Tuesday 2 October 2007

Coffee

I think I drink a lot more coffee than the average person, usually 10-20 cups a day!! My excuse being a medical condition, as I tend to fall asleep all the time if I don't have my Caffeine fix, and I don't like Red Bull or taking Pro-Plus tablets.
But mainly because I really like Coffee.
But despite a coffee addict I have a huge gap in my knowledge, as I don't have a clue what goes into those poncey coffee's they sell in most high streets, I haven't a clue what a Skinny Latte or a Mocha Capucino is? the thought of spending 4 quid on a cuppa seems alien to me, when a whole jar of Nescafe costs less.
I suppose it goes back to ordering a coffee after a meal in a semi-posh restaraunt once, I can't remember exactly what type it was, but I was expecting a big mug of strong coffee with a flavour to die for. Instead I was presented with a cup from a kids tea set with less than a mouthfull of what tasted like Happy shopper instant.
Decided to read up on what makes these strangely named cuppas and came across this explanation "Espresso, while apparently a simple drink, is in reality a complex product. It is derived from 1500 chemical substances (800 volatile and 700 soluble), and when prepared correctly involves 13 independent chemical and physical variables", Sounds more like a recipe for a bomb than a drink?
So basically there's coffee and milk coffee just made hotter than you would at home.
Remember reading years ago that if you put boiling water on coffee it released Carcinogens which cause Cancer, whereas it was safe if the water was "off the boil" about 80°C, so surely these steam heated coffee's aren't safe?
Another interesting side issue found "there are 10 milligrams (mg) of known carcinogens in a single cup of coffee. To put that into perspective, 10 mg is probably more than all the synthetic pesticide residues you could get from eating non-organic food for an entire year. In one cup".
Another reason not to pay a fortune for Organic food, personally the thought that it's grown in various animals poo and sometimes comes complete with bugs is enough to put me off it.

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