Coffee Recipe Cooking Articles >>Caffeine -I Bet You Didn't Know This! Health and Nutrition!
by Nick A. James
What exactly is caffeine? It is a colorless, somewhat bitter substance that is found in coffee, tea, chocolate and cola. It is also in many over- the-counter medicines and in many diet/weight loss supplements. It is a stimulant and it is considered a psychoactive drug. It is the most widely consumed drug in this country. Drugmakers are required by law to list the amount of caffeine in their product, however, food and beverage companies do not have to. The caffeine that is taken out of coffee beans to produce decaffeinated coffee is then sold to drug companies and soft drink manufacturers.
It can be a welcome waker-upper in the morning taken in that morning cup of coffee. It also helps give some a boost to stay awake late in the day. However, the boost isn't necessarily instant as it takes about an hour for the effects of caffeine to make it's way through the bloodstream and into the system. It has benefits and it has side effects. It helps keep us alert. It stimulates the central nervous system. Some say it improves physical and mental performance. It has diuretic activity. Some studies list is as a mood elevator, and a pain reliever. Because of the increased alertness levels of those who consume caffeine, there has been improved performance in activities such as test-taking, driving, flying and problem solving.
There are side effects of caffeine though. Those are insomnia, nervousness, increased tension and anxiety-panic attacks, just from drinking the amount of 300 mg. The amount that causes these side effects vary from individual to individual, however, children seem to have a lower tolerance of it because of their lower body weight. The Food and Drug Administration advises pregnant women to avoid it altogether. The FDA does list it as a "safe food additive", even though pregnant women should avoid it. For those that take it regularly every day, going without it a day can cause withdrawal symptoms such as, headaches, irritability, a lack of energy and of course, sleepiness. These withdrawal symptoms are short lived though.
The following is a chart and the amount of caffeine in products you use and consume daily.
6 ounce cup of coffee - 64mg to 150mg
5 ounce cup of tea- 40mg
12 ounce can of cola- 40mg
hot cocoa - 1 cup 4mg
6 ounce chocolate bar 25mg
2 Excedrin tablets 130mg
Besides weight loss products and stay awake products and energy drinks, caffeine is being tested for pesticide use and it has been laced in women's panty hose for it's constrictive effects that are supposed to shrink thighs. Love it or hate it, caffeine is and always has been a big part of American culture and probably is here to stay.
Coffee and Health
by Iulia Pascanu
Coffee and health used to be a controversed theme in the seventies. Nowadays, moderate coffee consumption is rather exonerated from its supposed negative long term effects upon health.
My mother used to be one of those persons who teaches her offspring, in its early ages, that coffee is not bad. It is bad bad bad! In consequence, I managed to keep away from coffee. At least untill the difficult age of 10, when, as I remember, I was permitted to join mother and neighbour-friends at the coffee-tattle table.
That was the moment I started to exercise my taste buds on coffee. In those days, I remember developping a partiality for coffee with milk. Or should I say milk with coffee... However, I know now that the coffee I was drinking back then w 
Coffee and Health
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Coffee Roasting De-mystified
by Andy White
How many different names have you run across for different types of coffee roasts? Light, Medium, Dark? Espresso? Continental? Vienna, French, Italian, Spanish? City? Full-City? C'mon, who's thinking up these things?
Well, the dark secret (pardon the pun) of the coffee industry is that, well, there really isn't full agreement on which roast is which. So basically, we all pretty much get to hunt around, try different coffees from different sources and pick the one(s) we like. In this article, I'll try to use the standard nomenclature, and map it to the color and texture anyone can judge for himself.
The roasting adventure begins with green coffee beans. These are stored at room temperatures, at 12-15% moisture content. Roasting is done at tem Coffee Roasting De-mystified
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Specialty Gourmet Coffee
by Gary Gresham
Specialty gourmet coffee is a very hot commodity in today's market. The consumption of gourmet coffee has steadily grown with consumers enjoying the more sophisticated tastes of gourmet coffee beans.
Specialty gourmet coffee, sometimes called premium coffee, is exceptional coffee beans grown only in ideal coffee-producing climates. These coffee beans have unique characteristics because of the soil they grow in which produce very distinctive flavors.
Gourmet coffee has a more balanced flavor and richer taste than the standard mass-produced coffee. Gourmet coffee beans go through a rigorous process of certification that is stricter to help keep the quality high.
In the 1974 issue of the "Tea & Coffee Trade Journal", Erna Knutsen fi Specialty Gourmet Coffee
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