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The java jolt

Coffee… the cheapest legal excitement money can buy

Jim Watts is a self-described coffee snob. He’s always had a coffee grinder and a French press – even before it was cool to do all that. In fact, before he morphed into a parking lot mogul, he opened Whistler’s first B&B – imaginatively called Student Bed & Breakfast – with his old pal Stewart Muir. It was cheap (as in, bring your own sleeping bag), but breakfast was always a big deal, especially the French press coffee.

Coffee brings us to our knees… We look for the perfect beans. We grind them the perfect way, then brew them up just so. We fill our ritual cups and add our ritual embellishments. If we’re out of the house for more than two hours, we’ve got a flat-bottomed travel mug of coffee on the dashboard, or we’re walking down the street sloshing a cardboard cup of carry-out.

Why are we all so addicted to coffee?

About one-third of the people on planet Earth drink coffee, either hot or cold (it was deemed "intoxicating" and prohibited by the Koran, but it still spread amongst Arab people). More coffee is drunk than any other drink.

Caffeine is the primary compound through which coffee works its magic. But it’s not the only ingredient responsible for physiological effects – the green bean itself contains hundreds of active substances; some good chemicals, some not. Another 200 active compounds are formed as coffee beans are roasted.

But unless you’re speedy from drinking a cup right now, it’s enough to consider what the caffeine alone does to us. First, it excites the cerebellum in the brain, which controls muscular co-ordination. Then it hits the medulla, which regulates respiration and heartbeat. Large doses – we’ll get to those later – excite reflexes in the spinal cord and over-stimulate the entire nervous system.

No doubt you’ve also noticed that caffeine stimulates kidneys and bowels, and it increases metabolism and blood flow (useful if you have cold hands and feet). It’s also known to relieve hypertensive headaches and strengthen voluntary muscles. So if you have workmen coming over to do some heavy labour, you won’t be wasting time by giving them a cup of coffee.

In moderate doses (200-250 mg, or two to three cups of coffee) caffeine increases alertness, helps problem-solving ability, and improves reactions by stimulating the speed and clarity of thought flow. But you can get too much of a good thing. More than 250 mg of caffeine (three to four cups of coffee) in one day may cause nervousness, restlessness, tremors, headaches and irritability. Around the seven-cup mark, the average coffee drinker starts to hit caffeinism syndrome, with its symptoms like depression and anxiety.

After that, we start to enter the danger zone. More than 1,000 mg of caffeine, or about 14 cups of coffee in one day, can produce toxic effects, including convulsions, vomiting and delirium. (If you’re not a coffee drinker, even one cup can bring on caffeine "poisoning"; it all depends on body size, dose and tolerance.) With about 50-100 cups of average coffee – a dose of 10 grams of caffeine – you’re dead. Although there aren’t any records of anyone ODing on coffee (they have done it to mice in labs), I’m still waiting for the first coffee-murder mystery.

So where does all this caffeine come from? While there are at least 66 species of coffee, two are the world’s biggest suppliers: Arabica, which accounts for three-fourths of world production and is the coffee preferred in North America; and Robusta, which enjoys a bigger following in Europe.

The coffee plant itself – it will grow to tree-size if not pruned – is indigenous to Ethiopia. One of many legends describes how an Arab goat herder noticed some pretty wild antics in his flock after they grazed on the berries of a coffee bush.

The propagation of Arabica coffee spread from Ethiopia about 600 AD, and, for almost the next 1,000 years, most historical records show that Yemen was the only place of cultivation. That all changed when the Portuguese, Dutch, English and French began their big thrust of world colonization and exploration in the 1700s, and started transplanting coffee plants wherever they would grow.

Robusta coffee plants, like the name suggests, are more robust, resisting disease and producing higher yields – good attributes for commercialization. While Robusta coffee suffers from a prejudice in North America (its flavour is bitter, but fuller than Arabica), it’s very popular in Europe. It is also lower in acid and higher in fat content, which makes for an important part of a good cup of coffee, especially the frothy "crema" of an espresso.

Robusta coffee contains about double the caffeine of Arabica (1.6-2.5 per cent as opposed to Arabica’s .8-1.5 per cent) which may be why everyone in France and Italy stays up so late. Robusta coffee is also cheaper to produce. As its use increased in North America after World War II, especially in blends and commercial brands, the demand for decaffeinated coffee also grew. However, it may be some of the other 200 active compounds created in roasting, not the extra caffeine in Robusta, which create the insomnia and nervousness people find objectionable.

The art of brewing a fine cup of coffee is just that – an art. The beans used, how they are handled from field to final product, and how they are brewed all determine not only the physiological impact, but also the flavour (for beans locally, Jim says go for the Saltspring Roasting Co.’s at Nesters Market; bonus: they’re fair trade). Good impact – a nice lift without the unpleasant irritability or anxiety – plus a smooth rich flavour usually go hand-in-hand.

Most experts agree that if you want the best cup of coffee, you go to Italy for an espresso (spelled with three "S’s", not an "x"). While "espresso" means "pressed out," it also means something made for a special purpose, on the spur of the moment. There’s even an old saying: "The customer, not the espresso, must wait."

Once brewed, espresso cannot be kept. If it isn’t drunk immediately, the rich, creamy foam collapses, the smooth taste disappears, and the acidity increases. When brewing your own espresso at home, no matter which process you use, water temperature must be 90 C, plus or minus 5 C, and percolation time must be no more than 30 seconds, say the experts.

If you’re a sucker for the definitive espresso, you probably hit Commercial Drive like a bullet each time you’re in Vancouver (Joe’s, on the corner of William, and Continental Coffee, at E. 3rd, still reign supreme; the latter also sells the best beans in town). But here’s a surprise: try The Teahouse in Stanley Park for a silky-good espresso, served with a twist of lemon. The view across English Bay counts as dessert.

If you’re a dawdler over your coffee, either a cappuccino, so-named for its "cap" of milk, or a café au lait, which harkens back to the days when the milk was half-boiled to kill bacteria, will suit you better. However you like it served, the coffee bars at Whistler offer all the caffeine you can handle, plus lots of conversational outlets for your cranked up brain. Chris Quinlan’s Behind the Grind in the village is about as good as it gets. You’ll probably run into Jim there.