Or you could just start drinking green tea, which is always good for you in any quantity (short of diluting your blood stream to dangerously thin levels), and contains cancer preventative anti-oxidants.

Just a thought.

So coffee doesn't lead to higher blood pressure. Does coffee lead to liver disease? Does it lead to hyper-tension? Does it lead to kidney cancer? Don't read too much into the science. Positive or negative.

In chorus when I was growing up in New England, we sang "Jeremiah was a bullfrog," but our teacher cleverly changed the line "He always had a mighty fine wine" to "we always had a mighty fine time"

The lyrics don't state drinking coffee is a sin...I remember this song clear as day when I was in school (don't ask me why!)...
"C-O-F-F-E-E, coffee is not for me. It's the drink some people wake up with...that it makes you nervous is no MYTH, slaves to the coffee cup, they can't give coffee up!"

Coffee is no sin dammit!

Nothing like putting the fear of god in people to prevent things like...coffee drinking(?)

Other studies that make other claims:

French press coffee and espresso (or any other brewing method that doesn't use a paper filter) has cafestol, the natural oil of coffee which makes it delicious, but also might raise cholesterol.

And then there's the claim that coffee has waaaaaay more antioxidants than any other beverage out there, including tea.

That coffee song reminds me of the Mr. Coffee Nerves ads for Postum.
Did they say how people who drink coffee and tea compare? I switch to tea after my first or second cup of coffee in the morning, and probably consume a total of 30-40 ounces of caffeinated beverage (10-15 coffee, the rest tea) over the course of the day. Do I risk high blood pressure if I don't become Ms. Coffee Jitters drinking it all day?

You should all read the National Geographic article on caffeine that came out in 2005, January I think. Fascinating! Basically, coffee enabled the Industrial Revolution to the detriment of our health. Manipulating our circadian rhythms with drugs is not a good idea.

I like Todd's post, though. One food is not going to kill us or save us. Better to focus on balance and moderation in all things.

Actually, in the 17th century when coffee was first introduced in Europe it was a favourite of religious dissenters such as the Puritans and Protestants in general who had hoped they might induce the working classes to switch from beer to coffee.

Maybe the teacher was Mormon -- don't they eschew caffeine? I imagine Starbucks doesn't do terribly well in SLC.

I saw a neat documentary on coffee. There was a little part in there about how the people marketing coffee to U.S. consumers coined the term "coffee break" and used that as a marketing angle.

Espresso actually has a low caffein content compared to other brewed coffees as the water is pressed through it so quickly; in fact that's why you'll wonder how some people can drink so many. Espresso gets all the flavour of the coffee beans with less of the jolt allowing you to control the intake of such niceties as caffein while still getting the most out of your coffee for flavour.

Well, I did attend Catholic school, and after Mass on Sundays everyone would go over to the gym for coffee and donuts.

Definitely not a Catholic thing.

@The Nature Boy: That was the version I learned too. In my first nerd moment I programmed a 486's PC speaker to play it on infinite repeat w/ QBasic in like 1992.

Thanks for the coffee song followups!

Google tells me that the song is loosely translated from a German children's song. English here, and German here.

The German version includes the culturally sensitive phrase "the Turk-drink isn't for children!" and the medical observation that coffee "weakens your nerves, makes you pale and ill." But it's not explicitly a sin. Unless the Mrs.' schoolteacher changed the words for the class?...

I believe every good science-y type article, fable, or passing comment on coffee. Fingers in the ears (la la la) for the rest of you.

Interesting that while that was going on in Massachussetts, the good radicals of Rhode Island were busy making coffee the state's most popular "flavor" and "coffee milk" the official state drink (even if it should be Del's).

I grew up in Massachusetts and I've never heard the coffee song. Good thing, too, 'cause coffee is the very life-blood of all that is good and pure in the universe. Such blasphemy will not be tolerated.

I drink a fair amount of coffee (three large mugs a day) and wondered at one point whether quitting would lower my somewhat high blood pressure. I quit for three weeks (the first few days really sucked) and went back to drinking coffee when it had absolutely no effect on my blood pressure whatsoever.

I learned that song in the late 80's in a Maryland public school, taught by a German music teacher - I never thought I'd hear it again!

Incidentally, as a Utah Mormon, Starbucks in SLC don't seem to have a problem - the city is much more diverse than other, smaller cities in Utah. We just got a Starbucks last year, the only one in the Provo/Orem area with a population somewhere around 350,000 including two colleges. You can get anything you want in Utah, we just make you work for it!

.....My folks always used to tell me coffee would "stunt your growth." I wasn't allowed it. I was damned envious of my dad, who every morning spooned up about 6 tablespoons of sugar, 4 oz. of half and half, and a bit of coffee on top, while I had a big glass of gritty powdered milk!

"COFFEE, coffee is not for me
It's the drink some people wake up with
That is makes them nervous is no myth
Slaves to a coffee cup
They can't give coffee up."

Those are the lyrics I learned, but I also somehow retained that it is actually a German children's folk song (no idea what those lyrics are), and it was to be sung in a round.

SIx cups of coffee? A day! Is that physically possible? If I had two I would like, blow up.

I also grew up in Massachusetts and never heard that pitiful ditty.

As someone who has to manage the pleasures of being a hunter-type (what the less fortunate call ADD), I use coffee in copious quantities. Usually 6 shots or so of espresso during the course of a morning and one or two cups of standard brew in the afternoon. It is entirely possible that I blocked out any such nonsense.

What I'm really here to chime in on is the comment about the Mormon strictures on stimulants.

I used to own an herb shop. Part of what I did was blend herbal teas. One of the herbs that was prominent in these was something called Mormon tea, an herb from out west that (so the documentation told me) was used by members of the LDS as a substitute for those horrible stimulating concoctions called coffee and tea.

Here's the poetic part ... the Latin name of Mormon Tea is Ephedra Nevadensis ... that's ephedra as in ephedrine.

So to paraphrase Renfield in Dracula, "Coffee? coffee? Who wants to drink coffee when you can get nice buzzy Mormon Tea."

For many years, I have drank two cups of coffee a day religiously . One study says it's good, another says it's bad...and I don't care what they say.

My mom gave me coffee in my sippy cup as a toddler. I wanted it because my parents drank it, and I liked the smell. Turned out, I liked the taste, too, and have had it since. I'm working on my second cup of the day right now (it's 2pm AEST). If it effects my blood pressure, there's no way to tell without me quitting it altogether and remeasuring, because I've been drinking it daily since I was 13 or 14. I don't find the caffiene makes a difference to my productivity (or lack thereof) aside from a psychological one; mostly I just like the taste. It takes about 4-5 8oz cups before the caffiene effects me in a noticable way, though I'm more succeptible to the caffiene in tea or soda, atleast partially because of the sugar involved, I think (coffee is white with a little sugar or chocolate milk powder).

The root of this song may be the "Kaffee-Kanon" by Carl Gottlieb Hering, a german teacher, musician and componist.

Many german parents make their children sing his song "Morgen Kinder wird´s was geben" on the day before christmas.

The wording of the "Kaffee-Kanon" is pretty dated and sounds a little racist now because of that.

---
C-A-F-F-E-E: trink nicht so viel Kaffee!
Nicht für Kinder ist der Türkentrank, schwächt die Nerven, macht dich blaß und krank. Sei du kein Muselmann, der ihn nicht lassen kann.
---
C-O-F-F-E-E: don´t drink so much coffee!
Not for children is the turk´s drink, weakens the nerves, makes you pale and ill. Don´t be a Mussulman, that can´t let it be.

The translation C-O-F-F-E-E doesn´t really make sense, because it refers to the notes on the gamut.

Coffee gives me the jitters. Instead, I reach for a nice cup of yerba mate.

Where in America can you get a coffee like the one depicted here? It's par for the course in Australia and I miss it dearly!

To Pelagius -

Find a local coffee shop that actually cares. And hope to god that you're in a big city. Best coffee shop in the US is Intelligentsia in Chicago. Might be better ones out there, but that's where I used to get my fix. Also, baristas from Intelligentsia placed 1st, 3rd, and 4th in the US Barista competition last year (or the year before) and the guy who placed first placed 3rd in Internationals. It's a highly trained shop.

Pelagius -- Are you in NYC? Or its environs? The closest to proper Italian espresso and cappucino here (in my humble opinion) is Taralluci e Vino on First Ave. and 10th St.

My brother and I STILL sing this song, learned in music class at a public school in South Jersey. We love that "Slaves to a coffee cup, They can't give coffee up.." BTW the tune is very carousel up-and-down, very kind of oompaa, so maybe it is German.
Awesome propoganda for wee folk....

OR! Cut out the caffeine and get a good night's sleep!

/snark

@jesseraub and oudemia: Stuck in DC, unfortunately.

I have actually been to Intelligentsia and it looked like it had potential, but I was on the go and only grabbed some 'regular' coffee there. I'll have to linger next time I'm in Chi-town.

Bach or Mozart, I forget which, had a Coffee Cantata that poked fun at the idea of coffee as seductive and sinful. So this goes back a ways. . . Highly amusing: of course you probably would not have learned THAT in an american school.

I grew up in Oregon and remember signing this song in music class at public school. We also had an assignment to draw posters depicting the song lyrics. Mine was voted the best :-) Didn't stop me from drinking coffee though.

Looks like it was Bach who wrote the Coffee Cantata. This is pretty amusing.

http://www.bach.org/bach101/cantatas/cantata211.html