back to article Drinking coffee offers no real benefit, say eggheads

Deluded academics in the UK and Germany have produced "research" purporting to show that coffee drinkers receive no tangible benefit from their morning cup of beautiful, life-giving beany caffeine goodness. The foolishness was presided over by Peter Rogers of Bristol Uni's experimental psycho department. He and his allied …

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  1. EddieD
    Stop

    Who bloody cares?

    Fresh ground coffee tastes nice. Decaff coffee(and tea) tastes wrong. Drinking something that tastes nice in the morning is better than drinking something that tastes wrong, and puts me in a better mood. If they can make a decaff that tastes as good as Blue Mountain, or Kona, or even Lavazza, I'll give it a whirl. Until that day my Bialetti will be serving unnecessary and ineffective stimulants.

    Now, as for "alchohol-free beer" let me tell you.....

    1. Jim Coleman
      FAIL

      Blue Mountain?

      Blue Mountain? Seriously? Isn't that......instant?

      Sorry but anyone who drinks instant and claims any kind of authority on "taste" deserves to be slapped with a wet herring.

      Any coffee lover knows the only way to drink coffee is to buy beans, keep 'em in the freezer, grind them on demand and use a proper pressurized espresso maker. Anything less is bleurgh. Instant doesn't even qualify to be called "coffee".

      I wonder if you eat instant mash and have Angel Delight for dessert?

      1. Shinobi87

        are you joking

        Angel Delight is quality

      2. IanPotter
        FAIL

        Re: Blue Mountain

        "Blue Mountain? Seriously? Isn't that......instant?"

        I suspect he means Jamaican Blue Mountain beans which retail at about £10 per 100g. Massively overpriced if you ask me but each to their own.

        1. Will Leamon

          Really dude?

          Blue Mountain here I believe is referring to Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee which comes in bean form and is considered some of the finest in the world by a lot of people. Personally I think it's the scarcity equals value thing but I digress.

          FROZEN BEANS. GTFO with that. Cool, dry, drak and preferably vacuum sealed.

          Pressurized? God help you if that means a steam driven machine! Trust me you will burn in hell (much like your coffee) if that's what you recommend.

        2. Pete 2 Silver badge

          But is it real?

          The price of Blue Mountain makes it the most faked coffee in the world. I've read estimates that up to three quarters of the stuff purporting to be BM is not. But since it's so scarce and so few people have drunk the real thing, most people would not be in a position to tell the difference.

          Still, at least it hasn't been crapped out by cats

          1. Will Leamon

            Blue Mountain Fakery

            Is mostly the result of blends. Say 1 Tablespoon of the good stuff mixed with 1 lb of crap and you have Blue Mountain Delicious Blend.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            nothing wrong with

            coffee picked out of cat crap, it's not half bad, if overpriced.

            plus you get the feeling of smug satisfaction in knowing that someone has had to root around in crap to provide you with your morning drink

      3. Dom 1

        Blue Mountain

        Is actually a coffee from Jamaica. It is incredibly expensive, costing up to (and over) £100 per kilo.

        It is also regarded as one (if not the) best coffees in the world. You should try some, before getting out the wet herring!

      4. vic 4

        @Jim - Blue Mountain

        Blue Mountain coffee is coffee that is grown in the blue mountains in Jamaica. I don't doubt there is an instant coffee with that in the name but you can also buy beans anywhere. BTW, it is considered by many to be the bets coffee and is certainly one of the most expensive.

      5. technome
        FAIL

        Blue Mountain? Instant?...

        Seriously?...

        You are obviously no coffee lover!

      6. John H Woods Silver badge
        Happy

        blue != red

        ... but it wasn't me who downvoted you

    2. TeeCee Gold badge

      Meh!

      Not bothered about coffee, never have been. Decent tea however.....

      I do drink coffee, loads of it. The only reason for this is that most offices will provide something that tastes fairly coffee-like and while I can tell the difference between decent coffee and crap, I'm not too bothered as I don't actually like it anyway.

      Office tea on the other hand tastes like someone's boiled up the contents of the nearest hoover bag and pissed in the end result to add colour.

    3. EddieD

      I did mean the Jamaican stuff

      I'll agree it's massively overpriced, but I think that applies to most luxury brands - whether it's coffee, whisky, cars, whatever.

      I just like it - probably there's a small section of my brain that says "after shelling out that much, you're going to like it, whether you like it or not!"

      All the best.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Hmm.

    Scorn and derision for actual science? That's a bit lame, Reg'. Your reporting is also a bit patchy, as I believe that the research shows that it does have benefits: But only for those who use it when they need it, and aren't already addicted and using it constantly.

    I'm a coffee addict, and I'm certainly not more awake and alert than my non-addicted co-workers and friends. And when deprived of coffee, I'm a darn sight worse: My weekends devolve into dozing and massive withdrawal headaches if I forget to have three or four cups before midday.

    It's a dependency. It doesn't help me out-perform everyone else; it just helps dredge my performance up to normal levels again. Which is exactly what this and other studies have shown.

    1. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: Hmm.

      Lewis doesn't have a coffee problem. He can quit whenever he feels like it.

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge
      Coffee/keyboard

      Fuck me but you're dull

      Lewis' article is not derisive simply nicely ironic. But you obviously don't appreciate the difference.

      @Lewis lovely stuff. But what's that big word in the article? Is it another attempt by so-called scientists to bamboozle us with jargon while they are lying through their climate-changing and presumably pearly white teeth?

      1. frank ly
        Headmaster

        @Charlie Clark

        I'm not sure if the article is in fact ironic. It is certainly comic, as Lewis often is. In this article he seems to employ classical techniques of irony but for some reason, it doesn't strike me as being 'ironic'. I'll get another cafetiere brewed mug of Cost-Rican down my throat and try reading it again.

        1. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

          Re: @Charlie Clark

          You lot are all so sharp.

          1. Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
            Coat

            @Sarah

            It's the effects of the caffeine dont-you-know?

          2. frank ly
            Unhappy

            Not sharp enough...

            Yes, but I mis-spelled 'Costa-Rican', in a post with a pedant icon. Now that IS ironic.

            1. Charlie Clark Silver badge
              Joke

              ahem

              Would that be "iconically ironic"?

              God, I'm so sharp I'd cut myself if I could get out of this straitjacket! That would make a good icon for funny puckers like me!

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Paris Hilton

                Charlie: What would make a good icon for...

                puny fuckers?

                Time for my second, and last, cup of the day. While I love coffee, really love the stuff, I get all shouty if I drink more than two cups. Sad but true.

                1. Naughtyhorse
                  Thumb Up

                  2 cups.. shouty??

                  I never noticed the caffene lift, and reckoned it was all bollocks, being a 20 cup a day man since i was knee high to a plectrum.

                  then I got me one of them there esspresso machines...

                  Still kepy my old 'fat bastard' size mug.

                  drining 4 or 5 pints or esspresso a day for a week dont half impinge on your perception of the world!

                  also makes ones teeth itch

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Not sharp enough...

              Ironic, maybe. But is it iconic?

        2. Charlie Clark Silver badge
          Paris Hilton

          Fired up

          Certainly a good idea to dose the neurons with stimulants before approaching keyboard.

          The irony is in the mock outrage on the scientific value of the report which so angered our HYS friend. It's a sort of post-modern, Ben Eltonish irony but, as it still puts interpretation at a distance to experience, it is still irony. The more traditional irony is the lampooning of the science rather than the questionable value of this supposedly new investigation into established fact - the body develops tolerance to stimulants.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Lol @ life-giving beany caffeine goodness

    Much as I hate pointless studies I actually agree with this one. You only get any benefit from caffeine if you drink it very rarely. Try not consuming caffeine for a few weeks to completely detox from it and then have a nice triple espresso, it leaves you bouncing off the walls. Just like a first cigarette leaves you dizzy and feeling queasy but your body soon gets used to it.

    Not that it'll stop me from drinking coffee.....

  4. Bassey

    Actually rings true

    A colleague is a real caffeine junky - drinks red bull* and Irn Bru* like it's going out of fashion. One Saturday, after a heavy Friday night, he got through four cans of Red Bull in just a couple of hours and scared the shit out of himself. The shakes carried on most of the day.

    So, he cut it out. Within three or four days he said he genuinely felt fantastic - even in the mornings. And he is most definitely NOT a morning person!

    Of course, as I look across now, he's got a can of Red Bull on the go.

    * Other caffeine based drinks are available.

    1. lpopman
      Boffin

      titular doohickey

      It sounds like your colleague was getting off on that other active ingredient in Red Bull, namely Taurine. Studies have shown that it can have psychoactive effects see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurine for a brief mention.

      as a side note, I once drank a whole case of 24 Red Bull in the space of a couple of hours, and was tripping my box off.

  5. serviceWithASmile
    Heart

    this article is why

    i love the register

    keep up the good work :D

    and damn those truth-deniers

    1. paulf
      Heart

      The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

      Agreed - excellent article. I noticed only a small touch of editorial bias.

      "their morning cup of beautiful, life-giving beany caffeine goodness."

      and

      "The foolishness was presided over by Peter Rogers of Bristol Uni's experimental psycho department. He and his allied truth-deniers wrote:"

      Psycho dept? Superb!!

      Off for my next cup of beany goodness, although I might cook them, then grind them into powder first before infusing with boiling water. Actually - if they're a powder form, cut out the middle man, ahem <sniff> <sniff>?

  6. Rob
    Go

    Which one is a Placebo

    According to this research then coffee is an extremely good placebo that appears to have an effect even if it is psychosomatic.

    1. HighlightAll
      Boffin

      I prefer to think of it

      as charismatic like Real Ale. People look cooler drinking coffee than they do snorting white stuff.

      1. Rob

        I agree...

        ... Not quite as many flavours as the Real Ale world though.

        I couldn't drink as much Ale as I do coffee in the morning and still be conscious either.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Stop this dangerous stuff

    So they're saying that the desire to drink coffee is merely a self sustaining reaction to the lack of coffee. Sounds like a classic addiction scenario.

    If the government get to hear of this, coffee will be banned as a Class A drug before you know it.

    1. Disco-Legend-Zeke
      IT Angle

      ISTR...

      ...when coffee was first introduced to Europe there were many attempts to ban it. Much of the government's fear of coffee was more about the (subservisive) conversations in the coffee houses than the drug itself.

      Today, my coffee connection ships me 2 pounds every month, still hot from the roaster when packed.

      Tip: Always buy whole beans and grind just before brewing.

      Without coffee, there would BE no IT. (we need a coffee icon)

    2. lglethal Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      No Coffee is safe...

      Coffee is safe - its already a taxed drug. Its only untaxed drugs which are bad,/naughty/wont someone think of the children types of evil...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I call bollocks.

    Coffee emits a smell that makes me forget how painful it is being awake.

  9. Matt Newton
    Coffee/keyboard

    What a pointless piece of research

    I am addicted to caffine. I am well aware that I have a high tollerance to it and that I don't "out perform" others. No shit. Caffine is an addictive substance.

    I'm on cup number 4 already today. It's 11am and I'm tired :D

  10. Chris Harden

    Blasphemous!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g

    Burn Them!

  11. Reading Your E-mail
    FAIL

    Two things....

    1) So those people that get tachycardia from drinking too much caffeine are imagining things, as are heart monitors attached to said persons?!?!

    2) I thought academia was facing budget cuts, surely this sort of time wasting would be a great one for the chop, as who really needs a Dept of pointless research anyway?

  12. nichomach
    Joke

    Decaf chugging...

    ...muesli-munching yoghurt-knitting freaks.

  13. lee stone

    legalise ALL drugs

    so caffeine is addictive like most other drugs, then? wow - who'd have known?

    yet another argument for legalising and taxing them ALL ....

  14. Stanislav
    Stop

    ... and therein lies the problem

    "The team asked 379 adults ... to give up caffeine for 16 hours"

    ... which naturally gave the non-bean-lievers an advantage right from the start.

    We who are wise in the ways of espresso are well acquainted with its life-enhancing properties. However, we also accept that they come at a price: the constant need for a refill. Laying off for 16 hours is just not playing fair.

  15. breakfast Silver badge
    Stop

    Well,

    That's the last time I buy the new-romantic-cyclist-farmer-ecologist journal.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Coffee is mud

    and it's high time it was outlawed, especially amongst the schoolchildren I see clutching a Starbucks cup in the morning

  17. Bunglebear
    Linux

    Sweeeeeet caffeine

    Reading Your Email, the stimulant effects (and its effect on heart rate) of coffee and caffeine were not disputed, its whether this increases "alertness", whatever that means.

    As far as I'm concerned, decaffeinated coffee is like non-adhesive glue. Bean me!

    1. archengel46
      Pint

      Did you mean...

      Bean me Up, Coffee! (Rhymes with Scotty you see?)

      I think alcohol picks me up further than coffee does.

  18. Tom 7

    Coffee Fanbois?

    Never could understand the obsession with drinking burned baked beans - I've been praised on the outstanding quality of a drink I made from just that and passed off as Blue Mountain!

    iCoffee - all marketing and customer loyalty?

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Title-Shmitle

    "...the revivifying morning cup offers no more than a return to normal performance..."

    So drinking coffee does help. I'd rather perform normally than not.

  20. Philip Nicholls Silver badge

    7 am -ish

    Has there been any research about what else could possibly make me want to get out of bed in the morning?

    Forget it. I already know the answer.

  21. gabor1
    Coffee/keyboard

    one small problem

    Um... individual differences (whether genetic or environmental) are all the rage these days. I wouldn't be surprised if the largest bias in the study arises at the recruitment stage. It might not be random who becomes a coffee drinker and who doesn't. Individual differences in alertness during the diurnal cycle are well known (cf. late owls and early-birds). It is only on top of this that the physiological addiction effects happen.

    Now, can those of you who actually bothered to read the study enlighten the rest of us on this point? Ta.

  22. @marklkelly
    WTF?

    Absolute gibberish.

    Tell 'em to join me for my morning cup of freshly ground, black gold. I guarantee they'll be bouncing off the walls, not more than 30 mins later..

  23. Seareach

    Slurp

    "Coffee is good for relieving coffee withdrawal symptoms." ... ??? ... Get out of town!

    Thank you for exposing these mad scientists.

    Coffee lowers your risk of diabetes, Parkinson's disease, cavities and colon cancer. Facts.

    The best coffee on the high street is a Costa double espresso with hot milk on the side. Fact.

  24. Richard 125

    Coffee? Ha! For that alert morning feeling nothing beats...

    ...a 50/50 mix of Red Bull* and Lucozade.

    It doesn't just "give you wings". The combination of caffeine and sugars really picks you up... and throws you across the room.

    * Or other stimulation drinks like Relentless or Red Rooster, etc.

    1. skellious
      Alien

      hmm...

      Ever notice how all these drinks start with "Re"? REd Bull, REd Rooster, RElentless...

      It's a conspiracy I tells ya!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Not so

        Monster Energy, Jolt Cola, Mountain Dew, Rocket Fuel (now gone I believe), Powerthirst, Cocaine, Pussy, etc, etc, etc.

  25. Captain Hogwash

    Blue Mountain

    To Jim Coleman: You are thinking of Red Mountain. Google both and see the difference.

    To everyone else: O, Love-bourne ecstasy that is Mrs. Miggins, wilt thou bring me but one cup of the browned juicings of that naughty bean we call 'coffee', ere I die...

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Coffee/keyboard

    Hmm..

    People have different sensitivities to caffeine;

    I drink around 5-6 cups of Clipper Organic Arabica coffee every day. I've noticed that it does help on a morning but has no significant impact during the day. Often tired by home time. I *do* notice a big difference if I have a cup of ground M&S/Costa/Cafe Nero (not Starbucks - which I think is poor coffee as is Nescafe and most other freeze dried instant coffees). With those coffees I notice a definite increase in heart speed and alertness. I don't drink as much on a weekend and have a coffee comedown which can be bad. I once had a week off coffee and noticed less headaches etc so it does have some physiological impact.

    My friend can't drink coffee. He once drank a can of Coke and was left wired for 2 days (unable to sleep). He now avoids all caffeine.

  27. Psymon
    Thumb Up

    @gabor1

    I think you might be onto something there.

    variations in peoples diurnal cycle can certainly cause problems when attempting to work around an artificially induced sleep cycle.

    I've done shift work aplenty in my time. While I've known some to have no problems with swing-shifts, I certainly didn't adjust well to going to bed while the sun's blazing outside.

    without resorting to prescriptions I found a few beers in my artificial evening would help send me off, while a couple of brews in the 'morning' would perk me up.

    While shift work is an extreme example, I can say that I've always been a bit of a night owl, whereas my sister struggles to stay up past 8pm.

    Alas, tolerance buildup quickly becomes a problem.

    1. skellious
      Pint

      shift work

      Having worked variously 5am start, 10pm start and others inbetween this week I can conclude I am able to sleep and wake up at a variety of times with little problem, my only issue is how messed up and meaningless traditional "meal times" become. When you have "breakfast" variously when the sun is high in the sky or on the other side of the planet, it can really mess you up.

  28. Lee Dowling Silver badge
    Stop

    Coffee

    Am I the only one who doesn't actually like the stuff anyway? I mean... it's sharp, bitter and pungent. Anything coffee-flavoured is normally disgusting anyway (and always the last chocolate left in the bottom / the last Revel left in the bag) and coffee itself is just stronger-flavoured than that (seeing as most "coffee-flavour" is actually coffee, unlike other flavours).

    And, yes, I am living with an Italian who insists on drinking a ridiculously tiny cup of highly-concentrated, coffee-smelling mud every morning (made in a little espresso kettle that steams water through tightly-packed coffee grounds - the "proper" ones are normally put on the hob, but she also has an electric one that looks identical).

    And for some reason I'm always the odd-one-out in the IT department because everyone else seems to live on it. You know what? My coding doesn't need the distraction of strong-smelling, staining, spillable, drinks used purely to prop addicts back up to their "normal" state after 5-10 mins of "brewing" the damn stuff. I'm much happier with a Coke (diet, sugar-free, extra-sugar, I care not), Fanta, or just water - at least it *tastes* vaguely pleasant, not like I've licked the bottom of a lid of a very hot jar of marmite.

    I've worked in IT departments where everyone else is dependent on the stuff and in those circumstances you consume a lot of it yourself (otherwise they JUST KEEP ASKING and that's more destructive to your computing than just having a cup of coffee put beside you and you ignoring it). At no point did I actually feel any desire to actually drink the stuff myself, worked there for about a year drinking several cups a day because people kept making them for me and I never once decided to make one for myself (I never even made myself one when it was my turn on the "coffee-making rota"). Stopped working there, still didn't see the need to have one. In fact, I don't think I've had one since and that was 3-4 years ago now.

    It tastes horrible. Stop drinking that crap. At least drink something that *tastes* nice if it's going to be damaging / addictive to you. To quote Crocodile Dundee - "Well, you can live on it, but it tastes like sh**".

    1. A. Coatsworth Silver badge

      Re: Coffee

      I think the problem is the awful oil by-products that are sold as "coffee" over there...

      I have always known that coffee doesn't have any real effect (at least on me) but it doesn't stop me from drinking a nice freshly brewed cup whenever I have the time (maybe 2, 3 a day). Why? because the coffee you can get over here, in a certain Latin American country, is absolutely delicious.

      There are different brands, with different roasts and ground process, and trying them is not too far from comparing different wines or beers.

      Instant coffee, on the other hand, is an insult and its creators should be processed as criminals against humanity

    2. Peter Gathercole Silver badge

      This from someone who drinks Diet Coke!

      'Nuff said.

  29. JDX Gold badge
    Flame

    The article's tone...

    Was it parodying talk of 'climate change deniers', a phrase which the media seems to have started using to put those who aren't convinced of man-made global warming in the same public standing as holocaust-deniers?

    Or was it just me?

  30. Keris
    IT Angle

    Self-selection in the survey

    Of course there is bias in the survey. I, for one, wouldn't take part in it because I intensely dislike the stuff (I don't like the taste or the smell, and yes I have tried Blue Mountain, some American friends were convinced that it was just that I hadn't had "good coffee").

    I generally avoid caffeine, apart from a an occasional mug of Yorkshire tea in the morning with breakfast and occasionally if I actually need the boost. So I do feel the 'kick' from it. But I have a lot of friends who really are "no use until the second (or more) cup of coffee" in the morning, and who don't notice an additional one because their systems are already sodden with the stuff.

  31. Will Leamon

    Dear Lewis

    Is the tone of your article perhaps the result of knowing (like I suspect) that there is a war on pleasure coming? That forces who do not understand the value of doing something merely for it's own pleasurable result (whatever that may be) are gathering and wish to use science as there weapon? I believe you do.

    First they came for my smokes, then my coffee, when they came for my Rock n Roll no one was left to defend it.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    (untitled)

    Ah but what of the decaf-glugging weirdoes who got lovely, brain- and wit-enhancing delicious caffeine ?

    I know that a mug of Java can work wonders; it was especially evident the time I was feeling tired on the motorway, pulled in at the services, had a large mug of overpriced coffee and was so alert I almost buzzed over the last half of the journey.

    The secret is probably to have more than your usual dose.

    Oh and my commiserations to those who don't like it. One more of life's pleasures denied you.

    1. John H Woods Silver badge

      That happened to me ...

      ... I soon snapped awake when they told me the price ... barely needed to drink the coffee itself

  33. Brian Miller
    Go

    Roast your own, it tastes much better

    I roast my own coffee, and the taste is far above the Starbucks swill. Seriously, the coffee that you get commercially has been stale for quite some time. Coffee goes stale after two weeks, and by the time you get it, the coffee was roasted months ago. If you can use a popcorn popper, you can use a home coffee roaster.

  34. Munchausen's proxy
    Pirate

    I can do no better than to give you

    "Caffeine makes my neurons twinkle." - Bonnie McCafferty, in an editorial piece in the Chicago Tribune several years ago.

  35. Ammaross Danan
    Go

    Title

    I dislike the smell/taste of coffee myself, but I think the "tests" they conducted must have been some form of rubbish. I more fancy a dose of caffeine with some form of herbal coctail that (traditionally/arguably) preports to enhance mental function (I phrase it this way to not name any particular product). With this, I definately must admit it works very well. I went on the stuff during school years of early-morning classes (I'm a night owl), and not only did I not feel narcoleptic, I found myself able to think through programming tasks and such better. Of course, even now, having it in the morning still works beautifully, so perhaps I'm just "returning to normal" with the added herbal benefit...but I think the increased heart-rate/blood pressure helps with the drowsiness.

    To each their own. You can offer me a cup of swill, but I will not drink, for I have better (for me).

  36. Tom Maddox Silver badge
    Pint

    Not quite

    I gave up caffeine cold turkey some years ago, and, two weeks later, when the sharp stabbing pains in my head finally stopped recurring, I counted myself completely weaned. Some time later, I became addicted again because I found that my body clock wanted a nap in the mid-afternoon, a habit which is typically frowned upon by the humorless, suit-wearing Powers That Be, so I started drinking caffeine again to get through those dips in my circadian rhythms. A one-off test like that cited in the study fails to address how coffee gets people through the work day by allowing them to overcome the compulsion to slip into blessed unconsciousness and leave behind the hideous tedium of their quotidien lives.

  37. skeptical i

    In defense of instant coffee.

    instant_coffee != real_coffee; # Never is, never was, and I doubt very much it ever will be.

    It is a brown caffeinated (60 mg/ cup -ish) beverage that is vaguely coffee flavored, and by those criteria it is not too shabby (especially for those of us who live on iced coffee in the summer, refilling our insulated half- gallon "gargantu- gulp" mugs throughout the day). Comparing it to a cup of fresh roasted, fresh brewed quality coffee (damn, now I want some!) is not entirely fair.

  38. Doug Glass
    Go

    Skxawngs

    Most likely the reserachers and their subjects are drinking swill such as Maxwell House because their too cheap to buy the quality stuff like Kona, Panama, Guatamalan or Jamaica Blue Maoutain.

    Cheap shoes will hurt you feet and crap coffee will always be just brewed rotgut.

  39. irrelevant
    Happy

    drat

    I suspect I'm a caffeine addict - I must drink at least ten cups of coffee a day, but usually it's just a better quality instant due to lack time, although sometimes I fire up the filter machine and it's definitely a more intense experience, although it takes me some time to get through a packet of ground coffee - Now I've read the other comments, I really should investigate self-roasting; just do a bit at a time as I need it.

    1. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: drat

      Of course you're a caffeine addict, you goon. I know I am, and I only drink two or three cups of tea a day - if I go for a day without that I'll feel tired and headachey. I can't imagine what would happen to you if you tried going cold turkey from your ten cups. Have some green tea and a nice walk for chrissakes.

      Incidentally I think Red Bull has settled into its role as methadone to coffee's heroin - so many people seem to think it doesn't really count. And I used to drink it with vodka at university. Happy days.

      1. Thecowking

        It's not like green tea is caffeine free

        I mean some of the ones I brew really will pick you up in the mornings.

        I don't drink coffee, but I do have a caffeine addiction just fine without it.

  40. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Coffee(caffeine) can be habit forming

    Hi, Coca Cola used to have a small amount of cocaine in it until it became illegal, caffeine was added then. My dad used to drink coffee and hot a headache if he missed it. He warned never to make it a habit but to use it only if tired or sleepy when you had to be awake and alert. Studies have shown it does affect the brain and creat a dependancy. But its mild compared to other drugs. I have noticed this if I drink it often, so only drink it if I haven't had enough sleep or driving a long time at night.

  41. Bryan W
    Pint

    Hmmm

    If anything, this is an example of pseudo-science. Its amazing how one can "prove" any point they wish with statistics and an active imagination.

    What's sad is that anyone would even give this crap the light of day. How can one sit there and claim to have scientific proof that something that occurs every day for billions of people, simply isn't happening? Next they'll claim that Marijuana doesn't get you stoned, its just withdrawal from being "not-stoned".

    Really, there should be stiff penalties for people who waste resources in these kinds of ridiculous endeavors. How about more time curing disease, feeding the hungry and solving our energy problems, and less time trying to invent new problems for people to worry about.

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