Coffea cruda:Which illumines the reality of things suddenly with the flash of truth.
- VERMEULEN Frans
Coff.
Coffee, the sober drink, the mightly nourishment of the brain,
which, unlike other spirits, heightens purity and lucidity;
coffee, which clears the clouds of the imagination and their gloomy weight;
which illumines the reality of things suddenly with the flash of truth."
[Jules Michelet]
Coffee might be considered useful by those who set a higher worth upon saving their time than on maintaining their lives and health, and who are compelled to work into the night.
[Linnaeus]
Signs
Coffea arabica. [Unroasted coffee.] N.O. Rubiaceae.
CLASSIFICATION Dependent on the taxonomic system, the number of genera placed in the Rubiaceae or Coffee family varies from 500 to 600; some botanists recognize about 7,000 species as belonging to this family, while others include about 10,000 species. It is a large family of trees, shrubs, lianas and herbs, sometimes ant-inhabited, epiphytic or aquatic. Older systems recognize two subfamilies, but recently three completely different subfamilies have been supposed, as follows: Rubioideae [comprising 11 tribes], Cinchonoideae [17 tribes], and Guettardoideae [1 tribe]. The Rubiaceae resembles members of the Gentianales, in particular the Loganiaceae, which includes Gelsemium, Spigelia, Strychnos nux-vomica, and Strychnos ignatii.
DISTRIBUTION The family is concentrated in the tropics and subtropics with some species represented in temperate regions and even the Arctic and Antarctic. Most tropical species are trees or shrubs while temperate ones are herbaceous. The most economically important genus of the family is Coffea, the source of coffee; other members, such as Cinchona and Cephaelis [Ipecacuanha], are important medicinally, or are cultivated as ornamentals, e.g. Gardenia and Bouvardia. Well-known European herbaceous members include Rubia, Asperula and Galium.
COFFEA The genus Coffea contains some 70 species but only three are of economic importance. Coffea arabica accounts for about 90 per cent of the world's coffee production, Coffea canephora [robusta coffee] about 9 per cent, and Coffea liberica [liberica coffee] the remainder. Coffea arabica originated in the south-western highlands of Ethiopia and still occurs naturally there. It was taken to Arabia at an early date, then the Middle East, and into Europe in the 17th century. During the 18th century, the species was transported to the Caribbean, Central and South America. There was also early transportation of the crop to India, Sri Lanka, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, and East Africa. The plant is cultivated in the region known as the coffee belt, which is between latitude 25 N and 30 S. Circling the globe, the coffee belt includes parts of central and western Africa, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean. The two biggest producers by far are Brazil and Colombia, followed by Indonesia, Vietnam and Mexico. Coffea canephora grows wild in African equatorial forests. It is cultivated mainly in West Africa, also in Uganda and Indonesia. Coffea liberica is of little economic importance but has been used as a filler with other coffees. 1 Coffea arabica is the source of the world's finest tasting coffee. Coffea robusta is a species that grows more quickly, costs less to grow, and is used primarily in commercial blends as a background for finer tasting coffees.
FEATURES In spite of Linnaeus first describing the genus Coffea in the 18th century, there is to this very day no agreement on the classification because of the wide variations that occur in coffee plants and seeds. Species of Coffea range from small shrubs to trees as tall as 8 metres high and the leaves can range in colour from purple to yellow, although green is the predominant colour. Coffee trees grow best where there is plenty of rain at certain times of the year and well-drained, rich, volcanic soil. The plant does not like sudden changes in temperature, and frost can kill it. Although it likes a warm climate, it cannot take too much direct sunlight and is therefore often shaded by trees. Coffea arabica is an evergreen shrub or small tree growing to 9 metres in its wild state. During cultivation the tree is pruned to around 2 metres in height, which permits regular flowering and easier harvesting. It has dark green, shiny oval leaves. After three or four years, a tree reaches adult age and is then able to produce flowers. The white star-shaped flowers bloom in groups of 8 to 15 bunches and emit a light fragrance, reminiscent of Jasmine. The flowers give rise to green berries [actually, drupes] which turn first red and then violet-black. Coffea has the unique property of bearing flowers, green berries, and ripened fruits at the same time.
VARIETIES Numerous varieties exist within the species Arabica, due to mutations caused by ecological differences in the regions where the trees are grown. 'Typica', for example, is very common in Brazil, where it develops into a tree smaller than that of the normal Arabica. It bears yellow fruits, has a high caffeine level and is very resistant to frosts. 'Colombia' is a variety of Arabica cultivated in Colombia. Arabica coffees are described either as 'Brazils' [because they come from Brazil] or as 'Other Milds' [which come from elsewhere].
CONSTITUENTS Caffeine [1-2% in C. arabica; up to 4% in C. canephora]; coffee oil [10-15%]; trigonelline; volatile oils; tannins; sucrose and other sugars [about 8%]; proteins [about 11%]; chlorogenic and caffeic acids [about 6%]; niacin/nicotinic acid [coffee is a rich source of niacin, the quantity of which increases during the roasting process]. The green beans contain large amounts of chlorogenic acid, which is partly destroyed by the roasting process. Chlorogenic acid is a universal allergen; it causes allergic reactions to itself, but also sensitizes the body to other allergens. Due to chlorogenic acid, latent allergies may become manifest after ingesting coffee. Coffee, in particular the instant variety, is fairly low in sodium but very rich in potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, copper and sulphur.
DISCOVERY Various legends exist about the discovery of coffee in Ethiopia, where Coffea arabica since time immemorial has been growing in the wild forests of the south-western highlands of Kaffa. It all began with a goatherd who noticed that his goats pranced excitedly after grazing on the leaves and fruit of the coffee bush, which made him taste the berries himself and subsequently enjoy their stimulating effect. The goatherd then passed his experience on to an Arab mullah, in one legend, or to a monk of a monastery near Lake Tana, in another legend. The mullah accidentally burned some beans, but tried them nevertheless. Their excellent flavour convinced him to continue to prepare them in this way in the future. The monk, for his part, took some of the seeds and planted them in the vicinity of the monastery. He roasted and brewed the harvested berries and tried out the beverage on his brethren. As a result they were kept awake during their long prayers at night, which lead to the acceptance of coffee as a stimulant drink. The beverage is supposed to have been named after the district where coffee originated, Kaffa, from which derives its Arabic name, kahwah. "Although the dating may be vague, the logic of coffee drinking for Arabic-Islamic civilization is incontestable. As a non-alcoholic, nonintoxicating, indeed even sobering and mentally stimulating drink, it seemed to be tailor-made for a culture that forbade alcohol consumption and gave birth to modern mathematics. Arabic culture is dominated by abstraction more than any other culture in human history. Coffee has rightly been called the wine of Islam."2 In the Islam coffee has a special ceremonial and ritual importance. It is generally consumed in a very social setting and promotes conversation and activity.
HISTORY The historical record suggests that coffee was originally consumed as a food among African tribes. "Ripe berries from coffee bushes were crushed in stone mortars and then mixed with animal fat. War parties consumed these balls of coffee and fat for their calories and stimulation. It appears that about 900 AD, Ethiopians began to make a wine from the fermented pulp of coffee berries. The beverage was called qahwah [meaning 'spirit drink'] in Arabic, the forerunner of the term kahveh in Turkish, café in French, kaffee in German, and caffé in Italian. Because alcohol was soon to be forbidden among Muslims, it was most fortunate that these coffee berries were able to produce a hot, nonalcoholic beverage capable of inducing feelings of pleasure and stimulation. The practice of boiling green berries in water to create a liquid resembling our modern coffee started about 1000 AD, possibly as a means of softening the hard beans. The word qahwah or kahveh was transferred to this new beverage toward the end of the 13th century."3 Toward the end of the 16th century, the German physician and botanist Leonhart Rauwolf [1546-1596] was the first European to describe the consumption of a beverage 'nearly as black as ink' by the Turks and Arabs. By about 1700 coffee was firmly established as a beverage among the trend-setting strata of European society. "Court aristocracy added coffee drinking as one more flourish to its cult of luxury. Essentially it was not the drink itself that mattered to court society but how it could be consumed, the opportunities it afforded for display of elegance, grace, and high refinement. The porcelain that was created expressly for coffee drinking at the court was what mattered most. Form replaced content. Bourgeois society of the same period regarded coffee in a different, quite contrary light. Not form, but substance - the drink - was the focus of interest. ... The late 17th-century middle classes welcomed coffee as the 'Great Soberer'. The coffee drinker's good sense and business efficiency were contrasted with the alcohol drinker's inebriation, incompetence, and laziness, most clearly in texts from 17th-century Puritan England. 'Tis found already', wrote James Howell in 1660, 'that this coffee drink hath caused a greater sobriety among the Nations. Whereas formerly Apprentices and clerks with others used to take their morning's draught of Ale, Beer, or Wine, which, by the dizziness they Cause in the Brain, made many unfit for business, they use now to play the Good-fellows in this wakeful and civil drink.' ... Coffee awakened a drowsing humanity from its alcoholic stupor to middle-class common sense and industry - so 17th-century coffee propaganda would have it. ... In 17th-century England the idea of coffee as an anti-erotic drink was direct and concrete; it was regarded as a substance that reduced sexual energies. ... Coffee as the beverage of sobriety and coffee as the means of curbing the sexual urges - it is not hard to recognize the ideological forces behind this reorientation. Sobriety and abstinence have always been the battle cry of puritanical, ascetic movements. English Puritanism, and more generally, the Protestant ethic, defined coffee in this way and then wholeheartedly declared it their favourite drink. There is no doubt that coffee is to a large degree an ideologically freighted drink. Yet it would be wrong to see only this aspect of it. ... The 17th century was the century of rationalism, not only in philosophy, but in all the important areas of material life. ... The 17th-century bourgeois was distinguished from people of past centuries by his mental as well as his physical lifestyle. Medieval man did physical work, for the most part under the open sky. The middle-class man worked increasingly with his head, his workplace was the office, his working position was sedentary. The ideal that hovered before him was to function as uniformly and regularly as a clock. It is perfectly obvious that this new way of life and work would affect the entire organism. In this connection coffee functioned as a historically significant drug. It spread through the body and achieved chemically and pharmacologically what rationalism and the Protestant ethic sought to fulfil spiritually and ideologically. With coffee, the principle of rationality entered human physiology, transforming it to conform to its own requirements. The result was a body which functioned in accord with the new demands - a rationalistic, middle-class, forward-looking body. ... Coffee promised nothing less than to lengthen and intensify the time available for work. In this sense, not to drink any coffee would be almost as great a sin for the puritanical bourgeois as wasting time itself."4
OPPOSITION "The establishment was afraid of the joy of life and sense of freedom liberated in the coffee drinkers. Coffee became a subversive drink, gathering people together and sharpening their wits, encouraging political arguments and revolt - a characteristic which was to follow it into Europe and which was felt particularly in times of social unrest. ... Of the sporadic persecution of coffee houses and drinkers, the most savage was in 1656 when the Ottoman Grand Vizir Koprili suppressed the coffee houses for political reasons, and prohibited coffee. For a first violation the punishment was cudgelling. For a second, the offender was put into a leather bag, which was sewn up and thrown into the Bosporus. The straits thus claimed many a man. ... In Italy it was the priests who appealed to Pope Clement VIII to have the use of coffee forbidden among Christians. Satan, they said, had forbidden his followers, the infidel Moslems, the use of wine because it was used in the Holy Communion, and given them instead his 'hellish black brew'. It seems the Pope liked the drink, for his reply was: 'Why, this Satan's drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We shall cheat Satan by baptizing it.' Thus coffee was declared a truly Christian beverage by a farsighted Pope. However, this did not stop the Council of Ten in Venice from trying to eradicate the 'social cankers', the cafés, which they charged with immorality, vice and corruption."5
COFFEEHOUSES While tobacco and cacao travelled from west to east, coffee went in the opposite direction and was introduced in Europe from the Ottoman Empire via trade and travel. Presumably coffee was first brought to Europe as an article of trade by the Venetians in 1615. It was first drunk in Rome and then gradually spread to the rest of Europe. The first coffeehouse opened in Italy in 1645 [Venice], in England in 1650 [The Angel in Oxford], in France in 1672, in Austria [Vienna] in 1683, and in Germany [Regensburg] in 1686. In Sweden and Denmark coffee was introduced at the beginning of the 18th century. Spain was the last country in Europe to adopt coffee houses. The innovative drink had to compete especially with establishments selling chocolate which the Spaniards had discovered in South America in the 16th century. It was only in the early 19th century that cafés opened selling the 'foreign drink' coffee, which became the drink of Spanish intellectuals and left-wing political dissidents. Records indicate that coffee was being drunk regularly in New York by the 1680s, when many began to substitute it for beer at their breakfast meal. Yet, for reasons that are not completely clear, separate coffeehouses never flourished in the United States as they did in Europe. In 1773, the Continental Congress declared coffee the official national beverage [as King of the American breakfast table], after a massive public revolt against King George's Tea Tax. "The renaissance of coffeehouses in the United States dovetailed almost perfectly with the counterculture movement among youth between the late 1950s and the early 1970s. Artists and writers living in New York City during the late 1950s adopted coffeehouses as the forum for their 'beat' take on life. By the 1960s more and more coffeehouses appeared and attracted those who sought to bond with other critics of bourgeois American culture. Coffeehouses launched experimental theatre productions, displayed the work of local artists, arranged to poetry readings, and introduced urban audiences to the emerging genre of the countercultural movement, where initiates were exposed to existentialism, Eastern religion, and metaphysical interpretations of life's mysteries. ... The number of coffeehouses in the United States has grown dramatically in recent years. The growing dominance of the 'sanitized' coffeehouses such as Starbucks is in direct proportion to the decline of the role of coffeehouses as purveyors of 'alternative spirituality'. Indeed, many modern coffeehouses are built in locations chosen solely for their proximity to places of work. Forces of capitalism regulate Americans' coffee consumption as much, or possibly more, than any spiritual urges, no matter how loosely the concept of spirituality is defined. ... Yet even given the commercial forces underlying patronage of contemporary American coffeehouses, they nonetheless continue to provide the social settings and mood-altering rituals in which unchurched spirituality continues to prosper. ...The popularity of coffeehouses [whether of the upscale or hippie variety] reveals a continuing connection between coffee and spirituality - and more particularly, a spirituality that flourishes outside our official religious institutions. Corner coffee shops, sixtiesish coffeehouses, and even the neighbourhood kaffeklatsch provide a forum of spirited - and spiritual - human exchange. For that matter, even America's churches have recognized the value of a 'coffee hour' promptly after the conclusion of weekly worship services. The 'coffee hour' provides an opportunity for church members to linger after the formal worship service, engage in informal conversation, and quite literally feel the exhilaration of the faith they came to renew."6
EXCHANGE Coffeehouses in England were exclusively for men. They were called 'Penny Universities" because for a penny one could obtain coffee, or tea, a copy of the newspaper, and engage in conversation with the sharpest wits of the day. One of the most successful coffeehouses was Lloyd's Coffeehouse, opened in 1687 on London's Tower Street. Lloyd's soon evolved into a place where people went to hear the latest trade news. One sector of Lloyd's clientele in particular continued to expand - the insurance brokers. In the course of the 18th century Lloyd's completely shed its role as a coffeehouse and became the world-famous institution of today, the largest insurance brokerage in the world. The coffeehouses of the 17th and 18th century were primarily places to do business, which didn't have to be of an entirely commercial nature; politics, art, and literature were considered by the middle class to be part of business. In Vienna the coffeehouse continued longest as the site of these activities. In London, where the form first flourished, it also disappeared first, eclipsed in the 18th century by its successor, the club. In the coffeehouse culture of the Enlightenment, the coffeehouse was the gathering place of intellectuals and centre for discussion. It fulfilled its most important social role as a centre for communication, functioning as a sort of news exchange in a period that had no daily newspaper. The coffeehouse fulfilled this function not only for commerce, but also for two other middle-class bourgeois activities: journalism and literature. In the early 18th century the editors of London's weeklies used coffeehouses as their editorial offices. Some editors classified the various kinds of news according to which of the coffeehouses - news exchanges - had been the source of information. "The most important direct effect coffeehouses had on literature was probably in helping to create a culture of dialogue, of conversation, which originated in coffeehouses and only then made its way into written literature. Coffee began its career in the public sphere, as a specifically public drink, and only later migrated into the private sphere to be served at home. In its public, heroic phase, that of the coffeehouse, coffee was a powerful force for change, helping to forge a new reality. Moving into the middle-class home, to become a breakfast-time and afternoon drink, it grew passive, with a tendency toward the idyllic. It no longer exclusively symbolized the dynamic realm of early middle-class public life, politics, literature, and commerce; it stood more and more for domestic comfort, Gemütlichkeit. ... Thus coffee, which began as a symbol of public life, activity, business, etc., ended up as a symbol of family life and domestic tranquility."7
ARTS Philosophers such as Voltaire [1694-1778], Rousseau [1712-1778], and Kant [1724-1804] were enthusiastic coffee drinkers. Voltaire, who is reputed to have drunk up to 50 cups of coffee per day, called coffee 'a sombre, exceedingly cerebral liquor.' Kant's clocklike regularity is famous; his neighbours allegedly set their watches by his precisely timed daily walks. The French novelist Honoré de Balzac [1799-1850] was a coffee addict in the true sense of the word. In order to pay off his huge debts, de Balzac performed phenomenal bouts of work. He spent 14-16 hours writing at his table, kept awake by exorbitant amounts of thick, black, intensely strong coffee. In 30 years de Balzac consumed an estimated 50,000 cups of coffee. At the end of his life he switched over to opium. The most famous composition dedicated to coffee is Johann Sebastian Bach's 'Kaffeekantate' [BWV 211], a secular cantata serving as a kind of commercial for the established coffeehouse [1720] of Zimmerman's as well as to mock a medical campaign to discredit coffee in Germany. Liesgen's aria, in the 4th movement, expresses Bach's love for coffee. The American pop musician Frank Zappa [1940-1993] called coffee [and cigarettes] the basic nourishment for his creative productivity.
MEDICINE According to legend, Mohammed was cured of narcolepsy with coffee. There are indications in Arabic medical literature that coffee was used medicinally as early as the 10th century. Coffee first came to Europe from Arabia in the 1600s as a medicine, not as a beverage. In 17th-century France, physicians controlled coffee; the bean was sold more as a drug than as a drink, and coffee sellers hawked it as a type of therapeutic panacea. In 17th-century England coffee was regarded as a substance that reduced sexual energies, even to the point of impotence. It was recommended to clerics who lived in celibacy for it 'replaced sexual arousal with stimulation of the intellect.' Coffee also developed a reputation as a respiratory treatment. In 1859, the Scottish physician Salter reported strong coffee to be 'one of the best reputed remedies for asthma', resulting in the common prescription of black mocha coffee for allergic bronchial asthma.
PROCESSING Each berry contains two coffee seeds, which are shaped like two halves of a bean. Processing of coffee berries removes the fruit skin [epicarp], pulp [mesocarp], horny parchment [endocarp] and 'silverskin' [integument] to leave the marketed product, the green bean. There are two methods to remove the beans [seeds] from the berries. The wet process involves pulping, fermentation in water, and drying. The beans remain enclosed in the parchment, which is ultimately removed by mechanical hulling. Beans processed in this way are considered the best and are described as 'mild'. The second method, the dry process, involves drying and the removal of the pulp and parchment by mechanical hulling. This gives 'naked' seeds which are described as 'hard'.
RITUALS "Few travellers to the Levant fail to notice the luxury of tranquil enjoyment possessed by those who sit in front of a tiny cup filled with syrupy, frothy, black coffee, epitome of a way of life which prizes 'kayf' [peace of mind] above all things. ... Perhaps it is the early religious use of coffee that has given it a ceremonial character in the world of Islam. ... Today, centuries after it became secularized, coffee drinking is still in the Middle East an activity enmeshed in ritual, practised at all times throughout the day. In Arabia a watered down form of an early coffee-drinking ceremony still exists, starting with a string of gestures, greetings, praises to God, enquiries into health, traditional formulas of courtesy of an infinite and elegant variety. Rules of etiquette are observed in serving, in some cases involving each process of making, each performed with intense seriousness and deliberate nicety. The tiny, half-egg-sized cups are refilled three or four times. To refuse is an unforgivable insult. In this proverbially hospitable area, coffee is the symbol of hospitality. It is considered an outrage not to offer a cup of coffee to anyone who enters your house and an almost equal outrage to refuse. Coffee is made individually as soon as a visitor arrives, always freshly brewed in the small, long-handled copper or brass pots called kanaka or ibrik, sometimes roasted and pounded just before brewing. ... It is essential that each cup of coffee must have its share of the foam, which is called wesh [face]. To ensure this, coffee is poured with a slight quiver of the hand. An important person is served first, the oldest next, and women last. Among Bedouins, cups are served only half filled. A filled one would mean: 'Drink up and go!' - a bitter insult also shown in the adage: 'Fill the cup for your enemy'. Here ritual insists that the pourer should be served first to ensure that the pot is not a deadly one for the person of most importance who is served next. It is not unknown for people to have been dispatched to another world with poison slipped into a cup of coffee. At this stage comes a great deal of arguing with shouts of 'Abadan! Abadan!' as each guest refuses, wishing to honour his neighbour more. ... The sweetness of the drink is sometimes determined by the occasion. At a happy one, such as a wedding or a birthday, it is served sweet, while at a funeral it must be drunk without any sugar at all."8
EFFECTS Variously described as an 'elixir of life' as well as a poison, controversy has always raged over its effects. Among various investigations carried out over the years to settle the controversy, a notable one was made in Sweden in the 18th century. Identical twin brothers were condemned to death for murder. King Gustav III commuted their sentences to life imprisonment on condition that one twin be given a large daily dose of tea and the other of coffee. The tea drinker died first at the age of eighty-three. The question was settled, and today the Swedes are amongst the world leaders in coffee consumption. 9 "Coffee, if used with moderation, assists digestion, promotes intestinal peristalsis, allays the senses of fatigue and hunger, lessens tissue-waste and consequently decreases the formation and excretion of urea [?]. Used to excess it disorders digestion, and causes functional disturbances of the nervous system, shown by headache, vertigo, mental confusion, and palpitation of the heart. It increases secretion, blunts sensation, exalts reflex excitability, increases mental activity, and may produce insomnia and great nervous restlessness. It first briefly stimulates the heart and raises arterial tension, but soon depresses both. The wakefulness is usually preceded by a brief period of drowsiness. The brief stimulation of the intellect, consequent on drinking a cup of good coffee, cannot be obtained from an infusion of raw coffee, and is probably due to the volatile constituents developed in roasting. Caffeone opposes Caffeine in its action on the circulation, as it quickens the pulse and lowers arterial tension. Its action, however, is of brief duration, and soon gives way to the influence of the principal constituent. The Tannin is the ingredient which enables it to produce dyspepsia, and is most abundant in those infusions which are kept a long time on the stove before being served. The green bean produces very different effects from those of the roasted one, exhibiting the action of Caffeine alone, unmodified by that of the empyreumatic products. A tincture of green coffee, besides being an efficient diuretic, has marked anti-lithic powers, and promotes the elimination of the poison of gout from the system."10
CAFFEINE The CNS stimulant caffeine is present in the leaves, seed or fruits of more than 60 plant species worldwide, with coffee, tea, cocoa, maté, guarana, and cola nuts as the best known examples. It is the most prevalent stimulant in Western society, and it may be included in over-the-counter drugs such as analgesics. Although arabica beans generally contain less caffeine than robusta beans, the caffeine content depends on the variety of coffee bean, as well as where the bean is grown, the manufacture of the product, the length of brewing, and the proportion of coffee to water. A single serving of coffee, in an 8-oz cup, varies from 65-120 mg of caffeine for brewed coffee to 60-85 mg for instant coffee. An 1-oz cup of espresso contains about the same amount of caffeine [30-55 mg] as 1-oz shots of cappuccino or latte. Decaffeinated coffee is almost without caffeine; an 8-oz cup of brewed or instant decaff contains 1-4 mg of caffeine. Apart from its mild central stimulant effects, caffeine stimulates the cardiac muscle, relaxes smooth muscle - in particular bronchial muscle - and increases the flow of urine. It reduces the feeling of fatigue, leading to insomnia, and improves concentration and a clearer flow of thought. "This is confirmed by objective studies which have shown that caffeine reduces reaction time, and produces an increase in the speed at which simple calculations can be performed [though without much improvement in accuracy]. Performance at motor tasks, such as typing and simulated driving, is also improved, particularly in fatigued subjects. Mental tasks, such as syllable-learning, association tests and so on, are also facilitated by moderate doses [up to about 200 mg caffeine] but inhibited by larger doses. By comparison with amphetamines, methylxanthines [caffeine and theophylline] produce less locomotor stimulation and do not induce euphoria, stereotyped behaviour patterns or a psychotic state, but their effects on fatigue and mental function are similar. Tolerance and habituation develop to a small extent, but much less than with amphetamines, and withdrawal effects are slight. ... Caffeine has few unwanted side-effects, and is safe even in very large doses."11 Pregnancy hampers caffeine metabolism. For example, in non pregnant women the break-down of half of the caffeine takes an average of 2.5 - 4.5 hours, 7 hours during mid-pregnancy and 10.5 during the last few weeks of pregnancy. As caffeine retention is longer during pregnancy, women sensitive to caffeine may be affected. Oral contraceptives also increase the effects of caffeine, whereas smoking enhances caffeine elimination. An effect lacking in the clinical manuals but reported by at least two people on the [inter]net is a loss of motor ability: inability to move, speak, or even blink.
PERFORMANCE Caffeine prolongs the amount of time during which an individual can perform physically exhausting work, thus improving performances subject to fatigue. "Well-trained competitive cyclists given 330 mg of caffeine pedalled seven per cent harder but did not notice any increased effort and endured about twenty per cent longer. In another study of eighty subjects, after taking 250 mg of caffeine, fifty-four per cent improved in the long jump, sixty per cent in the shot put, and eighty per cent in the one-hundred-metre sprint. [Decaffeinated coffee actually caused serious deterioration of athletic performance in short events.] Apparently, caffeine prevents muscle fatigue and enhances the body's ability to burn fat for fuel, sparing sugar, which is then stored in tissues to be called on for sudden bursts of energy. On the other hand, caffeine may impair tasks that require finger coordination, such as threading a needle, hitting a small target, or throwing darts."12
FERTILITY Studies on the effects of caffeine on pregnant women as well as on fertility have proved controversial. Some studies suggest that drinking six or more cups of coffee can double the risk of a miscarriage, whereas others maintain that the danger of malformations only exists with consumption of 70 cups of coffee a day. Again others found the higher miscarriage risk only in women who suffered morning sickness, and still others found no increased risk. On men, it has been shown that caffeine reduces rates of sperm motility which may account for some findings of reduced fertility. In former times it was generally believed that the drinking of coffee diminishes sexual excitability and gives rise to sterility. This is illustrated by the anecdote about a sultan who was so greatly attracted by coffee that he became tired of his wife. The latter one day saw a stallion being castrated and declared that it would be better to give the animal coffee, as then it would be in the same state as her husband. The argument that coffee makes men impotent lived on as a powerful notion. In 1764 a 'women's petition against coffee', presented to the 'Keepers of the Liberty of Venus' in London, expressed the fear that coffee would make "men as unfruitful as those deserts whence that unhappy berry is said to be brought." Hahnemann believed in this as well: "Coffee-drinking will stimulate sexual desire ten or even fifteen years too soon, when both sexes are still of a delicate and unripe age, and this leads to early impotency." Viewed as an extremely drying and enfeebling substance, coffee was considered incompatible with the phlegmatic temperament. Those who saw the phlegmatic, portly body type as the God-given, natural one, thought any semblance of desiccation to be harmful. "The notion of dryness, which was then [and still is, in fact] associated with abstraction, nervousness and so forth, offended the conservative sensibility. Dryness, however, is the modern principle par excellence. Dryness and sobriety are synonymous. Dryness is the principle of masculinity, patriarchy, asceticism, antisensuality, in contrast to the sensual and feminine. In this sense coffee is the great drying agent at the threshold of the modern age."13
PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION "Caffeine is at first a stimulant, and subsequently a paralyzant, to the nerve-centres in the cerebrum, medulla and cord. In small doses it quickens the action of the heart and raises arterial tension ; stimulates the cerebral functions, by increasing the supply of blood to the brain; increases the respiration rate and the secretion of urine. Larger doses [5-8 g.], often over-stimulate the cerebral circulation, causing thereby great heaviness of the head, flashes of light before the eyes, tinnitus aurium, insomnia, restlessness, and even delirium, - the pulse becoming rapid, feeble, irregular and intermittent, and the general body-temperature elevated, though that of the periphery may be lowered. Large doses depress the heart and respiration, and lower the blood pressure; - in the smaller animals exalting the reflex excitability of the cord and producing tetanic convulsions, and in lethal doses paralyzing the cardiac muscle as well as its motor ganglia, but causing death by paralysis of respiration. It powerfully affects muscular fibre, both voluntary and involuntary kinds, throwing it into a state of tetanic contraction resembling rigor mortis. If administered in sufficient quantity it would doubtless prove fatal to man, - but its lethal dose for him would be very large. Caffeine is excreted unchanged in the bile and urine, and is a reliable hydragogue diuretic; acting by stimulation of the secreting apparatus in the kidney, as well as by generally raising the arterial tension."14
STUDIES Caffeine is one of the most extensively studied substances. Sensitivity to caffeine, or excessive and prolonged intake of coffee may produce a syndrome called 'caffeinism', which includes anxiety, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, depression, headache, flushed face, duodenal ulcers, constipation, frequent urination, and gastrointestinal complaints. In addition, caffeine inhibits absorption of iron, promoting anaemia, and interferes with the absorption of calcium. Numerous and long-term studies, on the other hand, show that coffee has beneficial effects as well. A ten-year study of 45,000 men found that drinking two to three cups of [caffeinated] coffee a day reduced the risk of developing gallstones by 40%. Drinking four or more cups of coffee a day even reduced this risk with 5% more. Research in the United States, Japan and Italy indicates that consumption of coffee has a strong protective effect against both cirrhosis of the liver [which is usually caused by excessive alcohol use], and colorectal cancer. Despite previous controversy on the subject, most researchers now conclude that regular coffee use has little or no effect on blood pressure. First-time caffeine use may produce immediate, minimal changes in blood pressure, but, as studies indicate, these changes are transient since no changes in blood pressure appear to occur in regular users of caffeine. However, researchers disagree whether coffee increases the proneness to cardiovascular disease, and/or increases serum lipids/cholesterol levels. Coffee is known to stimulate gastric secretion, but since decaffeinated coffee also spurs production of stomach acid, it is now understood that caffeine is not the culprit but the tannins in coffee, which increase if the coffee is kept warm on a hot plate.
HAHNEMANN According to Hahnemann, coffee is a purely medicinal substance and as such opposed to a natural regimen of life. It throws life off its natural rhythm, it "diminishes and almost annihilates the disagreeable sensations analogous to the wise organization of our bodies," it creates "a life artificially doubled, artificially exalted!" Considering the daily use of coffee "the most pernicious thing of all," he may well have been influenced by the strong opposition to coffee in the Germany of his days. After 1750 coffee, along with other imported items, had come under governmental control to restrict coffee consumption. Coffee was declared an un-German drink, not merely because of the flow of money out of Germany [Germany had to satisfy its demands for coffee through imports], but also because the drink itself had supplanted Germany's hallowed national beverage, beer. Lewin writes that "several small potentates in Germany, not content with prohibiting coffee, even offered a reward to the informer." He continues: "One of these, the Prince of Waldeck by the grace of God, paid ten thalers to anyone who should denounce a coffee-drinker. Even laundrywomen and ironers were rewarded if they laid information against their employers from whom they had obtained coffee. Several punishments were introduced against sellers of coffee in the small towns and in the country. Men of note were allowed to buy coffee in the capital cities. In 1777 the Prince-Bishop Wilhelm of Paderborn declared that the drinking of coffee was a privilege of the aristocracy, the clergy, and the high officials. It was strictly prohibited to the middle classes and the peasants. Drinkers of coffee in Germany were even threatened with caning. As the use of coffee increased in Prussia King Frederick II imposed a high tax on it [1781]. The people must again become accustomed to drinking beer on which 'His Royal Majesty himself' had, according to the edict, been brought up. In his opinion this was far healthier than coffee. In a comedy by Kotzebue, a husband praises the economy of his young wife in the following words: 'Have I not given up coffee? Have I not sighed in the morning when drinking my beer, because, as Hufeland says, our forefathers derived much benefit from it?'"15 Four years earlier, in 1777, Frederick II had issued the following declaration: "It is disgusting to note the increase of coffee used by my subjects and the amount of money that goes out of the country in consequence. Everybody is using coffee. If possible this must be prevented. My people must drink beer. His Majesty was brought up on beer, and so were his officers. Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer; and the King does not believe that coffee-drinking soldiers can be depended upon to endure hardships or to beat his enemies in case of the occurrence of another war."16 In the 17th century beer was second only to bread as the main source of nourishment for most central and north Europeans. In rural areas of Germany breakfast as a rule consisted of beer soup - a mixture of beer, butter, eggs, and bread - and such soups were still prepared as late as the end of the 18th century. It is an intriguing question why Hahnemann was so emphatically against the use of coffee. He undoubtedly perceived its potential addictiveness, observing that "it is not so very easy to abolish a strong habit of using coffee, especially among delicate persons" and "those who use it habitually can only leave it off very gradually and carefully." For Hahnemann coffee constituted a general antidote to homoeopathic treatment, a point of view that has affected homoeopathy to this very day. Yet, in a treatise set up to explain the pure effects of coffee, Hahnemann soon becomes rhetorical by blaming coffee for the demoralising tendencies and the degeneration of the [18th] century. For him the coffee-habit obviously endangered the soul of a nation: "The serious reflections of our ancestors, the solidity of judgement, firmness of will and resolution, the perseverance of the body in executing its slow but energetic movements, all these qualities which formerly distinguished the national character of the Germans vanish before this medicinal beverage. And by what are they replaced? Imprudent effusions of the heart, precipitate and ill-founded resolutions and judgements, levity, loquacity, and vacillation, finally a fugitive and non-energetic mobility of the muscles, and a theatrical countenance. I well know that to abound in luxuriant imaginations, to compose lascivious romances, and to make flippant, jocular, and pointed poems, the German must drink coffee." In a footnote to this statements he writes: "Who knows what dietetic enervation was the cause that the prodigies of the heroic virtues of patriotism, of filial love, of inviolable fidelity, of unwavering integrity and zeal for duty, acknowledged attributes of our antiquity, have dwindled away to a petty egotism!"17
PROVINGS •• [1] Hahnemann - 8 provers; method: unknown.
•• [2] Marvaud - self-experimentation with cold infusions of raw coffee.
Clarke, Mezger, and others regard the symptoms of Coffea cruda and Coffea tosta to be so similar that their effects can be scarcely distinguished. Symptoms observed in Coffea tosta find their similimum in Coffea cruda, according to Mezger. No provings have been undertaken with Coffea tosta; the effects were derived from drinking strong coffee.
[1] Vaughan and Geissler, The New Oxford Book of Food Plants. [2] Schivelbusch, Tastes of Paradise. [3] Fuller, Stairways to Heaven. [4] Schivelbusch, ibid. [5] Roden, Coffee .[6] Fuller, Stairways to Heaven. [7] Schivelbusch, ibid. [8-9] Roden, ibid. [10] Potter, A Compend of Materia Medica. [11] Rang et al., Pharmacology. [12] Carper, The Food Pharmacy. [13] Schivelbusch, ibid. [14] Potter, ibid. [15] Lewin, Phantastica. [16] Roden, ibid. [17] Hahnemann, Treatise on the Effects of Coffee [Der Kaffee in seinen Wirkungen].
Affinity
NERVES. CIRCULATION. Sexual organs. Mind. Women. * Right side.
Modalities
Worse: NOISE. TOUCH. Odours. Air [open; cold; windy weather]. Mental [emotions; exertion]. Overeating. Alcohol; wine. Night. Sudden emotions; excessive exaltation. Excessive joy. Narcotics. Warm water in mouth. Taking cold.
Better: Lying. Rest. Ice water in mouth.
Main symptoms
M Ailments from anger, excitement, fright, excessive joy, immoderate laughing, disappointed love, pleasant surprises.
JOY = weeping, sleeplessness, congestion of head, inflammation of uterus, asthmatic respiration, palpitations.
M MENTAL OVERACTIVITY.
Plans, fancies, theorizing, abundant ideas in the evening, causing sleeplessness.
• "Memory may be phenomenal with an ability to quote poetry at great length." [Gibson]
Quick, WANDERING THOUGHTS.
Rushing ideas. Abrupt, incoherent answers.
• "I'm a 100,00 volts person! Can't stay still, always something to do. Two or three things at the same time. Never have time for myself. I'd like to join a gym. If I don't do all those things, my family suffers. I don't know how to relax. I read at night. I have to read. I always read two books at the same time: one in the shop and one in the house. My heart races when I read. I want to know the story faster, faster. Don't want to waste time. Can't imagine myself lying awake at night doing nothing! I have to keep my mind occupied. I'm the same with films, too emotional. If my daughter takes part in a horse-riding competition, I'm a ball of nerves, my heart beats like mad, my throat and chest get tight. Songs make me cry or if I see someone winning a prize on telly. Also other people's misery makes me cry."1
c Whirling activity - spinning thoughts - whirling sensation in head.
• "In her head she feels as if its contents [verses from the Prayer-book] went slowly round, first in one direction and then in another, and along with this there is a continual ringing in ears." [Hughes]
Fear for anything inclined to circularity [roundabouts, merry-go-rounds].
M Lightness.
Delusion of floating in air. Doesn't feel bed when lying in it.
Delusion of being light, without body.
• "Lightness of head and in all bodily adjustments, a great and unwonted sense of well-being and liveliness; great mobility of muscles, every movement is performed with ease and rapidity, and with steady force." [Hughes]
c Coffea tosta has:
• "While sleeping in a hammock the gentle swinging motion is felt to an enormous degree, increasing more and more until he seems to be swinging above the tree tops into the clouds, in rhythmic motion; the descent is intensely disagreeable and accompanied by painful anxiety, without fear of falling; when near the ground he awakes and puts his feet to the ground, which momentarily interrupts the sensation; but he is too sleepy to keep awake and passes a horrible night." [Hering]
M QUICK to ACT; WITTY [Lach.].
• "Kasters Niebuhr writes about early Syrian coffee houses in 'Descriptions of Arabia' [Amsterdam, 1774]: 'Being the only theatres for the exercise of profane eloquence, poor scholars attend here to amuse the people. Select portions are read, e.g. the adventures of Rustan Sal, a Persian hero. Some aspire to the praise of invention, and compose tale and fables. They walk up and down as they recite, or assuming oratorical consequence, harangue upon subjects chosen by themselves.' ... The wife of Shah Abbas appointed a mullah to sit every day in the more turbulent establishments of Istafan in Persia. His job was to entertain all day with points of law, history and poetry. Seated high in an ornate chair, he would also tell jokes, sing and recount the romantic and nostalgic stories of famous lovers or the Arabian Nights. Thus political hotheads were ignored and controversial issues avoided. Coffee-house storytellers are becoming fashionable again in Iran today, though sometimes it is the ubiquitous television that has taken over the role on the raised chair."2
M Starting when touched.
M OVERSENSITIVITY to PAIN.
DESPAIR from pain ["weeps, laments and tosses about."].
ALL the SENSES are more ACUTE.
Sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing, esp. to NOISES.
• "Awakes at or hears every sound." [Kent]
• "There is ability to read very small print and to hear sounds inaudible to others." [Gibson]
M Benevolence and remorse.
• "Can become generous to get rid of their feeling of guilt. Sometimes this is so strong that they stay with their partner out of remorse, to make it up." [Ghegas]
• "Is apt to labour incessantly for some good cause to the point of a 'break-down' with accompanying dulness, gloom, constant yawning and stretching, drowsiness by day and undue wakefulness at night." [Gibson]
• "Coffea imagines paradise to be a place where everyone, in the security of God's love and care, lives together in peace and harmony. With their whole being, in their thinking and doing, they strive for the earthly realization of this heavenly place. They see it as their duty to contribute by doing good deeds, by being active and creative, all to the best of their abilities. Anything they do or think that goes against this ideal results in deep remorse. Having pain is considered a clear and direct indication that they are not in paradise, because in paradise there is no pain. Consequently, pain gives despair, oversensitivity, and even fear of death."3
Much less irritated, ambitious and malicious than Nux vomica.
Alertness.
• "In Coffea we find to a marked degree the sycotic theme of moulding oneself according to circumstances. Coffea is acutely aware of the needs of others. They feel responsible for the well-being of others. They were not wanted as a child, or held responsible for their parents' bad relationship. They cannot relax or trust they will be taken care of, but have to be alert all the time, and please others in order to be allowed to be with them. A Dutch expression for a cup of coffee is 'bakkie troost', meaning cup of comfort."4
M Beauty.
[Increased sense of beauty as a result of increased sensory acuity.]
• "Contrary to his habit he was in continual sentimental ecstasy about beautiful scenery, of which he was reading a description." [Hahnemann]
This is given by Allen as: • "Contrary to his custom is very much charmed by the beauties of nature, descriptions of which are related to him."
And changed by Kent into: Delusion he saw paradise.
According to Hahnemann, a property of coffee is that "all external objects appear to excite a feeling of pleasure; they take on a joyish varnish; and if the quantity of coffee taken was very great, they assume an almost over-pleasing lustre." For Hahnemann such "satisfaction with everything that surrounds one" is an "artificial vivacity" that befits those living in the "primeval simplicity of nature". By drinking coffee "moderation and just bounds are everywhere exceeded", and thereby violating the demands of "the wise organization of our nature" that wants us to "experience agreeable and disagreeable sensations alternately."5 [In contrast to Hahnemann, who saw coffee as the Great Exciter, the general idea of coffee is that of the Great Soberer.]
Veneration.
• "Veneration for the Supreme Being and love for family; benevolence excited." [Hering]
• "Caffeine binds to cells in the brain in such a way as to block the effect of adenosine, a chemical that ordinarily has a quieting effect upon the brain. Like many other drugs, caffeine is thus an indirect stimulant; by itself, it can't stimulate anything. By blocking the quieting effect of adenosine, it impairs the brain's ability to keep its own excitatory neurotransmitters in check. In this way, caffeine clears the way for the brain's own stimulants - neurotransmitters such as glutamate, dopamine, and the endorphins - to do their job without interference. Coffee drinkers thus 'get wired' only to the extent that their own natural excitatory neurotransmitters transmit exhilarating signals. Caffeine might consequently be viewed as a pharmaceutical agent of nature religion. That is, it puts us in a position to respond to nature's own hidden riches. Caffeine enables us to appreciate the exhilaration that emanates from nature itself; this, in turn, enhances our aesthetic rapport with our surroundings in such a way that we might see common things in a new and more vibrant way."6
M Very similar to Bell.: head red and hot, pupils dilated and shining, marked redness of cheeks; but Coff. has heat and loquacity, activity of memory and exalted excitement, whereas Bell. has delirium and frightening delusions.
G Ailments during MENOPAUSE.
[flushing, faintness, overexcitement, sleeplessness, palpitations]
G Aversion to OPEN AIR, yet sensation of HEAT.
Aversion to open air; fear of fresh air; sensitive to COLD air.
G Sleeplessness after delivery.
Sleeplessness from nursing the sick.
Coff. from overexcitement, Cocc. from anxiety.
In Coff. everything is ACCELERATED, in Cocc. everything SLOWS down.
G < TOUCH. P Headache, as from a NAIL in side of head. Mostly caused by excessive mental exertion [much talking, excited and deep conversations in the late evening = sleeplessness = headache]. < Open air. P Toothache. May occur during menses. > Holding cold water in mouth.
Pain extending to fingertips.
P Dysmenorrhoea.
Excessive colicky pains.
Passage of large black clots.
And Despair, weeping, lamenting.
P Nervous palpitation < sun heat. P Respiration ASTHMATIC or DIFFICULT. In 1859, the Scottish physician Salter reported strong coffee to be 'one of the best reputed remedies for asthma', resulting in the common prescription of black mocha coffee for allergic bronchial asthma. • "Most of the effects of caffeine are due to its blocking the receptors for a natural hormone, adenosine. This is produced by all organs and tissues whenever they are active and its effects tend to oppose that activity. In other words, adenosine is part of the body's mechanisms for controlling tissue activity. Since caffeine prevents the effects of adenosine, these two substances usually have opposite effects. ... In the airways of normal people, adenosine has little effect. In those with asthma, however, it contracts the muscles and can trigger or worsen an asthma attack. Since asthma blocks the adenosine receptors, it relaxes the airways in asthma. Theophylline, which is used medically to treat asthma, acts in the same way."7 c "Suffocative fits." [Hering] c "Asthmatic attacks in morning, wants to move continually." [Hering] c "Complained of want of air, and compression of chest and clung convulsively to the furniture or persons, but sank down powerless." [Coffea tosta; Allen] c Böcker found that taking coffee diminishes the amount of carbonic acid exhaled from the lungs, and correspondingly makes the inspirations more superficial. This last property of coffee was well shown in an experiment. "He drank a quantity of coffee made from 1 oz. of the beans and sat down to his desk to write. After 1/2 h. he had a true fit of asthma, oppression of the chest, trembling of limbs, great ebullition of blood and vertigo. He went into the open air and walked quickly without much relief, his knees tottered, he became deadly pale, and felt quite faint. He was too weak to sit up and had to lie down. He felt very uncomfortable, the dyspnoea increased and lasted some h., when he noticed that he had to breathe more deeply. He had no appetite for supper, could not sleep, and had no stool for 2 days. His conclusion is that coffee hinders the waste of the tissues." [Hughes] [1] Diskin, Coffea or Life is Painfully Shocking; The Hom. Times, Summer 2000. [2] Roden, Coffee. [3] Mike Keszler, Der Engel mit der großen Angst: Coffea cruda and die Sehnsucht nach dem Paradies; Hom. Zeitschrift 1/98. [4] Harry van der Zee, Miasms in labour. [5] Hahnemann,Treatise on the Effects of Coffee. [6] Fuller, Stairways to Heaven. [7] Stone and Darlington, Pills, Potions and Poisons. Rubrics Mind Desires activity [1]; desires creative activity [1; Choc.]; restless activity [2]. Mental agility [3; Form.; Op.]. Answering, abruptly [1], disconnected [1]. Anxiety, from flatus [1], with inactivity [1], after wine [1/1]. Being beside oneself [3], from pain [2]. Aversion to be carried [2]. Clinging to persons or furniture [1]. Complaining [2]. Consolation < [1]. Conviction of death [2]. Delusions, he is away from home [2], he saw paradise [1/1]. Fear, of impending danger, on going to sleep [1/1], of death, from pain [3], of falling, on going to sleep [1/1], of roundabouts, merry-go-rounds etc. [1M]. Hurry, on drinking [2], while eating [2]. Making many plans [2]. Quick to act [2]. Sensitive, to the slightest noise [3]. Studying, easily [1]. Weeping, from the slightest neglect [1/1]. Vertigo From rocking [2]. Walking, with sensation of gliding in the air, as if feet did not touch the ground [1]. Head Boiling sensation [1]. Congestion, when speaking [1; Sulph.]. Pain, after contradiction [2], after overeating [1], after abuse of narcotics [1], from strong odours [2], from loss of sleep [1]. Feels smaller [1]. Hearing Acute, during headache [1], to noises [2], to voices and talking [2]. Teeth Pain, > biting teeth together [1], < noise [2], after drinking tea [1]. Rectum Diarrhoea, after abuse of chamomile [2], from domestic cares [2], from sudden joy [2], during warm weather [1]. Male Aversion to coition [1]. Ejaculation, failing during coition [1]. Female Aversion to coition [1]; coition painful [1]. Menses, copious, with coldness of body [1/1], irregular, between periods [2]. Sexual desire increased during menses [1]. Sterility [2]. Respiration Asthmatic, after emotions [2]. Chest Palpitation, after exaltation [2], after excitement [2], after joy [2], with copious urine [1/1]. Limbs Sensation of lightness [2]. Sleep Sleeplessness, after abuse of coffee [3], from fancies [1], from flatulence [1], from itching of anus [1], from excessive joy [3], after surprising news [2], from nursing the sick [2], thoughts, always the same thought [2], after abuse of wine [1]. Chill Chilliness, during headache [3], with pain [1]. During motion [3]. Perspiration Cold, during menses [1]. Skin Coldness, during labour [1], during menses [1]. Food Aversion: [2]: Coffee; drinks. [1]: Smoking; solid food; wine. Desire: [2]: Alcohol; coffee. [1]: Chocolate [M]; tobacco. Worse: [3]: Wine. [2]: Alcohol; tobacco. [1]: Bread; coffee; hot food; milk [M]; tea. Better: [1]: Cold drinks. * Repertory additions: [M] = Karl-Josef Müller.
Coff.
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| Coffea cruda |
which, unlike other spirits, heightens purity and lucidity;
coffee, which clears the clouds of the imagination and their gloomy weight;
which illumines the reality of things suddenly with the flash of truth."
[Jules Michelet]
Coffee might be considered useful by those who set a higher worth upon saving their time than on maintaining their lives and health, and who are compelled to work into the night.
[Linnaeus]
Signs
Coffea arabica. [Unroasted coffee.] N.O. Rubiaceae.
CLASSIFICATION Dependent on the taxonomic system, the number of genera placed in the Rubiaceae or Coffee family varies from 500 to 600; some botanists recognize about 7,000 species as belonging to this family, while others include about 10,000 species. It is a large family of trees, shrubs, lianas and herbs, sometimes ant-inhabited, epiphytic or aquatic. Older systems recognize two subfamilies, but recently three completely different subfamilies have been supposed, as follows: Rubioideae [comprising 11 tribes], Cinchonoideae [17 tribes], and Guettardoideae [1 tribe]. The Rubiaceae resembles members of the Gentianales, in particular the Loganiaceae, which includes Gelsemium, Spigelia, Strychnos nux-vomica, and Strychnos ignatii.
DISTRIBUTION The family is concentrated in the tropics and subtropics with some species represented in temperate regions and even the Arctic and Antarctic. Most tropical species are trees or shrubs while temperate ones are herbaceous. The most economically important genus of the family is Coffea, the source of coffee; other members, such as Cinchona and Cephaelis [Ipecacuanha], are important medicinally, or are cultivated as ornamentals, e.g. Gardenia and Bouvardia. Well-known European herbaceous members include Rubia, Asperula and Galium.
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| Coffea cruda |
FEATURES In spite of Linnaeus first describing the genus Coffea in the 18th century, there is to this very day no agreement on the classification because of the wide variations that occur in coffee plants and seeds. Species of Coffea range from small shrubs to trees as tall as 8 metres high and the leaves can range in colour from purple to yellow, although green is the predominant colour. Coffee trees grow best where there is plenty of rain at certain times of the year and well-drained, rich, volcanic soil. The plant does not like sudden changes in temperature, and frost can kill it. Although it likes a warm climate, it cannot take too much direct sunlight and is therefore often shaded by trees. Coffea arabica is an evergreen shrub or small tree growing to 9 metres in its wild state. During cultivation the tree is pruned to around 2 metres in height, which permits regular flowering and easier harvesting. It has dark green, shiny oval leaves. After three or four years, a tree reaches adult age and is then able to produce flowers. The white star-shaped flowers bloom in groups of 8 to 15 bunches and emit a light fragrance, reminiscent of Jasmine. The flowers give rise to green berries [actually, drupes] which turn first red and then violet-black. Coffea has the unique property of bearing flowers, green berries, and ripened fruits at the same time.
VARIETIES Numerous varieties exist within the species Arabica, due to mutations caused by ecological differences in the regions where the trees are grown. 'Typica', for example, is very common in Brazil, where it develops into a tree smaller than that of the normal Arabica. It bears yellow fruits, has a high caffeine level and is very resistant to frosts. 'Colombia' is a variety of Arabica cultivated in Colombia. Arabica coffees are described either as 'Brazils' [because they come from Brazil] or as 'Other Milds' [which come from elsewhere].
CONSTITUENTS Caffeine [1-2% in C. arabica; up to 4% in C. canephora]; coffee oil [10-15%]; trigonelline; volatile oils; tannins; sucrose and other sugars [about 8%]; proteins [about 11%]; chlorogenic and caffeic acids [about 6%]; niacin/nicotinic acid [coffee is a rich source of niacin, the quantity of which increases during the roasting process]. The green beans contain large amounts of chlorogenic acid, which is partly destroyed by the roasting process. Chlorogenic acid is a universal allergen; it causes allergic reactions to itself, but also sensitizes the body to other allergens. Due to chlorogenic acid, latent allergies may become manifest after ingesting coffee. Coffee, in particular the instant variety, is fairly low in sodium but very rich in potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, copper and sulphur.
DISCOVERY Various legends exist about the discovery of coffee in Ethiopia, where Coffea arabica since time immemorial has been growing in the wild forests of the south-western highlands of Kaffa. It all began with a goatherd who noticed that his goats pranced excitedly after grazing on the leaves and fruit of the coffee bush, which made him taste the berries himself and subsequently enjoy their stimulating effect. The goatherd then passed his experience on to an Arab mullah, in one legend, or to a monk of a monastery near Lake Tana, in another legend. The mullah accidentally burned some beans, but tried them nevertheless. Their excellent flavour convinced him to continue to prepare them in this way in the future. The monk, for his part, took some of the seeds and planted them in the vicinity of the monastery. He roasted and brewed the harvested berries and tried out the beverage on his brethren. As a result they were kept awake during their long prayers at night, which lead to the acceptance of coffee as a stimulant drink. The beverage is supposed to have been named after the district where coffee originated, Kaffa, from which derives its Arabic name, kahwah. "Although the dating may be vague, the logic of coffee drinking for Arabic-Islamic civilization is incontestable. As a non-alcoholic, nonintoxicating, indeed even sobering and mentally stimulating drink, it seemed to be tailor-made for a culture that forbade alcohol consumption and gave birth to modern mathematics. Arabic culture is dominated by abstraction more than any other culture in human history. Coffee has rightly been called the wine of Islam."2 In the Islam coffee has a special ceremonial and ritual importance. It is generally consumed in a very social setting and promotes conversation and activity.
HISTORY The historical record suggests that coffee was originally consumed as a food among African tribes. "Ripe berries from coffee bushes were crushed in stone mortars and then mixed with animal fat. War parties consumed these balls of coffee and fat for their calories and stimulation. It appears that about 900 AD, Ethiopians began to make a wine from the fermented pulp of coffee berries. The beverage was called qahwah [meaning 'spirit drink'] in Arabic, the forerunner of the term kahveh in Turkish, café in French, kaffee in German, and caffé in Italian. Because alcohol was soon to be forbidden among Muslims, it was most fortunate that these coffee berries were able to produce a hot, nonalcoholic beverage capable of inducing feelings of pleasure and stimulation. The practice of boiling green berries in water to create a liquid resembling our modern coffee started about 1000 AD, possibly as a means of softening the hard beans. The word qahwah or kahveh was transferred to this new beverage toward the end of the 13th century."3 Toward the end of the 16th century, the German physician and botanist Leonhart Rauwolf [1546-1596] was the first European to describe the consumption of a beverage 'nearly as black as ink' by the Turks and Arabs. By about 1700 coffee was firmly established as a beverage among the trend-setting strata of European society. "Court aristocracy added coffee drinking as one more flourish to its cult of luxury. Essentially it was not the drink itself that mattered to court society but how it could be consumed, the opportunities it afforded for display of elegance, grace, and high refinement. The porcelain that was created expressly for coffee drinking at the court was what mattered most. Form replaced content. Bourgeois society of the same period regarded coffee in a different, quite contrary light. Not form, but substance - the drink - was the focus of interest. ... The late 17th-century middle classes welcomed coffee as the 'Great Soberer'. The coffee drinker's good sense and business efficiency were contrasted with the alcohol drinker's inebriation, incompetence, and laziness, most clearly in texts from 17th-century Puritan England. 'Tis found already', wrote James Howell in 1660, 'that this coffee drink hath caused a greater sobriety among the Nations. Whereas formerly Apprentices and clerks with others used to take their morning's draught of Ale, Beer, or Wine, which, by the dizziness they Cause in the Brain, made many unfit for business, they use now to play the Good-fellows in this wakeful and civil drink.' ... Coffee awakened a drowsing humanity from its alcoholic stupor to middle-class common sense and industry - so 17th-century coffee propaganda would have it. ... In 17th-century England the idea of coffee as an anti-erotic drink was direct and concrete; it was regarded as a substance that reduced sexual energies. ... Coffee as the beverage of sobriety and coffee as the means of curbing the sexual urges - it is not hard to recognize the ideological forces behind this reorientation. Sobriety and abstinence have always been the battle cry of puritanical, ascetic movements. English Puritanism, and more generally, the Protestant ethic, defined coffee in this way and then wholeheartedly declared it their favourite drink. There is no doubt that coffee is to a large degree an ideologically freighted drink. Yet it would be wrong to see only this aspect of it. ... The 17th century was the century of rationalism, not only in philosophy, but in all the important areas of material life. ... The 17th-century bourgeois was distinguished from people of past centuries by his mental as well as his physical lifestyle. Medieval man did physical work, for the most part under the open sky. The middle-class man worked increasingly with his head, his workplace was the office, his working position was sedentary. The ideal that hovered before him was to function as uniformly and regularly as a clock. It is perfectly obvious that this new way of life and work would affect the entire organism. In this connection coffee functioned as a historically significant drug. It spread through the body and achieved chemically and pharmacologically what rationalism and the Protestant ethic sought to fulfil spiritually and ideologically. With coffee, the principle of rationality entered human physiology, transforming it to conform to its own requirements. The result was a body which functioned in accord with the new demands - a rationalistic, middle-class, forward-looking body. ... Coffee promised nothing less than to lengthen and intensify the time available for work. In this sense, not to drink any coffee would be almost as great a sin for the puritanical bourgeois as wasting time itself."4
OPPOSITION "The establishment was afraid of the joy of life and sense of freedom liberated in the coffee drinkers. Coffee became a subversive drink, gathering people together and sharpening their wits, encouraging political arguments and revolt - a characteristic which was to follow it into Europe and which was felt particularly in times of social unrest. ... Of the sporadic persecution of coffee houses and drinkers, the most savage was in 1656 when the Ottoman Grand Vizir Koprili suppressed the coffee houses for political reasons, and prohibited coffee. For a first violation the punishment was cudgelling. For a second, the offender was put into a leather bag, which was sewn up and thrown into the Bosporus. The straits thus claimed many a man. ... In Italy it was the priests who appealed to Pope Clement VIII to have the use of coffee forbidden among Christians. Satan, they said, had forbidden his followers, the infidel Moslems, the use of wine because it was used in the Holy Communion, and given them instead his 'hellish black brew'. It seems the Pope liked the drink, for his reply was: 'Why, this Satan's drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We shall cheat Satan by baptizing it.' Thus coffee was declared a truly Christian beverage by a farsighted Pope. However, this did not stop the Council of Ten in Venice from trying to eradicate the 'social cankers', the cafés, which they charged with immorality, vice and corruption."5
COFFEEHOUSES While tobacco and cacao travelled from west to east, coffee went in the opposite direction and was introduced in Europe from the Ottoman Empire via trade and travel. Presumably coffee was first brought to Europe as an article of trade by the Venetians in 1615. It was first drunk in Rome and then gradually spread to the rest of Europe. The first coffeehouse opened in Italy in 1645 [Venice], in England in 1650 [The Angel in Oxford], in France in 1672, in Austria [Vienna] in 1683, and in Germany [Regensburg] in 1686. In Sweden and Denmark coffee was introduced at the beginning of the 18th century. Spain was the last country in Europe to adopt coffee houses. The innovative drink had to compete especially with establishments selling chocolate which the Spaniards had discovered in South America in the 16th century. It was only in the early 19th century that cafés opened selling the 'foreign drink' coffee, which became the drink of Spanish intellectuals and left-wing political dissidents. Records indicate that coffee was being drunk regularly in New York by the 1680s, when many began to substitute it for beer at their breakfast meal. Yet, for reasons that are not completely clear, separate coffeehouses never flourished in the United States as they did in Europe. In 1773, the Continental Congress declared coffee the official national beverage [as King of the American breakfast table], after a massive public revolt against King George's Tea Tax. "The renaissance of coffeehouses in the United States dovetailed almost perfectly with the counterculture movement among youth between the late 1950s and the early 1970s. Artists and writers living in New York City during the late 1950s adopted coffeehouses as the forum for their 'beat' take on life. By the 1960s more and more coffeehouses appeared and attracted those who sought to bond with other critics of bourgeois American culture. Coffeehouses launched experimental theatre productions, displayed the work of local artists, arranged to poetry readings, and introduced urban audiences to the emerging genre of the countercultural movement, where initiates were exposed to existentialism, Eastern religion, and metaphysical interpretations of life's mysteries. ... The number of coffeehouses in the United States has grown dramatically in recent years. The growing dominance of the 'sanitized' coffeehouses such as Starbucks is in direct proportion to the decline of the role of coffeehouses as purveyors of 'alternative spirituality'. Indeed, many modern coffeehouses are built in locations chosen solely for their proximity to places of work. Forces of capitalism regulate Americans' coffee consumption as much, or possibly more, than any spiritual urges, no matter how loosely the concept of spirituality is defined. ... Yet even given the commercial forces underlying patronage of contemporary American coffeehouses, they nonetheless continue to provide the social settings and mood-altering rituals in which unchurched spirituality continues to prosper. ...The popularity of coffeehouses [whether of the upscale or hippie variety] reveals a continuing connection between coffee and spirituality - and more particularly, a spirituality that flourishes outside our official religious institutions. Corner coffee shops, sixtiesish coffeehouses, and even the neighbourhood kaffeklatsch provide a forum of spirited - and spiritual - human exchange. For that matter, even America's churches have recognized the value of a 'coffee hour' promptly after the conclusion of weekly worship services. The 'coffee hour' provides an opportunity for church members to linger after the formal worship service, engage in informal conversation, and quite literally feel the exhilaration of the faith they came to renew."6
EXCHANGE Coffeehouses in England were exclusively for men. They were called 'Penny Universities" because for a penny one could obtain coffee, or tea, a copy of the newspaper, and engage in conversation with the sharpest wits of the day. One of the most successful coffeehouses was Lloyd's Coffeehouse, opened in 1687 on London's Tower Street. Lloyd's soon evolved into a place where people went to hear the latest trade news. One sector of Lloyd's clientele in particular continued to expand - the insurance brokers. In the course of the 18th century Lloyd's completely shed its role as a coffeehouse and became the world-famous institution of today, the largest insurance brokerage in the world. The coffeehouses of the 17th and 18th century were primarily places to do business, which didn't have to be of an entirely commercial nature; politics, art, and literature were considered by the middle class to be part of business. In Vienna the coffeehouse continued longest as the site of these activities. In London, where the form first flourished, it also disappeared first, eclipsed in the 18th century by its successor, the club. In the coffeehouse culture of the Enlightenment, the coffeehouse was the gathering place of intellectuals and centre for discussion. It fulfilled its most important social role as a centre for communication, functioning as a sort of news exchange in a period that had no daily newspaper. The coffeehouse fulfilled this function not only for commerce, but also for two other middle-class bourgeois activities: journalism and literature. In the early 18th century the editors of London's weeklies used coffeehouses as their editorial offices. Some editors classified the various kinds of news according to which of the coffeehouses - news exchanges - had been the source of information. "The most important direct effect coffeehouses had on literature was probably in helping to create a culture of dialogue, of conversation, which originated in coffeehouses and only then made its way into written literature. Coffee began its career in the public sphere, as a specifically public drink, and only later migrated into the private sphere to be served at home. In its public, heroic phase, that of the coffeehouse, coffee was a powerful force for change, helping to forge a new reality. Moving into the middle-class home, to become a breakfast-time and afternoon drink, it grew passive, with a tendency toward the idyllic. It no longer exclusively symbolized the dynamic realm of early middle-class public life, politics, literature, and commerce; it stood more and more for domestic comfort, Gemütlichkeit. ... Thus coffee, which began as a symbol of public life, activity, business, etc., ended up as a symbol of family life and domestic tranquility."7
ARTS Philosophers such as Voltaire [1694-1778], Rousseau [1712-1778], and Kant [1724-1804] were enthusiastic coffee drinkers. Voltaire, who is reputed to have drunk up to 50 cups of coffee per day, called coffee 'a sombre, exceedingly cerebral liquor.' Kant's clocklike regularity is famous; his neighbours allegedly set their watches by his precisely timed daily walks. The French novelist Honoré de Balzac [1799-1850] was a coffee addict in the true sense of the word. In order to pay off his huge debts, de Balzac performed phenomenal bouts of work. He spent 14-16 hours writing at his table, kept awake by exorbitant amounts of thick, black, intensely strong coffee. In 30 years de Balzac consumed an estimated 50,000 cups of coffee. At the end of his life he switched over to opium. The most famous composition dedicated to coffee is Johann Sebastian Bach's 'Kaffeekantate' [BWV 211], a secular cantata serving as a kind of commercial for the established coffeehouse [1720] of Zimmerman's as well as to mock a medical campaign to discredit coffee in Germany. Liesgen's aria, in the 4th movement, expresses Bach's love for coffee. The American pop musician Frank Zappa [1940-1993] called coffee [and cigarettes] the basic nourishment for his creative productivity.
MEDICINE According to legend, Mohammed was cured of narcolepsy with coffee. There are indications in Arabic medical literature that coffee was used medicinally as early as the 10th century. Coffee first came to Europe from Arabia in the 1600s as a medicine, not as a beverage. In 17th-century France, physicians controlled coffee; the bean was sold more as a drug than as a drink, and coffee sellers hawked it as a type of therapeutic panacea. In 17th-century England coffee was regarded as a substance that reduced sexual energies, even to the point of impotence. It was recommended to clerics who lived in celibacy for it 'replaced sexual arousal with stimulation of the intellect.' Coffee also developed a reputation as a respiratory treatment. In 1859, the Scottish physician Salter reported strong coffee to be 'one of the best reputed remedies for asthma', resulting in the common prescription of black mocha coffee for allergic bronchial asthma.
PROCESSING Each berry contains two coffee seeds, which are shaped like two halves of a bean. Processing of coffee berries removes the fruit skin [epicarp], pulp [mesocarp], horny parchment [endocarp] and 'silverskin' [integument] to leave the marketed product, the green bean. There are two methods to remove the beans [seeds] from the berries. The wet process involves pulping, fermentation in water, and drying. The beans remain enclosed in the parchment, which is ultimately removed by mechanical hulling. Beans processed in this way are considered the best and are described as 'mild'. The second method, the dry process, involves drying and the removal of the pulp and parchment by mechanical hulling. This gives 'naked' seeds which are described as 'hard'.
RITUALS "Few travellers to the Levant fail to notice the luxury of tranquil enjoyment possessed by those who sit in front of a tiny cup filled with syrupy, frothy, black coffee, epitome of a way of life which prizes 'kayf' [peace of mind] above all things. ... Perhaps it is the early religious use of coffee that has given it a ceremonial character in the world of Islam. ... Today, centuries after it became secularized, coffee drinking is still in the Middle East an activity enmeshed in ritual, practised at all times throughout the day. In Arabia a watered down form of an early coffee-drinking ceremony still exists, starting with a string of gestures, greetings, praises to God, enquiries into health, traditional formulas of courtesy of an infinite and elegant variety. Rules of etiquette are observed in serving, in some cases involving each process of making, each performed with intense seriousness and deliberate nicety. The tiny, half-egg-sized cups are refilled three or four times. To refuse is an unforgivable insult. In this proverbially hospitable area, coffee is the symbol of hospitality. It is considered an outrage not to offer a cup of coffee to anyone who enters your house and an almost equal outrage to refuse. Coffee is made individually as soon as a visitor arrives, always freshly brewed in the small, long-handled copper or brass pots called kanaka or ibrik, sometimes roasted and pounded just before brewing. ... It is essential that each cup of coffee must have its share of the foam, which is called wesh [face]. To ensure this, coffee is poured with a slight quiver of the hand. An important person is served first, the oldest next, and women last. Among Bedouins, cups are served only half filled. A filled one would mean: 'Drink up and go!' - a bitter insult also shown in the adage: 'Fill the cup for your enemy'. Here ritual insists that the pourer should be served first to ensure that the pot is not a deadly one for the person of most importance who is served next. It is not unknown for people to have been dispatched to another world with poison slipped into a cup of coffee. At this stage comes a great deal of arguing with shouts of 'Abadan! Abadan!' as each guest refuses, wishing to honour his neighbour more. ... The sweetness of the drink is sometimes determined by the occasion. At a happy one, such as a wedding or a birthday, it is served sweet, while at a funeral it must be drunk without any sugar at all."8
EFFECTS Variously described as an 'elixir of life' as well as a poison, controversy has always raged over its effects. Among various investigations carried out over the years to settle the controversy, a notable one was made in Sweden in the 18th century. Identical twin brothers were condemned to death for murder. King Gustav III commuted their sentences to life imprisonment on condition that one twin be given a large daily dose of tea and the other of coffee. The tea drinker died first at the age of eighty-three. The question was settled, and today the Swedes are amongst the world leaders in coffee consumption. 9 "Coffee, if used with moderation, assists digestion, promotes intestinal peristalsis, allays the senses of fatigue and hunger, lessens tissue-waste and consequently decreases the formation and excretion of urea [?]. Used to excess it disorders digestion, and causes functional disturbances of the nervous system, shown by headache, vertigo, mental confusion, and palpitation of the heart. It increases secretion, blunts sensation, exalts reflex excitability, increases mental activity, and may produce insomnia and great nervous restlessness. It first briefly stimulates the heart and raises arterial tension, but soon depresses both. The wakefulness is usually preceded by a brief period of drowsiness. The brief stimulation of the intellect, consequent on drinking a cup of good coffee, cannot be obtained from an infusion of raw coffee, and is probably due to the volatile constituents developed in roasting. Caffeone opposes Caffeine in its action on the circulation, as it quickens the pulse and lowers arterial tension. Its action, however, is of brief duration, and soon gives way to the influence of the principal constituent. The Tannin is the ingredient which enables it to produce dyspepsia, and is most abundant in those infusions which are kept a long time on the stove before being served. The green bean produces very different effects from those of the roasted one, exhibiting the action of Caffeine alone, unmodified by that of the empyreumatic products. A tincture of green coffee, besides being an efficient diuretic, has marked anti-lithic powers, and promotes the elimination of the poison of gout from the system."10
CAFFEINE The CNS stimulant caffeine is present in the leaves, seed or fruits of more than 60 plant species worldwide, with coffee, tea, cocoa, maté, guarana, and cola nuts as the best known examples. It is the most prevalent stimulant in Western society, and it may be included in over-the-counter drugs such as analgesics. Although arabica beans generally contain less caffeine than robusta beans, the caffeine content depends on the variety of coffee bean, as well as where the bean is grown, the manufacture of the product, the length of brewing, and the proportion of coffee to water. A single serving of coffee, in an 8-oz cup, varies from 65-120 mg of caffeine for brewed coffee to 60-85 mg for instant coffee. An 1-oz cup of espresso contains about the same amount of caffeine [30-55 mg] as 1-oz shots of cappuccino or latte. Decaffeinated coffee is almost without caffeine; an 8-oz cup of brewed or instant decaff contains 1-4 mg of caffeine. Apart from its mild central stimulant effects, caffeine stimulates the cardiac muscle, relaxes smooth muscle - in particular bronchial muscle - and increases the flow of urine. It reduces the feeling of fatigue, leading to insomnia, and improves concentration and a clearer flow of thought. "This is confirmed by objective studies which have shown that caffeine reduces reaction time, and produces an increase in the speed at which simple calculations can be performed [though without much improvement in accuracy]. Performance at motor tasks, such as typing and simulated driving, is also improved, particularly in fatigued subjects. Mental tasks, such as syllable-learning, association tests and so on, are also facilitated by moderate doses [up to about 200 mg caffeine] but inhibited by larger doses. By comparison with amphetamines, methylxanthines [caffeine and theophylline] produce less locomotor stimulation and do not induce euphoria, stereotyped behaviour patterns or a psychotic state, but their effects on fatigue and mental function are similar. Tolerance and habituation develop to a small extent, but much less than with amphetamines, and withdrawal effects are slight. ... Caffeine has few unwanted side-effects, and is safe even in very large doses."11 Pregnancy hampers caffeine metabolism. For example, in non pregnant women the break-down of half of the caffeine takes an average of 2.5 - 4.5 hours, 7 hours during mid-pregnancy and 10.5 during the last few weeks of pregnancy. As caffeine retention is longer during pregnancy, women sensitive to caffeine may be affected. Oral contraceptives also increase the effects of caffeine, whereas smoking enhances caffeine elimination. An effect lacking in the clinical manuals but reported by at least two people on the [inter]net is a loss of motor ability: inability to move, speak, or even blink.
PERFORMANCE Caffeine prolongs the amount of time during which an individual can perform physically exhausting work, thus improving performances subject to fatigue. "Well-trained competitive cyclists given 330 mg of caffeine pedalled seven per cent harder but did not notice any increased effort and endured about twenty per cent longer. In another study of eighty subjects, after taking 250 mg of caffeine, fifty-four per cent improved in the long jump, sixty per cent in the shot put, and eighty per cent in the one-hundred-metre sprint. [Decaffeinated coffee actually caused serious deterioration of athletic performance in short events.] Apparently, caffeine prevents muscle fatigue and enhances the body's ability to burn fat for fuel, sparing sugar, which is then stored in tissues to be called on for sudden bursts of energy. On the other hand, caffeine may impair tasks that require finger coordination, such as threading a needle, hitting a small target, or throwing darts."12
FERTILITY Studies on the effects of caffeine on pregnant women as well as on fertility have proved controversial. Some studies suggest that drinking six or more cups of coffee can double the risk of a miscarriage, whereas others maintain that the danger of malformations only exists with consumption of 70 cups of coffee a day. Again others found the higher miscarriage risk only in women who suffered morning sickness, and still others found no increased risk. On men, it has been shown that caffeine reduces rates of sperm motility which may account for some findings of reduced fertility. In former times it was generally believed that the drinking of coffee diminishes sexual excitability and gives rise to sterility. This is illustrated by the anecdote about a sultan who was so greatly attracted by coffee that he became tired of his wife. The latter one day saw a stallion being castrated and declared that it would be better to give the animal coffee, as then it would be in the same state as her husband. The argument that coffee makes men impotent lived on as a powerful notion. In 1764 a 'women's petition against coffee', presented to the 'Keepers of the Liberty of Venus' in London, expressed the fear that coffee would make "men as unfruitful as those deserts whence that unhappy berry is said to be brought." Hahnemann believed in this as well: "Coffee-drinking will stimulate sexual desire ten or even fifteen years too soon, when both sexes are still of a delicate and unripe age, and this leads to early impotency." Viewed as an extremely drying and enfeebling substance, coffee was considered incompatible with the phlegmatic temperament. Those who saw the phlegmatic, portly body type as the God-given, natural one, thought any semblance of desiccation to be harmful. "The notion of dryness, which was then [and still is, in fact] associated with abstraction, nervousness and so forth, offended the conservative sensibility. Dryness, however, is the modern principle par excellence. Dryness and sobriety are synonymous. Dryness is the principle of masculinity, patriarchy, asceticism, antisensuality, in contrast to the sensual and feminine. In this sense coffee is the great drying agent at the threshold of the modern age."13
PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION "Caffeine is at first a stimulant, and subsequently a paralyzant, to the nerve-centres in the cerebrum, medulla and cord. In small doses it quickens the action of the heart and raises arterial tension ; stimulates the cerebral functions, by increasing the supply of blood to the brain; increases the respiration rate and the secretion of urine. Larger doses [5-8 g.], often over-stimulate the cerebral circulation, causing thereby great heaviness of the head, flashes of light before the eyes, tinnitus aurium, insomnia, restlessness, and even delirium, - the pulse becoming rapid, feeble, irregular and intermittent, and the general body-temperature elevated, though that of the periphery may be lowered. Large doses depress the heart and respiration, and lower the blood pressure; - in the smaller animals exalting the reflex excitability of the cord and producing tetanic convulsions, and in lethal doses paralyzing the cardiac muscle as well as its motor ganglia, but causing death by paralysis of respiration. It powerfully affects muscular fibre, both voluntary and involuntary kinds, throwing it into a state of tetanic contraction resembling rigor mortis. If administered in sufficient quantity it would doubtless prove fatal to man, - but its lethal dose for him would be very large. Caffeine is excreted unchanged in the bile and urine, and is a reliable hydragogue diuretic; acting by stimulation of the secreting apparatus in the kidney, as well as by generally raising the arterial tension."14
STUDIES Caffeine is one of the most extensively studied substances. Sensitivity to caffeine, or excessive and prolonged intake of coffee may produce a syndrome called 'caffeinism', which includes anxiety, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, depression, headache, flushed face, duodenal ulcers, constipation, frequent urination, and gastrointestinal complaints. In addition, caffeine inhibits absorption of iron, promoting anaemia, and interferes with the absorption of calcium. Numerous and long-term studies, on the other hand, show that coffee has beneficial effects as well. A ten-year study of 45,000 men found that drinking two to three cups of [caffeinated] coffee a day reduced the risk of developing gallstones by 40%. Drinking four or more cups of coffee a day even reduced this risk with 5% more. Research in the United States, Japan and Italy indicates that consumption of coffee has a strong protective effect against both cirrhosis of the liver [which is usually caused by excessive alcohol use], and colorectal cancer. Despite previous controversy on the subject, most researchers now conclude that regular coffee use has little or no effect on blood pressure. First-time caffeine use may produce immediate, minimal changes in blood pressure, but, as studies indicate, these changes are transient since no changes in blood pressure appear to occur in regular users of caffeine. However, researchers disagree whether coffee increases the proneness to cardiovascular disease, and/or increases serum lipids/cholesterol levels. Coffee is known to stimulate gastric secretion, but since decaffeinated coffee also spurs production of stomach acid, it is now understood that caffeine is not the culprit but the tannins in coffee, which increase if the coffee is kept warm on a hot plate.
HAHNEMANN According to Hahnemann, coffee is a purely medicinal substance and as such opposed to a natural regimen of life. It throws life off its natural rhythm, it "diminishes and almost annihilates the disagreeable sensations analogous to the wise organization of our bodies," it creates "a life artificially doubled, artificially exalted!" Considering the daily use of coffee "the most pernicious thing of all," he may well have been influenced by the strong opposition to coffee in the Germany of his days. After 1750 coffee, along with other imported items, had come under governmental control to restrict coffee consumption. Coffee was declared an un-German drink, not merely because of the flow of money out of Germany [Germany had to satisfy its demands for coffee through imports], but also because the drink itself had supplanted Germany's hallowed national beverage, beer. Lewin writes that "several small potentates in Germany, not content with prohibiting coffee, even offered a reward to the informer." He continues: "One of these, the Prince of Waldeck by the grace of God, paid ten thalers to anyone who should denounce a coffee-drinker. Even laundrywomen and ironers were rewarded if they laid information against their employers from whom they had obtained coffee. Several punishments were introduced against sellers of coffee in the small towns and in the country. Men of note were allowed to buy coffee in the capital cities. In 1777 the Prince-Bishop Wilhelm of Paderborn declared that the drinking of coffee was a privilege of the aristocracy, the clergy, and the high officials. It was strictly prohibited to the middle classes and the peasants. Drinkers of coffee in Germany were even threatened with caning. As the use of coffee increased in Prussia King Frederick II imposed a high tax on it [1781]. The people must again become accustomed to drinking beer on which 'His Royal Majesty himself' had, according to the edict, been brought up. In his opinion this was far healthier than coffee. In a comedy by Kotzebue, a husband praises the economy of his young wife in the following words: 'Have I not given up coffee? Have I not sighed in the morning when drinking my beer, because, as Hufeland says, our forefathers derived much benefit from it?'"15 Four years earlier, in 1777, Frederick II had issued the following declaration: "It is disgusting to note the increase of coffee used by my subjects and the amount of money that goes out of the country in consequence. Everybody is using coffee. If possible this must be prevented. My people must drink beer. His Majesty was brought up on beer, and so were his officers. Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer; and the King does not believe that coffee-drinking soldiers can be depended upon to endure hardships or to beat his enemies in case of the occurrence of another war."16 In the 17th century beer was second only to bread as the main source of nourishment for most central and north Europeans. In rural areas of Germany breakfast as a rule consisted of beer soup - a mixture of beer, butter, eggs, and bread - and such soups were still prepared as late as the end of the 18th century. It is an intriguing question why Hahnemann was so emphatically against the use of coffee. He undoubtedly perceived its potential addictiveness, observing that "it is not so very easy to abolish a strong habit of using coffee, especially among delicate persons" and "those who use it habitually can only leave it off very gradually and carefully." For Hahnemann coffee constituted a general antidote to homoeopathic treatment, a point of view that has affected homoeopathy to this very day. Yet, in a treatise set up to explain the pure effects of coffee, Hahnemann soon becomes rhetorical by blaming coffee for the demoralising tendencies and the degeneration of the [18th] century. For him the coffee-habit obviously endangered the soul of a nation: "The serious reflections of our ancestors, the solidity of judgement, firmness of will and resolution, the perseverance of the body in executing its slow but energetic movements, all these qualities which formerly distinguished the national character of the Germans vanish before this medicinal beverage. And by what are they replaced? Imprudent effusions of the heart, precipitate and ill-founded resolutions and judgements, levity, loquacity, and vacillation, finally a fugitive and non-energetic mobility of the muscles, and a theatrical countenance. I well know that to abound in luxuriant imaginations, to compose lascivious romances, and to make flippant, jocular, and pointed poems, the German must drink coffee." In a footnote to this statements he writes: "Who knows what dietetic enervation was the cause that the prodigies of the heroic virtues of patriotism, of filial love, of inviolable fidelity, of unwavering integrity and zeal for duty, acknowledged attributes of our antiquity, have dwindled away to a petty egotism!"17
PROVINGS •• [1] Hahnemann - 8 provers; method: unknown.
•• [2] Marvaud - self-experimentation with cold infusions of raw coffee.
Clarke, Mezger, and others regard the symptoms of Coffea cruda and Coffea tosta to be so similar that their effects can be scarcely distinguished. Symptoms observed in Coffea tosta find their similimum in Coffea cruda, according to Mezger. No provings have been undertaken with Coffea tosta; the effects were derived from drinking strong coffee.
[1] Vaughan and Geissler, The New Oxford Book of Food Plants. [2] Schivelbusch, Tastes of Paradise. [3] Fuller, Stairways to Heaven. [4] Schivelbusch, ibid. [5] Roden, Coffee .[6] Fuller, Stairways to Heaven. [7] Schivelbusch, ibid. [8-9] Roden, ibid. [10] Potter, A Compend of Materia Medica. [11] Rang et al., Pharmacology. [12] Carper, The Food Pharmacy. [13] Schivelbusch, ibid. [14] Potter, ibid. [15] Lewin, Phantastica. [16] Roden, ibid. [17] Hahnemann, Treatise on the Effects of Coffee [Der Kaffee in seinen Wirkungen].
Affinity
NERVES. CIRCULATION. Sexual organs. Mind. Women. * Right side.
Modalities
Worse: NOISE. TOUCH. Odours. Air [open; cold; windy weather]. Mental [emotions; exertion]. Overeating. Alcohol; wine. Night. Sudden emotions; excessive exaltation. Excessive joy. Narcotics. Warm water in mouth. Taking cold.
Better: Lying. Rest. Ice water in mouth.
Main symptoms
M Ailments from anger, excitement, fright, excessive joy, immoderate laughing, disappointed love, pleasant surprises.
JOY = weeping, sleeplessness, congestion of head, inflammation of uterus, asthmatic respiration, palpitations.
M MENTAL OVERACTIVITY.
Plans, fancies, theorizing, abundant ideas in the evening, causing sleeplessness.
• "Memory may be phenomenal with an ability to quote poetry at great length." [Gibson]
Quick, WANDERING THOUGHTS.
Rushing ideas. Abrupt, incoherent answers.
• "I'm a 100,00 volts person! Can't stay still, always something to do. Two or three things at the same time. Never have time for myself. I'd like to join a gym. If I don't do all those things, my family suffers. I don't know how to relax. I read at night. I have to read. I always read two books at the same time: one in the shop and one in the house. My heart races when I read. I want to know the story faster, faster. Don't want to waste time. Can't imagine myself lying awake at night doing nothing! I have to keep my mind occupied. I'm the same with films, too emotional. If my daughter takes part in a horse-riding competition, I'm a ball of nerves, my heart beats like mad, my throat and chest get tight. Songs make me cry or if I see someone winning a prize on telly. Also other people's misery makes me cry."1
c Whirling activity - spinning thoughts - whirling sensation in head.
• "In her head she feels as if its contents [verses from the Prayer-book] went slowly round, first in one direction and then in another, and along with this there is a continual ringing in ears." [Hughes]
Fear for anything inclined to circularity [roundabouts, merry-go-rounds].
M Lightness.
Delusion of floating in air. Doesn't feel bed when lying in it.
Delusion of being light, without body.
• "Lightness of head and in all bodily adjustments, a great and unwonted sense of well-being and liveliness; great mobility of muscles, every movement is performed with ease and rapidity, and with steady force." [Hughes]
c Coffea tosta has:
• "While sleeping in a hammock the gentle swinging motion is felt to an enormous degree, increasing more and more until he seems to be swinging above the tree tops into the clouds, in rhythmic motion; the descent is intensely disagreeable and accompanied by painful anxiety, without fear of falling; when near the ground he awakes and puts his feet to the ground, which momentarily interrupts the sensation; but he is too sleepy to keep awake and passes a horrible night." [Hering]
M QUICK to ACT; WITTY [Lach.].
• "Kasters Niebuhr writes about early Syrian coffee houses in 'Descriptions of Arabia' [Amsterdam, 1774]: 'Being the only theatres for the exercise of profane eloquence, poor scholars attend here to amuse the people. Select portions are read, e.g. the adventures of Rustan Sal, a Persian hero. Some aspire to the praise of invention, and compose tale and fables. They walk up and down as they recite, or assuming oratorical consequence, harangue upon subjects chosen by themselves.' ... The wife of Shah Abbas appointed a mullah to sit every day in the more turbulent establishments of Istafan in Persia. His job was to entertain all day with points of law, history and poetry. Seated high in an ornate chair, he would also tell jokes, sing and recount the romantic and nostalgic stories of famous lovers or the Arabian Nights. Thus political hotheads were ignored and controversial issues avoided. Coffee-house storytellers are becoming fashionable again in Iran today, though sometimes it is the ubiquitous television that has taken over the role on the raised chair."2
M Starting when touched.
M OVERSENSITIVITY to PAIN.
DESPAIR from pain ["weeps, laments and tosses about."].
ALL the SENSES are more ACUTE.
Sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing, esp. to NOISES.
• "Awakes at or hears every sound." [Kent]
• "There is ability to read very small print and to hear sounds inaudible to others." [Gibson]
M Benevolence and remorse.
• "Can become generous to get rid of their feeling of guilt. Sometimes this is so strong that they stay with their partner out of remorse, to make it up." [Ghegas]
• "Is apt to labour incessantly for some good cause to the point of a 'break-down' with accompanying dulness, gloom, constant yawning and stretching, drowsiness by day and undue wakefulness at night." [Gibson]
• "Coffea imagines paradise to be a place where everyone, in the security of God's love and care, lives together in peace and harmony. With their whole being, in their thinking and doing, they strive for the earthly realization of this heavenly place. They see it as their duty to contribute by doing good deeds, by being active and creative, all to the best of their abilities. Anything they do or think that goes against this ideal results in deep remorse. Having pain is considered a clear and direct indication that they are not in paradise, because in paradise there is no pain. Consequently, pain gives despair, oversensitivity, and even fear of death."3
Much less irritated, ambitious and malicious than Nux vomica.
Alertness.
• "In Coffea we find to a marked degree the sycotic theme of moulding oneself according to circumstances. Coffea is acutely aware of the needs of others. They feel responsible for the well-being of others. They were not wanted as a child, or held responsible for their parents' bad relationship. They cannot relax or trust they will be taken care of, but have to be alert all the time, and please others in order to be allowed to be with them. A Dutch expression for a cup of coffee is 'bakkie troost', meaning cup of comfort."4
M Beauty.
[Increased sense of beauty as a result of increased sensory acuity.]
• "Contrary to his habit he was in continual sentimental ecstasy about beautiful scenery, of which he was reading a description." [Hahnemann]
This is given by Allen as: • "Contrary to his custom is very much charmed by the beauties of nature, descriptions of which are related to him."
And changed by Kent into: Delusion he saw paradise.
According to Hahnemann, a property of coffee is that "all external objects appear to excite a feeling of pleasure; they take on a joyish varnish; and if the quantity of coffee taken was very great, they assume an almost over-pleasing lustre." For Hahnemann such "satisfaction with everything that surrounds one" is an "artificial vivacity" that befits those living in the "primeval simplicity of nature". By drinking coffee "moderation and just bounds are everywhere exceeded", and thereby violating the demands of "the wise organization of our nature" that wants us to "experience agreeable and disagreeable sensations alternately."5 [In contrast to Hahnemann, who saw coffee as the Great Exciter, the general idea of coffee is that of the Great Soberer.]
Veneration.
• "Veneration for the Supreme Being and love for family; benevolence excited." [Hering]
• "Caffeine binds to cells in the brain in such a way as to block the effect of adenosine, a chemical that ordinarily has a quieting effect upon the brain. Like many other drugs, caffeine is thus an indirect stimulant; by itself, it can't stimulate anything. By blocking the quieting effect of adenosine, it impairs the brain's ability to keep its own excitatory neurotransmitters in check. In this way, caffeine clears the way for the brain's own stimulants - neurotransmitters such as glutamate, dopamine, and the endorphins - to do their job without interference. Coffee drinkers thus 'get wired' only to the extent that their own natural excitatory neurotransmitters transmit exhilarating signals. Caffeine might consequently be viewed as a pharmaceutical agent of nature religion. That is, it puts us in a position to respond to nature's own hidden riches. Caffeine enables us to appreciate the exhilaration that emanates from nature itself; this, in turn, enhances our aesthetic rapport with our surroundings in such a way that we might see common things in a new and more vibrant way."6
M Very similar to Bell.: head red and hot, pupils dilated and shining, marked redness of cheeks; but Coff. has heat and loquacity, activity of memory and exalted excitement, whereas Bell. has delirium and frightening delusions.
G Ailments during MENOPAUSE.
[flushing, faintness, overexcitement, sleeplessness, palpitations]
G Aversion to OPEN AIR, yet sensation of HEAT.
Aversion to open air; fear of fresh air; sensitive to COLD air.
G Sleeplessness after delivery.
Sleeplessness from nursing the sick.
Coff. from overexcitement, Cocc. from anxiety.
In Coff. everything is ACCELERATED, in Cocc. everything SLOWS down.
G < TOUCH. P Headache, as from a NAIL in side of head. Mostly caused by excessive mental exertion [much talking, excited and deep conversations in the late evening = sleeplessness = headache]. < Open air. P Toothache. May occur during menses. > Holding cold water in mouth.
Pain extending to fingertips.
P Dysmenorrhoea.
Excessive colicky pains.
Passage of large black clots.
And Despair, weeping, lamenting.
P Nervous palpitation < sun heat. P Respiration ASTHMATIC or DIFFICULT. In 1859, the Scottish physician Salter reported strong coffee to be 'one of the best reputed remedies for asthma', resulting in the common prescription of black mocha coffee for allergic bronchial asthma. • "Most of the effects of caffeine are due to its blocking the receptors for a natural hormone, adenosine. This is produced by all organs and tissues whenever they are active and its effects tend to oppose that activity. In other words, adenosine is part of the body's mechanisms for controlling tissue activity. Since caffeine prevents the effects of adenosine, these two substances usually have opposite effects. ... In the airways of normal people, adenosine has little effect. In those with asthma, however, it contracts the muscles and can trigger or worsen an asthma attack. Since asthma blocks the adenosine receptors, it relaxes the airways in asthma. Theophylline, which is used medically to treat asthma, acts in the same way."7 c "Suffocative fits." [Hering] c "Asthmatic attacks in morning, wants to move continually." [Hering] c "Complained of want of air, and compression of chest and clung convulsively to the furniture or persons, but sank down powerless." [Coffea tosta; Allen] c Böcker found that taking coffee diminishes the amount of carbonic acid exhaled from the lungs, and correspondingly makes the inspirations more superficial. This last property of coffee was well shown in an experiment. "He drank a quantity of coffee made from 1 oz. of the beans and sat down to his desk to write. After 1/2 h. he had a true fit of asthma, oppression of the chest, trembling of limbs, great ebullition of blood and vertigo. He went into the open air and walked quickly without much relief, his knees tottered, he became deadly pale, and felt quite faint. He was too weak to sit up and had to lie down. He felt very uncomfortable, the dyspnoea increased and lasted some h., when he noticed that he had to breathe more deeply. He had no appetite for supper, could not sleep, and had no stool for 2 days. His conclusion is that coffee hinders the waste of the tissues." [Hughes] [1] Diskin, Coffea or Life is Painfully Shocking; The Hom. Times, Summer 2000. [2] Roden, Coffee. [3] Mike Keszler, Der Engel mit der großen Angst: Coffea cruda and die Sehnsucht nach dem Paradies; Hom. Zeitschrift 1/98. [4] Harry van der Zee, Miasms in labour. [5] Hahnemann,Treatise on the Effects of Coffee. [6] Fuller, Stairways to Heaven. [7] Stone and Darlington, Pills, Potions and Poisons. Rubrics Mind Desires activity [1]; desires creative activity [1; Choc.]; restless activity [2]. Mental agility [3; Form.; Op.]. Answering, abruptly [1], disconnected [1]. Anxiety, from flatus [1], with inactivity [1], after wine [1/1]. Being beside oneself [3], from pain [2]. Aversion to be carried [2]. Clinging to persons or furniture [1]. Complaining [2]. Consolation < [1]. Conviction of death [2]. Delusions, he is away from home [2], he saw paradise [1/1]. Fear, of impending danger, on going to sleep [1/1], of death, from pain [3], of falling, on going to sleep [1/1], of roundabouts, merry-go-rounds etc. [1M]. Hurry, on drinking [2], while eating [2]. Making many plans [2]. Quick to act [2]. Sensitive, to the slightest noise [3]. Studying, easily [1]. Weeping, from the slightest neglect [1/1]. Vertigo From rocking [2]. Walking, with sensation of gliding in the air, as if feet did not touch the ground [1]. Head Boiling sensation [1]. Congestion, when speaking [1; Sulph.]. Pain, after contradiction [2], after overeating [1], after abuse of narcotics [1], from strong odours [2], from loss of sleep [1]. Feels smaller [1]. Hearing Acute, during headache [1], to noises [2], to voices and talking [2]. Teeth Pain, > biting teeth together [1], < noise [2], after drinking tea [1]. Rectum Diarrhoea, after abuse of chamomile [2], from domestic cares [2], from sudden joy [2], during warm weather [1]. Male Aversion to coition [1]. Ejaculation, failing during coition [1]. Female Aversion to coition [1]; coition painful [1]. Menses, copious, with coldness of body [1/1], irregular, between periods [2]. Sexual desire increased during menses [1]. Sterility [2]. Respiration Asthmatic, after emotions [2]. Chest Palpitation, after exaltation [2], after excitement [2], after joy [2], with copious urine [1/1]. Limbs Sensation of lightness [2]. Sleep Sleeplessness, after abuse of coffee [3], from fancies [1], from flatulence [1], from itching of anus [1], from excessive joy [3], after surprising news [2], from nursing the sick [2], thoughts, always the same thought [2], after abuse of wine [1]. Chill Chilliness, during headache [3], with pain [1]. During motion [3]. Perspiration Cold, during menses [1]. Skin Coldness, during labour [1], during menses [1]. Food Aversion: [2]: Coffee; drinks. [1]: Smoking; solid food; wine. Desire: [2]: Alcohol; coffee. [1]: Chocolate [M]; tobacco. Worse: [3]: Wine. [2]: Alcohol; tobacco. [1]: Bread; coffee; hot food; milk [M]; tea. Better: [1]: Cold drinks. * Repertory additions: [M] = Karl-Josef Müller.
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