All weekend, I was pretty much out of it. I think that if there were a sleeping contest, I would have won hands down. I have been dead tired during the day for a week now.
The culprit?
The 2010 World Cup. I am sure I am not alone in this situation – millions of people are in the same boat to be sure. All I can say is “Thank God for coffee” – the real kind, mind you, and not decaf.
Speaking of decaf, I was trying to perk myself up earlier by reading cartoons. (Yup, sometimes they work as well as coffee does.) I came across one that explains the meaning of decaf, which is short for decaffeinated, in case you are unsure. 😉
Now you probably think my brain is addled, but does caffeine really give coffee its taste?
That cartoon got me thinking…and researching. Before I knew it, I was deep into an article about the basics of coffee – the bean. Grounds for Coffee tells us about coffee oil, which is supposed to be the source of flavor:
A good roaster must be part artist, and part scientist, to maintain quality and consistency. It is during the roasting process that the sugars and other carbohydrates within the bean become caramelized, creating a substance which is known as the coffee oil. Technically, this fragile chemical is not actually an oil (since it is water soluble), but it is what gives the coffee its flavor and aroma.
It doesn’t say if this chemical is caffeine, though; although I doubt it. Does anyone know the answer?
Originally posted on June 22, 2010 @ 11:31 am