Recently, on a sunny Sunday morning, we went on a field trip to a nearby Dai village. It is a nice little village, with the only access roads being a small bridge for (motor)bikes or driving through a small river. We arrived early, and while the fog lifted from the valley with the newly planted rice fields, we saw the village slowly come to life. Some people set off for a nearby town, while others were drying the coffee from the last sanitary harvest, the air filled with the sounds of a storage being built. And while in most regions the sanitary harvest is nearly finished, the coffee has started flowering and the first coffee cherries of the crop to come can be seen on the trees. This however does not mean we have finished our buying season. Last week we had what must have been the largest queue to date: a seemingly endless row along the road leading to the buying station.
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I’ve recently learned coffee has some, at least to me, unexpected positive effects for office work. Apparently it was already known that the caffeine in coffee has analgesic capacities, and it is already being used as a component in some pain killers. Though, just a cuppa might do the trick as well. For those of us who work long hours on the computer, pain in neck, shoulders, arms and wrists probably sound familiar. Researchers have now discovered that drinking just one cup of coffee at breakfast might reduce these pains. For me, that makes two cups in the morning a necessity: one for waking up, one as preventive measure for all the administration awaiting me at the office.
It is now officially proven: coffee helps to have a positive outlook on life! Previous studies had already shown that people are quicker in recognizing positive words, images and sounds compared to negative ones. To learn more about how this preference works German researchers did an experiment with caffeine. As it was already known that caffeine makes people respond quicker and make less mistakes when given simple mental exercises, one would expect that under the influence of caffeine people would recognize both positive and negative words quicker. The tests however showed this was not the case: 7% more positive words were recognized than other words. The researchers think this is due to caffeine stimulating a part of the brain that is linked to positivity. So, if you, like me, are not Mr. or Mrs. Sunshine when you wake up, a daily dose of coffee early in the morning does help beat that morning temper.
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AuthorI wouldn't be surprised to find out I was born with a passion for coffee. For the life of me, I can't remember not loving coffee. And by that, I don't just mean drinking it, but everything involved from its cultivation over the processing to the final product that is my loyal companion throughout the day. Archives
February 2014
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