Coffee and Caffeine FAQ

For some people the stronger the flavour of the coffee the more they will like it and perculating gives the strongest flavour. Saying this is better than that is a matter of taste and reminds me of the fact most people including wine snobs cannot tell the difference between a good English wine by Nyetimber and Champagne. The difference is we can easily tell the difference in brewing methods during a blind coffee tasting test, but the similarity is the wine "experts" (snobs) clearly talk a lot of rubbish when they cannot blindly tell the difference between quality English wine and Champagne.

So coffee snobs can moronically sit there and say their method is the best because it preserves the subtle flavour, etc, etc until their faces turn blue but the truth is bluntly that they like their method best because either they prefer the taste, or someone they admired (often due to simple arrogance in both admirer and admired) said it was better.

Something that is very important and should be considered is that coffee contains cafestol, a hydrocarbon which is one of the most potent dietary (if not THE most potent) cholesterol raising agent known to man. It works by disrupting genes in the liver that regulate cholesterol. The ONLY common brewing method which remove the cafestol (and removing it is a good thing) is to use filter PAPERS (not a permanent filter, it is too course) which removes the oils and therefore the cafestol.

So perhaps we should stop being so snobby about drip filtered coffee since it's the healthy way to go?

Personally I brew most of my coffee Scandanavian style (I know, it's an acquiried taste :P), which contains the most cafestol along with French press coffee. Oops. But then again I also had fried bread, eggs and sausages for breakfast and if you would never dream of eating something so artery clogging you should only drink paper filtered coffee.

Google cafestol if you don't take my word for it (and you should not take any random commenters word for anything). And you thought that decaf with all the natural oils was healthy! Incidently there is a fair amount of evidence people who drink decaf have a higher heart disease risk than those who don't. Isn't science ironic ;)