Handbook on Caffeine
Your go to article to understand the science of caffeine, the origins of tea and coffee, the latest coffee trends in the world, investing knowledge from coffee
Everyone loves their daily cup of tea or coffee and has their own unique experience with the stimulant. It is that time of the day when we get together with our loved ones for a chat or get away from the world to be with ourselves and our brew. This post was inspired by a number of conversations I have had with different people and particularly a conversation I heard on the Joe Rogan podcast between Michael Pollan and Joe Rogan, which led me to Michael's book- Your Mind on Plants. I have highlighted the origins of coffee in brief for this article, which were covered in depth in the book. Many of the topics from the book prompted me to do a deep-dive research into the drug known as caffeine, which I consume on a daily basis. We don’t think of coffee and tea as drugs because these stimulants have been legalized and made acceptable by society. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that activates the pleasure centers of the brain; caffeine present in tea and coffee, increases the dopamine levels in our brain, thus enhancing our mood. Missing out on your morning coffee or tea therefore may cause you to become an unpleasant person to speak to.
I try to go on a caffeine detox every now and then during the year and I can see the notable changes in the quality of my sleep and athletic performance. Performance goes down marginally and sleep quality skyrockets. Michael Pollan described his experience with his caffeine detox in this fascinating video.
Here’s an analogy for caffeine detoxes and driving: You can’t describe the vehicle you are driving without stopping, getting out and taking a good look at the vehicle from outside.
In this post I will be covering topics from the origins of caffeine to the science of caffeine and the human body. Whenever I refer to the word caffeine it means coffee and tea (although ice cream, dark chocolate and creams contain a certain amount of caffeine too)
Caffeine and Sleep
Sleep science is a topic I got obsessed with after reading Matt Walker's Why We Sleep. I covered the basics of REM & NREM sleep, the science of sleep and case studies specifically on sleep in my twitter thread, and the economic impact of the sleep loss epidemic in my previous blog post. So if you are looking to dive deeper into the topic you can refer to the thread and the blog post. Further if you are looking to understand the circadian rhythm in detail, I would recommend you to have a look at Dr Satchin Panda’s book The Circadian Code. In this post I want to focus specifically on the relationship between sleep and caffeine.
Over your 24-hour circadian clock, adenosine is a chemical that is building in your bloodstream through the day and latches on to receptors in your brain as the day progresses and as long as no other molecule or cell is blocking its action, adenosine begins to slow mental operations in your mind and a desire to go to bed slowly builds up as the day progresses. This feeling is called sleep pressure. Caffeine is a molecule that fits into that receptor in the central nervous system, and therefore blocks the adenosine and prevents it from doing its job in creating the sleep pressure. The brain now no longer receives the signal to turn the lights off.
Timing your caffeine intake is crucial. Caffeine has what is known as a "quarter life". This means that caffeine stays in your bloodstream over twelve hours, meaning that 1/4th of caffeine consumed at noon still circulates in your brain when you sleep at night, meaning that a when you consume coffee at 2:00 pm, chances are that caffeine is still circulating in your brain till 12:00 AM. This could well wreck your deep sleep. Now you may say that you sleep just fine even after consuming caffeine in the evening. There are people who even have coffee after dinner and say they sleep just fine. Everyone's liver works differently according to their genetic makeup, age, activity levels, etc. in flushing out the caffeine. However, something deadly is "brewing" (see what I did there) in your brain when you consume the caffeine so late. The amount of slow wave sleep you get is reduced by 15-20%. To put this in context, reduction in slow wave sleep by this much is equivalent to aging 20% faster than usual.
I aim to complete my caffeine intake by 12:00 noon. Many times it stretches to 2 p.m. or even 3 p.m. But I consciously avoid pushing it further so that I ensure I am getting deep sleep at night, which prepares me for battle the next day. If you can't control this habit, try going decaf, so that you get the taste of coffee at least. On the days I experiment with decaf I get beautiful sleep. On the days I drink caffeinated coffee I put a hard stop on the last coffee I drink to ensure that I get deep sleep.
Caffeine and Capitalism
Coffee brought in a paradigm shift in the mental focus of workers, focus that had been clogged by alcohol over the years, thus freeing people from the natural rhythms of the body and sun (i had covered this in my blog post on sleep linked above), making possible whole new kinds of work. Before caffeine the idea of a night shift was not physically and mentally impossible. Before the arrival of coffee and tea, alcohol was being consumed in Europe by workers every day from dusk to dawn at home and at the workplace. Long before the coffee break there was the beer break, commonly offered to labourers doing work outdoors; mental clarity was not a priority that time; nor was there much focus on the clock time. For labourers, working under the influence of alcohol was hazardous in terms of safety and productivity. Coffee came in and changed the game entirely, Wolfgang Schivelbush referred to coffee as "the beverage of the modern bourgeois age" The power of caffeine to keep us awake and alert and free us from the natural circadian rhythm of the human body, opened up new possibilities in the field of work. The English working class was primarily influenced by tea, although the primary source of fuel before tea was coffee, it was tea from the East Indies, that fueled the Industrial Revolution. The caffeine in tea helped to create a more efficient worker, one that would be able to handle the intricacies of the machine. As Pollan says, it's difficult to imagine the Industrial Revolution without caffeine. Caffeine thus went on to influence the slave trade, the workplace, science, politics, the stock markets and more.
Origins of the Coffee Break
The term “coffee break” wasn't coined until the 1950s. Two companies from Buffalo, New York- The Larkin Company (a soap manufacturer) and the Barcalo Manufacturing Company (maker of the BarcaLounger), first recognized the importance of coffee breaks for workers. Barcalo allowed midmorning and midafternoon coffee breaks to employees; however the employees had to bring their own coffee. Larkin offered free coffees to their employees but the company offered no break time to drink the coffee. Coffee breaks legally got recognized in the American workplace through the events at a neckwear company in Denver called Los Wigwam Weavers. When the owner of Wigam lost his best employees during the Second World War, he hired older men to operate the looms, a strategy that failed due to the nature of the work being exhausting for these older men. He then shifted his strategy and tried to get middle-aged women to operate the looms. These women had the technical ability but not the endurance to work the full shift. The employees proposed that they should receive two 15 minute breaks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon and that they should be provided with coffee at this time. The owner saw a major boost in productivity among his employees and soon made the breaks compulsory for the employees. But then the owner got greedy and regarded this 30 minute time as an unpaid break for which the employees' wages were reduced. This caused their wages to fall below the minimum limit mandated by the law. The U.S. Department of Labor filed a suit against the owner and the company for this cut in wages. The company lost the case in the Federal Court. The judge rightly pointed out that the quality of work improved because of the breaks and therefore the workers must be compensated for these breaks. This led to the advent of the paid “coffee break”.
Starbucks Coffee
Alfred Peet, the son of a Dutch coffee roaster, introduced America to high quality coffee in the 1960s. Americans used to drink coffee made from Robusta beans, which are considered inferior due to the beans being high in caffeine and poorer in taste. Pete brought the concept of sourcing Arabica beans and roasting them slowly till they were dark. He was the one who encouraged Americans to pay a few dollars over a few quarters, thus transforming this product into a luxury good. Since we are on the topic of coffee being a luxury item, here’s a snippet of the king of coffee wisdom on Twitter. I love Douglas’ subtle humour linking coffee to personal finance.
It was in Pete’s Berkeley Shop where Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks Coffee, learned to pick and roast coffee. You could say that coffee has now become synonymous with the Starbucks brand.
I would highly recommend reading Howard Schultz’s book , which talks about the origin of Starbucks and how he scaled the corporation, most importantly the culture that he shaped within the organization. The next time you visit a Starbucks coffee shop observe how hospitable the entire staff is right from the person standing at the security to greet you in to the barista serving you your coffee. As the famous saying goes "Culture eats strategy for breakfast"
For those looking to know what goes into their Starbucks coffee or how it is made, here is a great twitter thread I came across from Swetha Sivakumar. After reading the thread I realized that the protein coffee which I sometimes have before a workout, actually has a name “Proffee”
For my friends and colleagues from the investment world, linking an episode of Bill Ackman beautifully explaining why he invested into Starbucks on the Knowledge Project podcast.
Coffee and the rise of the London Stock Exchange
The real origin of coffee was in Africa, where in a few places the coffee tree used to grow. There is a story that a ninth-century herder called Kaldi would observe how his goats would behave erratically and remain awake all night after eating the red berries of the Coffea Arabica plant, Kaldi shared this observation with the priest of a local monastery, who then created a drink with the berries and discovered the stimulating properties of coffee. By the 15th century, coffee was being cultivated in East Africa and traded along the Arabian peninsula. Coffeehouses soon sprung up all over cities across the Arab world during the Ottoman Empire, with 600 of them in Constantinople alone. The Islamic world at the time was much more advanced than Europe in science, technology and learning. The drinking of coffee seemed to be made for a culture that forbade alcohol consumption and gave birth to modern mathematics. The coffee trend spread to Europe when Venetian travellers to Constantinople would be fascinated by the coffee culture of the Middle East and the first-ever coffeehouse sprung up in Venice soon after in 1629.
The first such coffee shop in England was opened in 1650 in Oxford by an Immigrant from Venice called Jacob the Jew. The concept of the coffeehouse exploded in London and at one point there was one coffeeshop for every two hundred Londoners. The coffee shop was a place where people would meet to discuss business, politics, science or a place to just catch up with friends.
The 16th Century saw the advent of listed companies for people to invest in, thereby limiting the shareholders’ liability to the amount invested, spreading risk across investors and allowing businesses to raise funds in a more efficient manner. The 17th Century was a time when one could trade in a sizable number of listed companies in the market. Initially, stockbrokers used to meet at the Royal Exchange. However, in time, the government regulations asked them to move out as they were being rowdy as a large number of these brokers filled up the space available at the Royal Exchange. Most of these brokers moved to Jonathan's Coffee House, where they would meet and speculate on stocks over coffee. It became a popular meeting place. A number of important events in trading history took place here including the South Sea bubble, an event where even Isaac Newton got his pants pulled down in the greed of the stock markets. An event that reminds us that even greats like Newton succumbed to mortal failings. Jonathan's burnt down in a fire in 1748. It was just an unfortunate, accidental fire, not the result of the vindictive action of some disgruntled derivatives trader. After a decade or so a number of brokers and stockjobbers came together and formed a club to trade stocks. This club built its own building dubbed the New Jonathan's, which was renamed the Stock Exchange, and is today known as The London Stock Exchange.
Coffee Regulations and Pricing
The supply chain that delivers our daily dose of caffeine goes through a regime of economic exploitation. For the price of a latte or mocha, hardly any pennies ever reach the farmers who actually grow the beans. Most of these farmers across the world are tucked into some rural corner of the world. Coffees prices have seen massive swings on globally because companies are always trying to find the cheapest source of production for their coffee. In the 1960s, the world's coffee-producing nations came together and passed the International Coffee Agreement, which set quotas for how much each nation could export to ensure price stability. Over the years the buying power got consolidated in the hands of a few large coffee corporations and the agreement fell apart. Pricing is now set by the futures market in London and New York. Companies like Starbucks work towards improving the welfare of coffee farmers by paying them fixed prices. Nestle has set up its coffee demonstration farms in India to help farmers improve quality, productivity, and sustainability. The company provides help to the coffee-growing farmers in the states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu to help farmers improve their practice, as demand for Nescafe is high in India. The company has provided farmers with high-yielding and disease-resistant plants developed by its R&D centers. With this initiative, the company has sought to source coffee sustainably by working effectively with some Indian coffee farmers and has competitive pricing. ITC has been treading a similar path. The initiatives are boosted by the Indian Government's plan to ensure the doubling of farmer income by 2022.
Caffeine and Digestion
Consuming coffee or tea right after a meal can cause tremendous damage to your digestive system. Rather than me sitting and typing it out, let me lead you to a video by Fit Tuber who has explained this beautifully. I hope you will keep a certain gap after every meal going forward after watching this video.
Here’s a small snippet from a doctor, Michael Gregor, M.D., whose views I admire. He advocates keeping a gap of minimum 1 hour for drinking caffeine before a meal and more than an hour after a meal. Michael Gregor on Coffee and Digestion
Also, beginning the day with coffee can be detrimental for your gut. During sleep, we lose close to 1 liter of water at night and we usually wake up dehydrated. The first thing that one should do is drink a bottle of water slowly and have a teaspoon of plain salt. As caffeine is acidic in nature, we need to be fairly hydrated before drinking any coffee or tea. We also lose essential salts through caffeine’s acidic property therefore having that teaspoon of salt makes a big difference.
I have recently bought my Ultrahuman Continuous Glucose Monitor which tracks the effects of exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress, meditation on my blood glucose levels, in the thread you can observe my real time data to see how caffeine raises blood glucose levels temporarily and when is an effective time to consume caffeine, this is subjective as per your age, genetics and level of activity. Click on the link to access the full thread on how caffeine and sleep have affected my blood glucose levels
Caffeine and Athletic Performance
Caffeine is scientifically proven to improve athletic performance. I generally take a shot of black coffee one hour before the gym, it takes about an hour to metabolise in your bloodstream through your small intestine. I see people taking a shot of black coffee in the gym itself and immediately working out. Coffee actually takes 30-60 minutes to metabolise in your bloodstream so it makes sense to consume it before you actually reach the gym or begin your workout.
Sports performance is increased through caffeine consumption by the blocking of adenosine receptors and increased release of muscle calcium as an athlete may be more prone to losing calcium through a workout through sweat. This process helps the body prepare for fight-or-flight situations by triggering the sympathetic nervous system.
Laird Hamilton, the legendary surfer, has his own brand of coffee creamers called Laird Super Food, which you can check out for that added boost in your performance.
Recommended Caffeine Intake
Up to 400 mg of caffeine per day is considered to be a safe upper limit for most healthy adults. Caffeine varies in quantity from cold drinks, coffee, tea, energy drinks. So one needs to be cognizant of the amount of caffeine they are consuming on a daily basis. Here is a link that contains the caffeine content of various drinks consumed across the world.
For the extreme coffee aficionados , I am leaving you with a link to Ben Greenfield’s awesome coffee-hacks to take your coffee drinking experience to the next level.
Fun and witty post. Truly a handbook on caffeine.