Granted, the last week or so in The Lounge has been quite pop-culture intensive. -- Superhero Central, so to speak.
Keeping Hemingway's Lounge up to date has been quite intensive and it's taken a mighty amount of java to keep my motor running. But I don't mind.
That said, I want to go back into the vault for this apropos piece I did for Bikini magazine. The now-defunct rag hired me to write a bunch of "health" stories in which I was never paid after it went to print. That's okay, we'll recycle it here. In any case, it's an ode to coffee. Who doesn't love the stuff? Come to think of it, I don't trust three types of people -- those who don't vibe on jazz; those who don't drink; and those who don't drink coffee.
And for those who think the stuff is rubbish? Read on...
Enjoy.
-- Javaman
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Kerouac, Ginsberg and the rest of the Beats can partly thank Iraq for their coffee-lovin' legacy.
It's true. During the 1600s, Iraq coffeehouses were the first to promote entertainment centering around "the maqam," or poems recited by a groups. Guests would sit for hours on end listening to the oft-repeated passages, sipping coffees (imported from nearby Turkey) and discuss their meaning while drinking the "wine of Araby." Pop culturally speaking, it was unofficially the birth of the slacker.
By 1680, literary inspiration and creative yearnings would flourish throughout European coffeehouses -- especially in Paris -- where melancholy poets and artistic visionaries energized their creative juices. Balzac, for example, was said to have drank 20-30 cups a day and recorded his love for the bean in his "Treatise on Modern Stimulants," including the passage: "The coffee falls into your stomach, and straightaway their is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move like battalions of the Grand Army battlefield... Similes arise, the paper is covered with ink."
Well, here it is 2007 and cafes (and the faux artistic inclinations that surround them) are still the rage. Walk into any Starbucks or Borders and you'll see (at any given part of the day) pretentious yuppies on their way to work, college kids clicking about in WiFi glory on notebooks or bored housewives keeping one eye on a stroller-bound child and another on the latest Patricia Cornwell. And of course, all the while, Monk and Miles are playing overhead. It hilarious that something about the little bean makes us feel artsy.
So we're a nation of coffee drinking, jazz-lovin' fools. Big deal, sue us. The country consumes more than 160 billion cups of java annually and depending on what you read or hear, coffee can be either be good or bad for you. That usually means nobody really knows anything for sure. So, that said, here are some of the more interesting things we dug up:
First, the basics
Caffeine is found naturally in more than 60 plants. The most familiar natural sources of caffeine (other than coffee) is cocoa beans, kola nuts and tea leaves. Caffeine can be extracted from those sources and manufactured synthetically into foods, drinks and medicines.
What it can do
Caffeine has been known to combat drowsiness, temporarily boost athletic performance, ease congestion due to colds and flu, prevent asthma attacks and enhance the pain-relieving effects of aspirin.
There's a flipside to that
Going crazy with "the wine of Araby" can cause some minor problems as well. Jitters, irritability, panic attacks and insomnia have been linked to coffee as well as the proverbial coffee overload headache.
Once you go black...
For the calorie conscious, regular and decaffeinated coffees have no calories when they're taken black. Even for you guys that love yummy gourmet flavored coffees (you know you're out there), they, too, only have only a negligible trace of calories. Condiments such as sugar and half and half represent the only real calories present in a cup of joe.
Let's talk caffeine
The medical constituent of coffee is obviously caffeine. However, it's content depends largely on how it is prepared. A cup of percolated or drip coffee contains 100 milligrams (mg) of caffeine. A cup of instant coffee contains 60 mg while a 2 1/2 once-cup of espresso contains a whopping 100 mg.
But how much it too much?
So you start your day out with a cup of coffee and have a couple more during the day. Are you in the safe zone? Varro E. Tyler, Ph.D., a professor of pharmacognosy at Perdue University School of Pharmacy in West Lafayette, Indiana, recently discussed coffee and caffeine with an online Web site and says, "I'd advise limiting intake to 250 milligrams a day." What does that even out to? It depends on the size of your mug, but most calculations even out to around two cups of brewed java.
Caffeine overload
Phenomenally addictive as a potent stimulant, most serious coffee drinkers can drink more than two cups and pretty much adjust over time. Sometimes blood pressure may rise, but once a person's tolerance adapts, there usually isn't a problem.
As a matter of fact, a recent report by the National Institutes of Health's Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection and Evaluation of High Blood Pressure concluded, "No direct relationship between caffeine intake and elevated blood pressure has been found in epidemiologic surveys."
However there are those who do have some difficulty with serious caffeine intake. Coffee can upset the stomach. Therefore, the medical establishment urges people with gastrointestinal problems to stay away from caffeine because high amounts of it increases the secretion of stomach acids. Coffee does not cause ulcers but can indeed make them worse for people who have them.
Age-old arguments
Coffee and heart disease. Often linked, some studies reveal that caffeine can increase cholesterol levels. You say you drink decaf? Doesn't matter. Decaffeinated coffee is said to have the same cholesterol-boosting effect as regular. What's more, filtered java raises cholesterol less than boiled brew.
Some medical studies also say that drinking more than four cups a day can increase the risk of heart attack.
The Journal of the American Medical Association found a significant association between caffeinated coffee and decreasing bone mineral density. However, if you drink at least at least a glass of milk a day, there shouldn't be a problem.
So you want to quit?
It's harder than it sounds. Since everyone's body is on a timeclock, it knows when it should have it's coffee. Be prepared to deal with withdrawal symptoms like throbbing headaches that can sometimes last up to five days. Other symptoms low blood pressure and constipation that can last for a day or two.
Instead of quitting cold turkey, many suggest cutting back a couple of cups a week to perhaps only a cup a day until you can ween yourself off completely.
At least we're happier
Oddly, a major study in the Anals of Epidemiology has found that there are fewer suicides among coffee drinkers.
All those withdrawals probably drove them over the edge.
And now ... Enjoy Sinatra's swingin' tune "The Coffee Song"
COFFEE FACTS
It takes about five years of growth for a coffee tree to produce mature beans.
A single coffee tree will yield about one pound of roasted coffee beans per year.
In one tablet of Excedrin, there is 65 mg of caffeine.
Brazil is the modern day coffee gorilla that produces one-third of the world's coffees.
The coffee world employs more than 25 million people -- most of them in third world countries.
Squeeze's catchy 1982 MTV hit "Black Coffee in Bed" didn't even crack the Billboard charts.
The typical American consumes 1.87 six-ounce cups each day, but 10 percent of Americans drink 10 or more cups a day.
Oddly, there is 50-55 mg of caffeine in citrus flavored sodas (Mountain Dew, Mellow Yellow) versus 35-40 mg found in colas.
The FDA reports no serious health risks from drinking coffee in moderation (two to three cups a day).
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COFFEE TIMELINE
In 850 A.D., a herdsman in Egypt noticed his goats became extremely lively after feeding on nearby plants. He nibbled on the berries himself and felt alive with verve.
In 1470, Cheng Ho, a Chinese admiral, brought the concept of an infused hot beverage to the Middle East fostering the first public coffeehouse in Mecca and Medina.
By the end of the 15th century the Yemen province of Arabia served as the world's primary source of coffee.
By the 16th and 17th century, coffee reached European countries with coffeehouses springing up in Istanbul in 1554.
The Dutch brought the coffee plant to the rest of the world in 1616 when explorers -- fascinated with coffee in Mocha -- brought the plant from Yemen to Holland in 1616.
London established their own coffeehouses in 1650.
In 1658, the first serious coffee cultivation was in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) when the Dutch took coffee with them to Malabar in India and to the Indonesian island of Java in 1697.
Coffeehouses sprung up in Venice by 1683. Soon after, there was a campaign in Italy against caffeine, labeling it the brew of the Devil.
The English took coffee to their colonies -- beginning with the cultivation in Jamaica in 1730 and India in 1840.
Coffee arrived in Latin America several decades later when the French brought a cutting of a coffee plant to Martinique.
The Spanish took coffee from Java to the Philippines. Santa Domingo then transplanted the seed to Cuba.
On Dec. 16, 1773, The Boston Tea Party virtually created a nation of coffee drinkers overnight.
By the end of the 17th century, coffee was growing in Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Mexico. Coffee sprung up in Rio as early as 1825.
In 1971, Starbucks opened its first location in Pike Place Market -- Seattle's legendary open-air farmer's market.
In 1991, Starbucks opened its first coffeehouse in Los Angeles. In 1994, they appear in New York, Atlanta, Dallas and Houston.
By 1999, Starbucks locations totaled just a tad under 2000.
