Things you should know #4
Firsthand is doing cascara; James Hoffmann says coffee is an affordable luxury; black coffee = quicker caffeine hit (probably); look out Wellington, I’m coming for you!
Tēnā koutou whānau and welcome back. It’s May, it’s wet, it’s cold and here are some things you need to know.
In this week’s edition: Firsthand is doing cascara; James Hoffmann says coffee is an affordable luxury; black coffee = quicker caffeine hit (probably); look out Wellington, I’m coming for you!
Firsthand is doing Cascara
The folks at Hawkes Bay’s Firsthand coffee are now selling Cascara!
Cascara is the fleshy outside of the coffee fruit that usually gets discarded. If you dry it out you get a product that almost tastes a bit like raisin, and can be brewed up into a delicious tea like drink that is light, sweet and fruity, with a little bit of caffeine.
It’s great hot or cold, and you can get pretty funky with it by using brewed cascara to make cold brew coffee. What? Check out this post from The Magic Roast archives where Matty T gets down and dirty with COVID-19 lockdown inspired experimental madness.
Do yourself a favour get a bag of the Firsthand Cascara.
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Heck, you can even Buy Me A Coffee to keep this going. Go on.
Taste Podcast: The James Hoffmann episode
Whether you’re a home coffee enthusiast of any kind, or a full blown coffee nerdy kid, you have probably come across James Hoffmann - “one of the coolest dudes of the coffee internet.”
James has a great knack at taking quite complex concepts, and distilling them down into easily understandable sound bites on his very popular Youtube channel.
There are countless podcasts where James is a guest, but “Taste” is one of the best - namely because it’s not a coffee podcast, rather a food culture pod.
This is a great listen, and it has something for everyone. One of the bits that stood out for me was a chat about the ‘right’ price for coffee, and whether we’re actually not paying enough for what is actually “a very affordable luxury” (spoiler alert - we’re not).
An easy listen for those wanting to hear more about making good coffee at home, his coffee mission, and general rad times. Recommend.
Listen on Spotify or where ever you get your podcasts from.
Does black coffee = quicker caffeine hit?
Science alert!
Last week I stumbled across Australian scientist and science communicator Dr Karl Kruszelnicki - a tv and radio commentator who makes science easy and fun to understand.
He was on the Australian version of The Project talking about how diet mixers get you drunk faster. This is because your stomach doesn’t process out a set volume of contents, but a set amount of energy - about 8-12kj (2-3 calories) a minute.
So, if you use sugary mixers with your bogan bourbon, it takes longer to process as it has more kilojoules to process.
Read more about how this works in his article from 2013 on the ABC.
That logic could also be applied to coffee - black coffee would be processed faster than a milky coffee, giving you that caffeine hit much faster.
On top of that, milk contains a protein called casein, that can also slow down caffine absorption.
So, if you want that caffine hit quick, ditch the milk.
[probably - the logic seems sound right? But you know, science stuff. I have asked Dr Karl for confirmation of this, but it appears I’m low on his priority list for return phone calls.]
Look out Wellington, I’m coming for you!
On Thursday, The Magic Roast will be responding to Wellington’s reaction to THAT global coffee city list.
It’s going to be a spicy one, with insights from coffee professionals across Aotearoa sharing what they thought of Wellington’s reaction.
Tune in, subscribe and get ready for more tears from New Zealand’s coffee ‘capital’.