# Coffee Buzz 🫨 ![[Magic Beans.jpeg]] ### Coffee: Good, Bad, or Ugly? I have been trying to figure out what would be the best article topic to start my blog with. I wanted it to be something relevant and of great interest to the majority of people. Should I write about Fish oil?… Mushrooms?… Exercise? All of these are important for good health and have tons of information to dive into, but none of them felt like good starting points. The other day I got it! Why not start my blog the way most people start their day?… With coffee! ### Magic Beans There are a lot of myths and legends around coffee. Rest assured that I am not about to demonize it. Coffee is an important part of my day. I have ADHD and coffee helps me focus. Ultimately, I think coffee is a great component of a healthy lifestyle. In fact coffee is one of America’s main sources of polyphenols (good stuff, like antioxidants). It is also a good source of soluble fiber and magnesium. Coffee has been linked to many health benefits and a quick search on pubmed will bring up all kinds of articles showing that it is linked to metabolic, cardiovascular, liver, and neurological health. It has even been shown to improve physical performance across the board. There are lots of articles on the health benefits of coffee, so I don’t want to spend too much time masticating all the research. Dr Axe’s website has a well researched article on the health benefits. I mostly want to encourage the idea that coffee CAN be a very healthy addition to your day. Notice the emphasis on can. ### All Good Things Come To An End So, coffee itself is healthy, but how it is grown, prepared, and more importantly what is added to it can amplify or negate the health benefits. Let’s get into the ways that coffee’s health benefits can be diminished. No, a Venti caramel macchiato with whip and sprinkles is not good for you. I don’t even really think that can be considered coffee.  Let’s start with your direct impact on coffee and expand from there. How you store, make, and what you add to coffee can all impact the taste and more importantly the health benefits you get. Creamers, Flavors, and sweeteners can quickly switch your coffee from healthy to unhealthy. If you can’t taste the coffee anymore the odds are you are doing more harm than good. These things can have all kinds of additives like, inflammatory oils, artificial dyes/flavors, alarming levels of sugar, and the list goes on. Instead opt for organic cream and natural sweeteners. Honey is my preference, but you could also use maple syrup, coconut sugar, stevia, monk fruit, and more. Natural and organic flavor modifiers like, vanilla, cacao, and peppermint essential oil can be used as well. How coffee is produced can have big impacts on how healthy it is for you and the planet as well. It is important for coffee to be responsibly grown and harvested. Not only the coffee plant, but the bean too can pick up toxins from the soil and the environment. Pesticides, herbicides, molds, and heavy metals can end up in your cup if the coffee isn’t grown and handled correctly. Many coffee companies can take advantage of the people that live in the area coffee is grown too. Often there aren’t as many laws and regulations in these areas and the locals suffer because of it. It is important to look for certifications like organic, fair trade, and rainforest alliance. These certifications alone don’t guarantee the perfect coffee, but they do get things headed in the right direction and can be quick indicators of a better coffee supplier when you don’t have time to thoroughly evaluate a company. It is also good to look for phrases like “Shade grown”, “Single origin”, or any language that shows an understanding of what leads to a higher quality coffee. You also want to see language with an intention of social and environmental responsibility. Ultimately, there is no one indicator of a great coffee. You have to seek out multiple indicators and the coffee with the most positive indicators will be the best. I personally get my coffee from Camano Island Coffee. You can find out why here: https://camanoislandcoffee.com/why-were-different/ ### Lead By Example Here is an example of what I do for my daily dose of caffeine. It is not the only way I consume coffee, but it is how I prepare it most often. #### I like to make my coffee using a moka: This one I got from Grosche and it has been great! I prefer the stainless steel to aluminum. James Hoffman has the best strategy for making coffee with a moka, that I have seen. He has a couple videos on the moka on his YouTube channel. He is a great source for all things coffee. #### I grind my coffee for the moka using a Hario hand grinder: I have it set to a medium-fine grind. Too coarse and the flavor isn’t as good, too fine and it gets burnt. There are much better ones out there, but this is a good one for the price and I really like that it collects the grounds in glass instead of plastic. It can also attach to some mason jars, which can be handy for grinding coffee to take camping, or if you break the jar it comes with. 😒 #### I use a Coffee Gator gooseneck kettle for boiling the water: I don’t need a gooseneck for the moka, but sometimes I do pour over for coffee and tea and for that, a gooseneck is crucial. This kettle also has a thermometer that helps get the correct brewing temperature, especially for tea. #### I use raw, unfiltered, and local (If I can find quality honey locally) honey as sweetener: Raw and unfiltered honey retains more of the beneficial compounds of honey. This makes it more than just a sweetener. Honey can even have powerful medicinal properties, like [[manuka]] honey. I’ll use [[manuka]] honey in short durations to fight off an infection of some sort, but I don’t recommend using it all the time. Common honey has plenty of goodies for your overall health. #### I also add coffee boosters: The 2 that I add most consistently are a mushroom extract blend and collagen. These mix easily and don’t interfere with my enjoyment of the coffee. Some additives will change the texture and/or flavor of the coffee and impact the enjoyment. I am planning on losing the collagen as I am adding a supplement (Biosil) that helps with collagen production. #### Last is the cream that I add to my coffee: I use Kalona most often, but there are several good options that I have found. The most important feature I look for in a cream is that it comes from grass fed cows. Other things I look for are organic, regenerative, vat pasteurized, A2, and cream top. Not necessarily in that order. The only real deal breaker is if it isn’t grass fed. Milk from a grass fed cow has a very different chemical makeup than from a grain fed cow.