Monday Morning Coffee News (Tuesday Edition)

Happy Monday Tuesday! A few interesting coffee-related items from the past week: A new study found caffeine may counter age-related inflammation, the genome sequence for Arabica Coffee is now publicly available, and mushroom coffee may be the next big thing in coffee.

A recent study done by the Stanford University School of Medicine looked at blood samples, survey data, and medical and family histories from more than 100 participants and found a connection between coffee consumption (more specifically caffeine consumption) and a reduction in age-related inflammation, which may affect longevity. The scientists ran laboratory tests in which they incubated a type of immune cell with inflammation-triggering nucleic acid metabolites along with caffeine and its breakdown products and were able to determine that the molecular events that drive age-related inflammation may be countered by the action of caffeine and its own circulating nucleic-acid metabolites.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis released the first public genome sequence for Arabica Coffee. “We hope that the C. arabica sequence will eventually benefit everyone involved with coffee — from coffee farmers, whose livelihoods are threatened by devastating diseases like coffee leaf rust, to coffee processors and consumers around the world,” Juan Medrano, a geneticist in the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and co-researcher on the sequencing effort.

I feel like I’ve been seeing and hearing about this mushroom coffee everywhere. Made by Four Sigmatic, the coffee comes in powder form (it’s essentially instant coffee), BUT, each packet is half coffee, half mushrooms. Each packet makes one cup of mushroom coffee with about 40 mg of caffeine (about half of the caffeine found in the same size of regular coffee) and it’s not supposed to taste like mushrooms at all, plus it’s supposed to come packed with all the medicinal properties of mushrooms (which I didn’t know they had, don’t I feel silly). Check out the video below to learn more: