Another Cup of Coffee

For the past week, the song I've been addicted to is Mike and the Mechanic's "Another Cup of Coffee"… It started on one of those crazy nights when I was up till 3:00 or 4:00 working, and I was getting up to make myself a third cup of coffee when the song suddenly popped up in my head; actually just the line "and she pours herself another cup of coffee"… it had been years since I'd last heard it, and I couldn't remember who sang it or what else it said, so a bit of googling here, and off to Shareaza there, and tadaaa… it was like finding your lost love!

It just got me thinking about this amazingly addictive delicious beverage called Coffee and the whole culture associated with it all over the world! People don't just drink it for the caffeine when they want to stay up longer… it's the drink of the happy occasions, the sad occasions, going out with friends, kicking off the day, taking a moment off, gossiping with the neighbors ;p taking breaks at work…

"Let's go out for a cup of coffee"

"Murri 3a finjan 2ahweh…"

It's the official drink at the "Tulbeh" (asking for a girl's hand in marriage, done by senior men of both families), it's the welcome drink in times of major religious occasions (Easter, Christmas, Fitr, Adha), it's the ritual of socializing, and of course, it's every crammer's companion...

How come they're called "Coffee Shops" and not Tea shops?? No matter what these places serve now, they're called Cafes (French for coffee)… and in Arabic, the place where the men of the neighborhood used to go and play "tawlet zaher" was the "gahwah"… even though people here are big tea consumers, it wasn't called "Shai"!!

You even have those fortune tellers reading your future from your coffee cup!!!

Did you know that coffee as we know it today kicked off in Arabia, where roasted beans were first brewed around A.D. 1000? By the 13th century Muslims were drinking coffee religiously. The “bean broth” drove dervishes into orbit, kept worshippers awake, and splashed over into secular life. And wherever Islam went, coffee went too: North Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, and India.

Imagine that around 1500, Turkish law permitted a wife to divorce her husband for failing to keep the family ibrik, or pot, filled.

Read more of Coffee's fascinating history in this National Geographic article!

Many of Europe’s 18th-century literary and musical greats found coffee a pleasant prod to genius. Voltaire reportedly drank 50 cups a day; it’s a wonder he got any work done. Balzac revved up on it before he wrote, and Talleyrand took time to pen his perfect formula: “black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love.” Johann Sebastian Bach composed an entire cantata poking fun at those who sought to suppress the brew.

So what's your favorite coffee? Check this out for insights on different roasts.

Being very much into the healthy eating lifestyle, I was feeling a bit guilty and uncomfortable about my caffeine consumption… until I found this, which basically tells you that hundreds of studies have been done on caffeine with conflicting results, yet most studies reveal that a limit of 400 milligrams of caffeine/day, equal to about 3-4 cups of coffee, is okay. I like and trust this source ;)

Check out these Caffeine truths, and take a look at these effects of excess consumption.

Ok back to Mike and the Mechanics, "Another Cup of Coffee" is such a beautiful song;

"Don't look back and don't give up
Pour yourself another cup…"