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Coffea stenophylla: A forgotten bean that could save coffee from extinction

(www.smithsonianmag.com)
170 points derbOac | 1 comments | 02 Apr 25 10:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.26s | source
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ndsipa_pomu ◴[02 Apr 25 14:26 UTC] No.43557060[source]▶
What puzzles me about the reported birth of coffee is that I wouldn't expect that just eating the cherries would give you that much of a caffeine kick to be noticeable. Yes, there's a little bit of caffeine in them, but far more in the "beans" (seeds).
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zdragnar ◴[02 Apr 25 14:50 UTC] No.43557345[source]▶
Tea also has noticeably less caffeine than coffee, yet it has been treated as an energizing drink since it was first discovered.

When you don't have any adrenal stimulants in your diet at all, even a small amount is noticable.

Caffeine also has a metabolic half life of roughly 5 hours in the body, if I remember correctly. A few berries might not do much, but surely a handful will be enough.

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1. hermitShell ◴[02 Apr 25 15:19 UTC] No.43557676[source]▶
This is why I routinely wean myself from coffee by drinking tea on most holiday weekends. I feel it helps me to dissociate less while I should be present with family, plus when I return to work I have much less residual caffeine and can hit peak productivity, crank out some code. Props to devs who don’t rely on drugs!