Tag Archives: coffee
Things We Like: Managing Coffee Intake For Better Sleep
Post by Kyle St. Romain.
It’s no secret that I look forward to my morning cup of coffee. The caffeine certainly helps fuel my desire to indulge, but I also enjoy the ritual and flavor. Having been away from home the past couple months, I have deeply missed my fresh-ground café latte in the mornings. And while coffee shops abound, unfortunately, Starbucks just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Last week I found hope: a new coffee shop nearby with an appeal to the coffee connoisseur (at least I thought so). Excited for the prospect of some good Joe, I turned this place into my office for the day and drank a variety of coffee creations with reckless disregard of getting to sleep that night. While I did get all my work done for the day, I also found myself wide-awake at 2:00 that morning. Wow! That’s some good stuff.
I’m not usually this sensitive to caffeine, and definitely have a new appreciation for this powerful stimulant. What I’m even worse at is self-control, which is why I was happy to discover a new app, called Up Coffee, that helps you manage your coffee intake throughout the day. It’s free to download, and all you have to do is enter information about your gender, weight, height, caffeine sensitivity and regular bedtime. Then, when you have a caffeinated beverage make note of it on the app, which will then tell you approximately how long it will be before you can get to sleep.
In addition to the time to your target bedtime, Up Coffee will also show you charts of how caffeinated you are throughout the day (may be helpful for planning time for prime productivity), compare your consumption to other users (which may be a bit skewed due to the fact that the only people using the app are the ones drinking lots of caffeine), and other fun little tidbits.
Is a coffee management app right for you?
I don’t usually drink coffee in the late afternoon or evenings, save the occasional affogato (espresso poured over a scoop of ice cream), so there really isn’t much of a need for me to adjust my caffeine intake to get a better sleep every day. Plus, I don’t usually go to bed until after midnight anyway. However, if you’re drinking coffee well into the early evening on a regular basis and need to get to bed at a decent hour, then a little app like this may be just what you need.
Things We Like: A Cup Of Morning Motivation
Post by Kyle St. Romain.
Most of us don’t enjoy getting out of bed early every morning. Even when you do get to catch that coveted thirty extra minutes of sleep on the weekend, starting your day often seems like more of a chore than it should otherwise be. After all, we ought to cherish every day we get to spend with our friends, family, and loved ones, right? Right! Just after I hit snooze a couple more times….
I’ll admit that I’m one of the worst when it comes to waking up in the morning, especially if it isn’t for anything new and exciting like catching a red-eye to kick off a fun vacation, or getting in line early at a hot new brunch spot. But why is that? I’m certainly capable of waking up in the morning, I just don’t want to. Many of you probably suffer from this same problem, which I have decided is mostly due to a lack of motivation (or caffeine).
Motivation is a very powerful thing and while everyone has different incentives that get them out of bed, I wanted to share with you one of the main things I’ve come to look forward every morning: coffee.
A lot of people already drink coffee in the morning, but I never could. I simply cannot drink the regular hot drip-brewed coffee for the life of me. It does worse to my stomach than eating a whole jar of jalapenos soaked in Tabasco sauce and doing a belly flop into a cold pool (not even waiting the requisite 15 minutes after eating). As you can imagine, this means that coffee has never been a big part of my morning routine. However, I’ve discovered that I can drink espresso (and cold-drip) by the gallon without any problems at all. In fact, I’ve learned that there are a number of other people whom share a similar experience. Wish-you-could-be coffee drinkers, rejoice!
While espresso usually means an expensive coffee machine or a quick visit with your local barista, it doesn’t have to; you can make great-tasting espresso right on your stovetop.
A Moketta (Moka Pot) is a little Italian style coffee maker. You simply fill it with water and espresso grinds, and put it on your hot stove. In about minute’s time, you have a fresh shot of espresso (or two or five, depending on the size of your Moketta). Order a couple tins of Italian espresso grinds like Lavazza or illy, and you’re all ready for the full experience. It’s surprising just how good of an espresso a Moketta makes. So good that it’s forever ruined the burnt taste of Starbucks.
Now, there are a lot of people out there who likewise swear by the French Press method of making coffee. While French Press coffee is good, it’s just a bit messy for me.
So why does coffee work such miracles in the morning? Part of it is due to the caffeine, and the other part is due to the caffeine. But seriously, I really like the taste of coffee and I’ve come to look forward to it in the morning, which is an ideal time to enjoy it. On the occasional weekend you can even replace the sugar with a splash of Kahlua. Now you’ve really got a cup of something special to look forward to! Don’t drink coffee? Teas and Yerba Maté provides you with an alternative caffeine fix.
In any event, everyone has a different reason for getting up in the morning: coffee, a hot shower, the fear of missing work and not being able to pay the bills on time—whatever. So, what gets you out of bed in the morning? Are you fortunate enough to have been born a morning person, or have you created a carrot (or a stick) for yourself? Let us know in the comments below.
