Again, these warnings are directed at people who drink more than a few cups of coffee a day. If you’re getting by on a single cup, or two, there’s a good chance you’re getting the benefits. But if you’re unable to stop after one or two cups …
Well, move over. The same CNN report that suggests coffee can be beneficial also informs us that 54% of adults in the United States can be described as “habitual coffee drinkers.” According to the report, 146 billion cups of coffee are drunk in the United States every year.
Coffee is just as popular in some other countries. It’s probably not too big a stretch, then, when some people refer to coffee as the most widely used drug in the world.
As with most medical drugs, you shouldn’t try to stretch your limits. Keep to a safe dose – for most people, probably no more than a cup or two a day. After all, you know what they say about too much of a good thing.
Did you know …
Whether a type of coffee is considered dark, medium, or light has nothing to do with where or how it was grown. Surprisingly to many people, it doesn’t even have much to do with what type of coffee it is. While many people automatically associate certain names with dark coffee, it’s not the name but the roasting that determines whether a certain coffee is considered dark, medium, or light.
For a coffee to be considered dark, it has to be roasted longer than usual, or at a higher temperature than usual. Dark coffees, often with the word “Roast” as part of their name, usually develop a pungent taste as a result of the roasting process. Although dark coffee has a distinctive taste that millions of avid drinkers crave, by the time coffee is dark roasted there is little connection between its taste and any unique flavor or quality characteristic of the region and soil in which it was grown. “Nearly all of the flavor is from the roasting process itself,” according to Coffeenate.com.
That’s little deterrent to the millions who insist on drinking dark roast. Perhaps those millions would appreciate their favorite beverage even more if they realized how hard it can be to dark roast a coffee to perfection.
“Dark roasting is difficult, much more difficult than bringing coffees to a satisfying medium or medium-dark roast style. The margin for error narrows as the roast darkens, and it is easy to burn the beans, introduce metallic or rubbery tones, or fail to cool them decisively, flattening flavor,” write Kenneth Davids and John Weaver on the website Coffeereview.com.
People preferring an earthier-tasting coffee retaining many of the characteristics of its home environment and growing process often choose medium or light coffees. Lighter coffees perhaps appeal to more sophisticated palates – or at least to those looking for distinctive but not overpowering flavor.
My palate is the farthest thing from sophisticated when it comes to coffee. I like dark roasted coffee – the darker the better. I love an overpowering, pungent, roasty taste, one that nearly knocks me over. I usually need that kick-start in the morning.
I hate hot drinks, so I pour my dark roast into a blender with some ice and milk and make a poor man’s frappuccino. I do that nearly every morning. It gets me started and keeps me going for hours, and it’s the only way I drink coffee.