Coffee Alternatives

A Shot in the Dark
Affogato
Amaretto
Americano
Arabia
Black coffee
Brazillian Coffee
Breve
Café au Lait
Café Breva
Café Brulot Diabolique
Café con Leche
Café Corretto
Café Crème
Café Freddo
Café Macchiato
Café Mexicano
Café Mocha
Cafeate
Cafecito
Caffe Latte
Cappucino
Chai Charger
Chocolaccino
Chocolate Mocha
Chocolate Orange Coffee
Coffee Coke Float
Coffee Crème
Coffee Latte
Coffee Noggin
Coffee Velvet
Colombian Coffee
Con Panna
Corretto
Costaq Rica
Creamy Malibu Cup
Cuppa Wisdom
Decaf
Demi-crème
Depth Charge
Doppio
Double
Dry Capuccino
Espresso
Espresso con Panna
Espresso Granita
Espresso Lungo
Espresso Ristretto
Espresso Romano
Esrpesso Americano
Ethiopian Mocha
Flat White
Frappe
French Coffee
Fruit Coffee Drink
Granita Latte
Greek Frappe Coffee
Guatemalan Coffee
Hammerhead
Hawaiian Kona
Hazelnut Coffee
Honey Latte
Iced Café Au Lait
Iced Cappucino
Iced Cinnamon Coffee
Iced Coffee
Iced Espresso
Indian Filter Coffee
Indian Mysore
Irish Coffee
Irish Cream
Italian Coffee
Jamaican Blue Mountain
Java
Kenyan Coffee
Keoke
Latte
Latte Granita
Latte Macchiato
Long Black
Lungo
Macchiato
Mega Mocha Shake
Mexican Coffee
Mocha
Nicaraguan Coffee
Old Brown Java
Organic New Guinea
Peruvian Coffee
Red Eye
Ristretto
Romano
Russian Coffee
Sambuca
South Seas Café
Southern Belle
Sudanese Coffee
Sumatran Coffee
Turkish Coffee
Vienna
White Coffee Latte

The coffee pick-me-up (a short term effect)

Many people find that coffee gives them a boost of energy and enhanced attentiveness.  Caffeine is indeed a stimulant. Medically, it’s used for heart stimulation and for increasing urine production (a diuretic).

So why do you get the buzz?

Caffeine is chemically very similar to adenosine, a chemical secreted by the brain. Adenosine builds up throughout the day and binds to special receptors in the brain, slowing down nervous activity, dilating blood vessels and causing drowsiness. Like Adenosine, caffeine binds to the same receptors but has the opposite effect. It not only speeds up brain cell activity, it also blocks dilation of the blood vessels, constricting blood vessels of the brain.

The increased nerve cell activity causes the pituitary gland to releases hormones, acting as though the body were facing an emergency. The hormones stimulate the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline, causing:

• Increase in heart rate
• Dilating pupils and airways
• Raising blood pressure by constricting blood vessels close to the surface
• Reducing blood flow to the stomach
• The liver to release sugar into the bloodstream to provide extra energy.

Drinking coffee throughout the day causes the body to be in intermittent ‘fight and flight’ mode.

Coffee and its adverse affects on our sleep patterns

Caffeine remains in the body’s system for around 12 hours. A single cup of coffee can contain up to 200mg of caffeine. If you were to drink a cup of coffee at around 4pm, by 10pm you should have about 100mg of caffeine still in your system (body).

You could fall asleep with this amount of caffeine within you, however, your ability to attain the required deep sleep your body requires to repair and rest is severely impaired. Consequently, you wake up feeling tired and reach for that cup of coffee in the morning to help wake you up. This is how the caffeine cycle keeps perpetuating.

After reaching a moderate case of addition you being to feel very tired and mildly depressed when you try to break free of this cycle. Dilation of blood vessels in the brain may also cause headaches and migraines again making it harder to fall asleep. For this reason, you should try to cut down your consumption gradually for your body to adapt to the change.

Caffeine is the main reason why people have problems getting to sleep