What you should know about coffee
What goes into a great cup of coffee? Here's the buzz on buying, brewing, sipping and enjoying one of the world's most popular drinks.
Some can't live without their daily caffeine fix to give them that special boost in the morning. Others simply drink it for its addictive and seductive flavour. Whatever your reason, coffee is considered one of the most popular drinks in the world. Here's everything you need to know about this deep, dark brew.
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Fancy Drinks Demystified
Fancy coffee drinks are delicious but can be loaded with fat and kilojoules. Choose wisely and ask for skim milk and skip the whipped cream, and you can still enjoy. Here’s a sampling of several popular items: • Regular cappucino, whole milk:
POINTS® values: 2.5 • Regular cappuccino, skim milk:
POINTS values: 1 • 1 tall Starbucks® Caramel Mocha, skim milk, cream:
POINTS values: 6 • 1 regular Gloria Jeans® Iced Mocha, whole milk:
POINTS values: 7 • Regular cup of instant or brewed coffee:
POINTS values: 0
Bean basics
The key to the best-tasting coffee is freshness. Purists will tell you that whole beans begin to lose flavour in as little as a week, grinds in only an hour and brewed coffee in mere minutes. While most of us don't have the time (or the inclination) to grind beans to order, proper storage can keep your coffee tasting good longer.
Buying coffee in whole beans, from a source that does a brisk business (the beans are likely to be fresher when turnover is fast), and grinding a daily batch is the simplest way to ensure rich, smooth flavour. Coffee grinders are inexpensive, and there are even some domestic coffee machines with built-in grinders.
Store whole beans in an air-tight container (some suggest storing beans in the freezer) for as long as several weeks. If you do freeze coffee beans, bring them up to room temperature before grinding. If this is too much fuss, you can also buy whole beans and have them ground at your local cafe, or place where you buy the beans.
That unmistakable jolt
The buzz you get from drinking coffee isn't your imagination; caffeine's effects are very real, and most people do fine with 200-300mg per day. Above 500mg, you risk side effects such as irritability, insomnia and headaches. But the amount you'll get in each cup depends on what you're drinking and how it's prepared. 1 cup or 250ml of brewed coffee has about 100mg of caffeine, while decaf has less than 10mg. Espresso, typically served in a much smaller ¼ cup or 60ml shot, has 125mg. A large coffee from cafes is usually 1½ cups or 375ml and is usually made using two shots of coffee, so make sure you are aware of this when ordering your next large skim latte, as it will pack quite a caffeine punch!
Myths and facts
- Recent studies show that drinking three cups of caffeinated coffee each day can help prevent memory loss. Researchers aren't sure why, but it only helps women (sorry, fellas!)
- It takes about 50 beans to make enough grinds for one cup of coffee.
- Coffee certified as Fair Trade is produced by democratically organised farmers who receive a guaranteed minimum price in exchange for providing fair labour conditions and practising environmental sustainability.
- On average, Australians consume 2.4kg of coffee beans per year which is a huge increase compared to 10 years ago. Needless to say we are still very fond of our instant coffee granules, making coffee consumption more or less an even split between the real coffee bean, and the instant granule.
Coffee and the Plan
Weight Watchers doesn't have hard and fast rules about coffee consumption—like everything else, coffee (or any caffeinated drink) is fine in moderation. If you are taking medication, talk with your doctor to make sure coffee consumption won't cause a health risk. Just be sure to count the POINTS values in whatever milk or sugar you add to your daily dose, as the POINTS values can add up rather quickly.
For recipe suggestions check out the links below:
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