In fact, I didn’t start smoking again until a few months later in AIT.
I’m not going to go out and say that coffee is more addictive than tobacco, but I smoked from the ages of 18-22, quitting for good several years ago, while I’ve been drinking coffee from about 11-12 all the way until now, at 26, with no signs of stopping. I’m sure I have less motivation to quit drinking coffee though, as there are very few, if any, negative health effects.
There has been numerous studies about benefits and drawbacks of coffee. I am unsure about the current consensus as far as health concerns.
I’ve heard coffee(and tea) stains your teeth. It is sometimes used to compensate for insufficient sleep. It seems addictive. I would advise against it.
I actually quite like instant coffee. I don’t really think of it as coffee, just as another hot drink. If I can’t be bothered to make real coffee but have had enough of tea (being British, this only tends to happen once I’m into double figures for the day), I’ll have a cup of Nescafe.
Excellent, thank you.
Lanzy:
I seem to live in one of the few cities in the world lacking a Starbucks. As a novelty I collect the city-themed cups when I travel overseas.
It is addictive and you go through withdrawal if you don’t have it when your body is used to getting it. I only have 1 cup in the morning and the occasional iced coffee during the day, except for iced tea during the day I don’t take in a lot of caffeine in other forms (like caffeinated soda) after the first cup of the day but if I don’t get that coffee I get headaches and very cranky. I also get the feeling that I just can’t function, brain doesn’t work as well without the java.
Frankly, if you don’t think you like it I don’t understand why you’d want to get yourself addicted to it. Have the occasional cup or iced coffee as a treat but stick with your tea.