Friday, November 28, 2008
Decaf or not?
Many years ago I made a choice to not partake of caffeinated drinks. I find that generally I can get to sleep fairly quickly in the evening and when I wake in the morning I am ready to start my day right away. I tend to have fairly regular sleeping habits.
If I am in Australia and my friends invite me to have a coffee with them, I opt for decaffeinated. I know there are questions about decaffeinated coffee. Apparently there are two processes for decaffeinating coffee beans. One is expensive and produces a product that is not harmful. The other, cheaper process, produces a product that is reputed to not be particularly good for our health. Guess which one is more commonly used. Still, I don't drink the stuff so often I doubt that it is going to do me a lot of harm. Besides, I do enjoy the flavour of coffee.
In Thailand there is a coffee chain that boasts a range of over 20 types of coffee. At the time I checked them out none were decaffeinated. Fine, I decided, I have no difficulty in going without.
On my second day in India Nazia and I had an early dinner—or perhaps a very late lunch. We decided to see a movie at 7.30 and had a bit of time to kill. Nazia was hanging out for a cup of tea so introduced me to the Costa coffee shop in the local mall. 'But they won't have decaffeinated,' I said.
'Yes, they do.' Not only did they offer decaffeinated but the size of the cups! I ordered a medium. To me it was equal to about two regular cups of coffee. Glad I didn't order a large. Still, it helped to fill the time until the movie started.
After the movie we returned to our homes in a cycle rickshaw. I'm trying to set myself a slightly different sleeping pattern while I'm in India. In Bangkok I usually slept from 10 pm to 6 am. Here, I'm aiming for 11 pm to 7 am. At this point my body clock should have still been in Bangkok time so I should have been nodding off at about 8.30 pm. When I returned to my room it was 10.40 and I was still wide awake. I decided to do a little writing until 11. When that came around I still did not feel tired but turned the computer off anyway and went to bed.
I lay for hours not feeling the least bit tired. I checked the time at one point. It was 2.40 am. I still felt wide awake. I probably dozed off around about 3 am. But I didn't feel I slept soundly and woke up several times before getting up a little before 7.30.
Something had kept me awake for most of the night. There weren't any obtrusive noises. The temperature was pleasant. There was nothing keeping me awake. I was just not sleepy.
So, what was the cause? I believe I drank caffeinated coffee. Did the coffee-making person at Costa give me a regular coffee by mistake? Or is their decaf coffee a fake? I have no way of knowing but I shall avoid it for the rest of my time in India.
If I am in Australia and my friends invite me to have a coffee with them, I opt for decaffeinated. I know there are questions about decaffeinated coffee. Apparently there are two processes for decaffeinating coffee beans. One is expensive and produces a product that is not harmful. The other, cheaper process, produces a product that is reputed to not be particularly good for our health. Guess which one is more commonly used. Still, I don't drink the stuff so often I doubt that it is going to do me a lot of harm. Besides, I do enjoy the flavour of coffee.
In Thailand there is a coffee chain that boasts a range of over 20 types of coffee. At the time I checked them out none were decaffeinated. Fine, I decided, I have no difficulty in going without.
On my second day in India Nazia and I had an early dinner—or perhaps a very late lunch. We decided to see a movie at 7.30 and had a bit of time to kill. Nazia was hanging out for a cup of tea so introduced me to the Costa coffee shop in the local mall. 'But they won't have decaffeinated,' I said.
'Yes, they do.' Not only did they offer decaffeinated but the size of the cups! I ordered a medium. To me it was equal to about two regular cups of coffee. Glad I didn't order a large. Still, it helped to fill the time until the movie started.
After the movie we returned to our homes in a cycle rickshaw. I'm trying to set myself a slightly different sleeping pattern while I'm in India. In Bangkok I usually slept from 10 pm to 6 am. Here, I'm aiming for 11 pm to 7 am. At this point my body clock should have still been in Bangkok time so I should have been nodding off at about 8.30 pm. When I returned to my room it was 10.40 and I was still wide awake. I decided to do a little writing until 11. When that came around I still did not feel tired but turned the computer off anyway and went to bed.
I lay for hours not feeling the least bit tired. I checked the time at one point. It was 2.40 am. I still felt wide awake. I probably dozed off around about 3 am. But I didn't feel I slept soundly and woke up several times before getting up a little before 7.30.
Something had kept me awake for most of the night. There weren't any obtrusive noises. The temperature was pleasant. There was nothing keeping me awake. I was just not sleepy.
So, what was the cause? I believe I drank caffeinated coffee. Did the coffee-making person at Costa give me a regular coffee by mistake? Or is their decaf coffee a fake? I have no way of knowing but I shall avoid it for the rest of my time in India.
