“You are what you eat,” is the motto I live by. And when it comes to my weakness for coffee, I’m in luck.
I read this morning that there are more benefits to drinking coffee than I had ever imagined. We all know that caffeine in coffee boosts our energy level – the reason for craving it first thing in the morning. In Covid times, we must do whatever we can to bring happiness to our days.
People love snapping photos of their lattes, espressos, and cappuccinos hand crafted by a barista. That’s because drinking coffee is a ceremony and a time for feeling good -- whether it’s that first cup of the day, or when meeting friends for “a coffee,” or having it after a meal with dessert.
But according to the article, the benefits are achieved only if the coffee is filtered. Filtering gets rid of the substances that could cause heart attacks -- the result of a study conducted at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
Filtered coffee also improves your mood, sharpens your mental focus, and improves performance while you exercise.
Coffee made with the French press as well as boiled Greek and Turkish coffees are luxuriously delicious, but they are not filtered. I was a French press devotee until I discovered the percolator – which has a fantastic filter system with tons of miniscule holes.
So, I decided to scroll through my digital photo albums to find a handful of coffee moments that brought me happiness – Starbucks Reserve in Guadalajara, Mexico; cappuccino, and Greek coffee at a monastery in Greece; after-dinner coffee in Manchester, England; morning coffee and cereal at a farm hut in Switzerland, and morning coffee on the Belmond British Pullman in London, England.
Drinking filtered coffee is valuable information I will keep on the back burner, no pun intended. One thing’s for sure: I give thanks to the coffee gods for the decadent beverage – no matter how it’s made or where I am in the world.