My Continued Bumbling Attempts At Making A Proper Cup of Coffee

         This one is about caffeine content of a cup of coffee and megadosing on caffeine by mistake. One side effect that I didn’t expect from being overcaffeinated is that it seemed to hold hunger or appetite at bay for a long time. After all caffeine is a main ingredient of some if not most diet pills.

          I've always been poor at math so I'm not suprised that I have been miscalculating my caffeine intake since I bought my automatic drip coffeemaker a couple of weeks ago. When I drink instant coffee, I usually put a heaping teaspoon into a 22 oz. mug of hot water which is equivalent to 3 1/2 - 6 oz. cups. A heaping teaspoon may contain 100 mg. of caffeine at best. When I brewed my first pot of coffee, I double dosed by using 6 heaping tablespoons of coffee in about 24 oz. of water. For simplicity's sake, let's just say I correctly used 6 flat tablespoons. The normal caffeine content of a cup of coffee is about 100 mg. If I drank the whole 24 oz. pot (which I did), that would be 4 cups x 100 mg. = 400 mg of caffeine. Double dose would make it 800 mg. in one sitting. No wonder I became intoxicated on it! A week later, you'd think I learned my lesson, and in a way, I did. I only used 4 heaping tablespoons. If my calculations are correct, 24 oz. of that would contain roughly 532 mg., still a megadose of caffeine. And of course I was feeling queasy after that one too.
          Another thing I tried on that last pot was adding a pinch of salt to the coffee grounds to cut the bitterness. It didn't seem to make a heck of a lot of difference on the cheap coffee I used. This week, Ralph's grocery store has a special on a can of Don Francisco coffee at $4.00. Is that a good brand, or should I go with Dunkin Donuts coffee which I have a couple of coupons I can use to get the price to 5.99 a bag? I know for sure that Dunkin Donuts coffee is very good but the way I've been bumbling my way around the coffee pot, I don't know if that helps me make a proper cuppa joe. I may be the only person who can make a simple task such as brewing coffee be so complicated. I admit it. My coffee IQ is very poor.

Here are my other two posts about coffee:

Wired on Starbucks

and

Intoxicated on Caffeine (My First Brew)

Public comments below, private comments: E-mail Me!

Wired On Starbucks

And then there’s this coffee issue. I’m not a fancy coffee drinker and by that I mean, I don’t go to Starbucks, Peet’s, It’s a Grind, or Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf stores. Not even Dunking Doughnuts coffee which I hear is very good too. I don’t have a coffee machine, percolator, or French press. I am an instant coffee drinker and I like my coffee black.

 A few days ago, an opportunity arose to finally taste Starbucks coffee because a pharmaceutical company left a couple of jugs at work. One jug said Gold Coast blend and the other, Pike Place. Not knowing the difference, I thought I’d try both and see if I can detect any subtleties in flavor, not only between those two blends but as opposed to the instant coffee I drink at home. Of course I drank the Starbucks coffee black so as not to mask the taste with creamer or sweetener. Well I’ll be darned but there is a huge difference. It’s like night and day. When a company says that their coffee has robust or bold taste, I would think that what I tasted is what they must be talking about. Without any sweetener, I could taste the bitterness blending with some kind of sweetness. I could detect a slight difference between the two but not being a coffee connoisseur, I really could not describe it. As far as comparing it to instant coffee, the Starbuck’s seemed to have a thicker texture to the tongue. To get that texture, I might have to put about 4 teaspoons of instant coffee for each mug. I have a 16 oz. mug at work and filled it with the Gold Coast blend first. After finishing that, I proceeded to refill the mug with the Pike Place blend. I could only finish about ¾ of the refill because after 28 ounces of drinking stronger than usual coffee, my brain and body were wired and jittery. You should have seen me admitting a patient after that. It felt like I wanted to go fast forward.

So, did I like the Starbucks coffee? I did so and very much but I’m not about to start an expensive habit which goes counter to my frugal ways, just for a beverage. Whoever that pharmaceutical company was that left the coffee, thank you so much for enabling me to taste the nectar of Starbucks.
Update (3/29/12): I finally brewed my own coffee. This was my experience with it:
 Intoxicated On Caffeine - My First Brew

Public comments below, private comments: E-mail Me!
Back to Main Page: http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com