A Coffee Fix...

I really enjoy my coffee. I most enjoy a good Indonesian coffee. You know, the coarsely ground variety where the sediment sits in the bottom of your cup. And, if you were to leave that sediment there a few days it would harden into something comparable to cement. My particular favourite coffee growing areas just happen to be two places that want to be free from the clutches of Indonesia; one has done so, Timor Leste. The other, Aceh, seems destined not to break free. Those are issues for another post.

So, with coffee in mind, I thought I would share a link that I came across on Yahoo about the six worst cups of coffee you could drink if you were thinking calories.

My favourite is the Cold Stone Creamery Lotta Caramel Latte, Gotta Have It Size. This cup will provide you with 1,790 calories, 99 g fat (62 g saturated, 2.5 g trans), and 175 g sugar. Or in more manageable terms, the equivalent of a day's worth of calories, the equivalent of 62 strips of bacon, more than your daily permissible intake of trans fat, and the equivalent of 44 spoonfuls of sugar.

To be honest, I don't think I have eaten 62 strips of bacon in the last five years, perhaps even longer than that.

I could not imagine sitting down and eating 62 strips of bacon in one sitting. Although, I could imagine sitting down to a single cup of coffee.

Enjoy!

A Question of Tea...

If any of you are wondering why I am still up and posting at 02.40 on a Sunday morning, then the answer is probably not anything like you may imagine. I am an old man and fell asleep during the afternoon hours and woke up about 22.00. I will get tired again and then log off and get more beauty sleep.

Onto the post. I drink green tea because it is good for you. The advertising tells me so. It is apparently full of anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants are the scavengers of free radicals. All this scientific analysis seems to me to equate to a really simple deal, drink more green tea and live longer.

Having knocked off three Belgian beers, which has confirmed that I am getting old as I think I have that happy little beer buzz thing going. Yes, it is sad, three beers and I feel the need to drink green tea flavoured with Moroccan mint. I have gotta say at this juncture that the tea tastes pretty good as well. I think I still prefer the beer but I could definitely get used to the tea.

Nevertheless, I have a question about the benefits of green tea. I tend to drink my tea without sugar, although sometimes a good dose of honey makes it into the mug. I am wondering though are the benefits of green tea countered by the amount of sugar one adds to the mug. I ask this because I ordered a green tea in a restaurant (yes there were a variety of teas on offer for the connoisseur of tea) and it came to the table in the Javan style. This is not a criticism of Javanese it is merely noting a tendency to eat and drink sweet things. It is kind of like Padang being the capital of spicy foods.

Simply, are any benefits that might be derived from green tea lost to excessive amounts of sugar which will probably lead to insulin intolerance and the onset of type 2 adult diabetes (what a cheery thought)? Maybe the answer is somewhere out there in cyber space, perhaps I should go and find out for myself.