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A treatise concerning the properties and effects of coffee (1792) (publicdomainreview.org)
90 points by tintinnabula on Feb 3, 2023 | hide | past | favorite | 25 comments



This reminded me of one my favorite essays on the subject, "The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee" by Honoré de Balzac in the 1830s

https://voxpopulisphere.com/2016/01/17/honore-de-balzac-the-...


With the increasingly strong formulations he would have loved espresso then! Think that wasn’t invented until early 1900s. That said immersion brewing probably gives your more caffeine in total.

Edit might have been earlier I was thinking of a specific espresso machine.


It isn't the strongest brew, but the e61 group head is just so great for making espresso. More recent designs and modified e61s have advantages, but the ways it can be used, the availability of parts and the quality of the brew are pretty great.

No software or complex electronics for my coffee thanks (just lots of mechanical complexity).

The way the the Faema e61 looks doesn't hurt either, only rivalled by the lever action Urania in my opinion.


Discussed a few times here:

The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee (1830) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22509223 - March 2020 (21 comments)

The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee (1830) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13647098 - Feb 2017 (75 comments)

“The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee” by Honore de Balzac - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10515523 - Nov 2015 (1 comment)

The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee (1830) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7921691 - June 2014 (37 comments)

“The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee” - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2880196 - Aug 2011 (21 comments)


Haha, perhaps one of these is where I originally saw it!


We have a decent coffee chain in Ontario named Balzac’s, that started in Stratford. I hadn’t known this connection. Thanks!


Interesting. So one or two weeks of consumption. And then, I suppose several weeks of abstinence?


On a related subject, there is an early mention of English tea-drinking in Samuel Pepys' diary:

Tuesday 25 September 1660:

  And afterwards I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink) 
  of which I never had drank before, and went away.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1660/09/25/


PSA: lions mane supplements seem to have an antidote effect on the negative aspects of excess caffeine consumption (jitters, irritability, shortness of temper, general agro-ness). Also seems to largely eliminate the headaches experienced in withdrawal.

I never used to consume caffeine, now it's possibly my favorite mind-altering drug when combined with this otherwise seemingly pointless supplement.


Those are all vitamin / mineral / electrolyte related symptoms (fairly serious long-term), and probably shouldn't be shrugged off or "flex-sealed" with drugs.


Source? I don't believe that's true. Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant, I believe the physical effects and anxiety are caused directly.


RAAS (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470410).

Norepinephrine / cortisol, bone homeostasis / resorption.

As well as smaller issues that, over time, cause anemia, and wreck your small intestine, liver, kidneys, pancreas, (ability to digest fats, absorb b-vitamins and fat-soluble vitamins).


> Those are all vitamin / mineral / electrolyte related symptoms (fairly serious long-term), and probably shouldn't be shrugged off or "flex-sealed" with drugs.

Oh please, when they're nonexistent except when you've downed six+ shots of espresso it's pretty clearly acute side effects of abusing the drug.


I learned this lesson the hard way after a decade of thinking that way too. But you sound pretty sure of yourself!


Caffeine and coffee are not the same thing. Coffee contains hundreds of psychoactive chemicals.


L-theanine also reduces some of the negative effects of caffeine noticeably and improves focus specifically. It's naturally found in tea so one way to drink it with caffeine is simply to switch from coffee to tea.



Really hard to read with s printed like f


It takes about 10 minutes and then your brain learns to read it semifluently. FYI.


it seems like there is a story there, its not just like, it seems to be the same character?



The default Chrome typography is not kind to the eye in that article, lacking the descender of the integral sign form of the sigil. It looks far too like "f" which is amusingly noted as a typographical issue with the letter and probably why it fell out of use with the rise of movable type printing, and it's persistence in hand written text.


Another favorite is Bach's Coffee Cantata....


Exactly 60 beans per cup was his recipe, I believe. Don’t know how big his cup was, though.

(Or was that Beethoven?)


*sips*




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