October 1st is International Coffee Day – a sad day indeed for me, because as much as I love coffee, I can not drink the 6 to 8 cups a day that I am used to. Coffee makes the daily journey into thousands of households all across the globe and is around for over 600 years. Coffee can be presented in many ways: drinks, candies, medicine and was even used as currency right in the beginning. Coffee can energize you, and as a favorite winter drink it warms you up. It can keep you awake and you can spend hours chatting away with friends while sipping on a delicious cup of coffee.
This piece I quote directly from the National Today Website as I can not rewrite this any better : “According to historical records, Coffee is originally from Ethiopia, and its discovery in Africa comes with an interesting story. Around the 700s AD, a herd of goats started acting strangely, almost as if they were dancing. Their owner, Kaldi, discovered that they were eating a sort of red bean and concluded that was the cause of their behavior. Kaldi decided to share his findings with a monk who required something that could help him to stay awake all night as he prayed; but another story claims that the monk refused and threw the beans into the fire and the pleasing aroma that came from it was just wonderful.”
READ MORE on the History of International Coffee Day
But, doesn’t coffee has side effects?
Like everything in life with a too much added to it, caffeine has side effects. As a stimulant for the central nervous system, caffeine could produce anxiety, rapid heart rate, and insomnia.
Can I get addicted to caffeine?
Well, repeated consumption of caffeine can lead to tolerance. This will lead to the need of more caffeine to get the same effect. When you take too little caffeine for your system, you will start to get withdrawal symptoms, which in my case is terrible headaches. To get rid of the headaches, you need more coffee and so the vicious circle continuous.
You will remember in my very first sentence I have mentioned I can not have as much coffee as before. Well, nowadays I get nauseous from the first cup of the day. I have switched to decaf coffee, but that is pure torture! One can not punish yourself like that. It is a decent cup of coffee or … nothing!
Coffee for me represents having a great time reading, spending with friends and watching movies and lo and behold … work!!