Things you should know #7

Caffeine is the enemy of sleep; a coffee audiobook that won’t put you to sleep; dialing in your… filter papers?

We live in a crazy old world. One thing you can rely on, is your weekly dose of the things you should know.

Got something worth knowing? Fire me a line at themagicroast@gmail.com.

Anyway - it’s Tuesday, and here are some things you should know.

In this week’s edition: Caffeine is the enemy of sleep; a coffee audiobook that won’t put you to sleep; dialing in your… filter papers?

Caffeine is the enemy of sleep

The way caffeine affects your brain is really interesting.

In our brains is a chemical called adenosine. It’s job is to basically make us sleep. It increases during the day, making us tired. And eventually we close our eyes and sleep.

Caffeine attaches to the same receptor that adenosine fits into. This blocks adenosine from doing it’s job - it stops us from feeling tired.

Adenosine doesn’t go away, and keeps kicking around your brain. Once the caffeine has been processed, you get a rush of adenosine smashing your brain, and you have a biiiig crash. Usually in the afternoon - so you turn back to the coffee to get you through.

Problem is, caffeine has a very long half and quarter life (the amount of time it takes for your body to process caffeine.). 5 hours after you consume caffeine, you have half of it left. 10-12 hours after you consume caffeine, you still have a quarter of it left.

So, if you have a coffee at lunch time, a quarter of that caffeine is still doing its thing to your sleep receptors AT MIDNIGHT.

If you struggle with getting to sleep at night, you might want to have a think about when you consume your daily coffee hit.

Caffeine: How coffee and tea created the modern world

The impact of caffeine on sleep has been, in part, piqued by this audiobook by Michael Pollan.

It’s a really interesting and easy to listen to audiobook that covers the history of coffee, the impacts on humanity, and one man’s journey to quit. Also, it’s not very long! Bonus.

Here’s how Pollan describes his book:

In Caffeine: How coffee and tea created the modern world, Pollan calls caffeine “the most-used drug in the world”—one we give our children in the form of soda and consume ourselves in multiple daily doses of tea or coffee. Caffeine, it turns out, has changed the course of human history: Pollan’s reporting explores how caffeine has won and lost wars, changed politics, and dominated economies. He asserts, with the support of voluminous research, that the Industrial Revolution would have been impossible without it. The science behind caffeine addiction forms the fascinating backdrop to this definitive look at an insidious drug that hides in plain sight.

It’s available on Audible and is worth a listen.

Dialing in your…filter paper?

This one is for the coffee nerds.

If you brew filter at home, you may have picked up that different filter papers will impact the final brew.

The Origami is a great brewer to demonstrate this, as you can use the cone (V60 type) and flat bottom (Kalita type) filter papers in the one brewer. The results between the two are very different.

This week Perfect Daily Grind dropped a yarn about whether you should use different filter papers for different roast profiles (light, medium and dark). This is because different roast profiles brew differently and different filter papers are suited to different roast profiles.

The article says:

“The longer a coffee is roasted, the more brittle and porous the beans become,” she says. This increases solubility, which means it’s easier to extract the coffee. 

“However, you can roast coffee to the point that the beans lose so much soluble mass that solubility actually starts to decrease,” she adds. “So, if you want to extract coffee at a faster rate, you should roast to a darker profile.

So what does this have to do with filter paper? Filter papers can be made from different materials, with different sizes and thicknesses. At a microscopic level, they can even act differently:

“Longer fibres extract sweeter flavours…They can also enhance mouthfeel.”

Out of all the common raw materials used to manufacture paper filters, bamboo and abaca (also known as Manila hemp) have the longest fibres. This means they are more porous, so extract more oils in the cup – emphasising mouthfeel and prolonging aftertaste.

So having the right filter paper type for the roast level of the coffee will mean you get the most out of the coffee. The article covers the why, and how, and is a good read.

This is taking coffee nerdery to a new level, but it looks like an interesting area to explore.

Kick this week in the ass

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