Beginner’s Coffee - Types of Beans

Embed from Getty Images

I was not a regular coffee drinker, not until earlier this year when the consumption became daily and a single cup became two and, horrors of horrors, even three cups on certain days. I couldn’t even say I’m an amateur coffee drinker because I’m not! I only ask for black coffee wherever I go, regardless of whether it’s a hawker or a more atmospheric cafe.

After a few months into becoming a regular coffee drinker, I began to realise (I know, it’s embarrassing to have taken so long) that the Malaysian hawker or coffee shop coffee tastes different from the cafe ones (Starbucks, McCafe, Coffee Bean, just to name a few). The first thing that came to mind was probably different grades of beans but alas, I should never place judgement based on the condition of the place.

Further online research (oh, how convenient life has become that the walk to a nearby bookshop or library is seldom necessary) revealed that local Malaysian coffee is generally made from Robusta coffee beans. After Arabica, Robusta is the second most popular coffee bean in the world. It’s generally cheaper to produce because of its hardier plants. Hardier in the sense that the plants have higher resistance to diseases and tolerance to warmer climates.

Imagine how confused I’d got when I first heard of Robusta. Prior to this, I had always thought that there is just one type of coffee!

In general, Arabica beans are known to have a fruity taste while Robusta is more earthy and bitter. Taste is difficult to describe unless it’s just simple sweet, sour or bitter. It varies according to individual preferences. According to my taste buds, the Robusta ones, more often than not, tasted a bit like traditional Chinese liniment (dit da jao 跌打酒) for sprains and bruises. It’s an acquired taste. I’ve eventually come to accept it. On the other hand, coffee made from Arabica beans is more pleasant and easier to take in. Besides that, Arabica beans have higher acidity levels than Robusta.

Why are we even discussing about coffee here? It’s because coffee is a an amazingly healthy beverage with high antioxidant contents. The caffeine keeps writers and readers awake! These are the most common conceptions but I personally found another advantage to drinking coffee. Being a diuretic, it makes me stand up and go to the toilet often. I read that sitting for prolonged periods is a slow killer so it’s important to move about as often as possible.

Please be mindful when drinking coffee because of the caffeine. Although it doesn’t seem to have any affect on me, it may cause you sleepless nights if you drink it in the later part of the day. Besides that, caffeine “washes” away vitamins so if you take supplements, don’t drink coffee immediately. At least wait an hour or two.

Lastly, it’s really important to note that drinking coffee black is way, way healthier than with sugar and cream/milk.

Reading Einstein - Conclusion

The later chapters focused on Einstein’s involvement in politics and religion. As anti-Semitic sentiments grew and Hitler’s rule imminent, Einstein had little choice but to renounce his German citizenship (once more) and resign from his post. Fortunately, with his celebrity status, offers started to pour in. After some deliberation he would eventually settle down in the United States and took permanent residency in Princeton.

Einstein’s stand towards religion was put into perspective - he believed in a God but not the all seeing, all knowing one that most of us come to respect and more often than not, fear. Einstein believed in “god” beings that are superior to humans but only just that because this helped to explain the as yet unexplainable science. In so doing he stressed that he was no atheist.

In the midst of all these, tragedy struck Einstein’s personal life with the unfortunate passing of his wife Elsa and his youngest son got admitted to an asylum. On the bright side, he got united with his beloved sister Maja and his eldest son Hans Albert.

It wouldn’t be Einstein if the biography did not chronicle his obsession on creating the general theory of relativity AND his efforts to rebut quantum theory and unify field theory. The former was already described in detail earlier while the latter two became his life long quest.

It might be common knowledge but I never knew that Einstein played a small but important role to turn the tide in giving the US the upper hand during World War II. Einstein and fellow Jewish physicists had managed to warn (in the nick of time) President Roosevelt the danger in newly discovered nuclear technology but inadvertently presented the idea of creating the nuclear bomb.

Following the devastation of Japan that subsequently helped win the war, Einstein was mistakenly blamed for his role in the creation of the bomb. He felt a certain guilt to his actions. Following that he reiterated his advocacy in forming a world government that regulates external policies (particularly arms control) while at the same time have no jurisdiction within each nations’ internal governance.

With little contributions to science in his later life, he was thrusted into the public eye due to his political views on individual freedom. Naturally against any oppression, Einstein stood by people wrongly misinterpreted, often causing public outcry.

With the death of his first wife Maric and later his sister Maja, Einstein’s health, too, started to deteriorate. In addition to his stomach ailments and anaemia that plagued him for much of his life, he was diagnosed with aneurysm on his abdominal aorta. This would prove to be the main contributor to his death but he lived on until 1955. Out of wisdom he had refused surgery because he did not want to prolong life but instead to embrace a natural death. He left this world in spirit but to this day his legacy of science and political freedom lived on.

Conclusion

Much like in starting out a new life, I started reading Einstein’s biography without thinking about the end. Starting off as a struggling arrogant, stubborn genius but with a big heart, Einstein passed on at age of 76 due to internal haemorrhaging. It is possible that relative of time, Einstein could live on eternally in the minds of many generations.

I’m truly amazed with the author of this biography, Walter Isaacson on the amount of research he had done. Just look at the references he used at the end of the book - it took almost 90 pages to credit them all.

Overall, if you’re a fan of Einstein and a physics enthusiast, I would not hesitate to recommend this but you do need to be mindful that you have lots of time because it is a very thick book. It took me more than two months!

Previously, I talked about the first few chapters and the middle chapters. Do check them out at the links below:

1. Reading Einstein - The First Few Chapters
2. Reading Einstein - The Next Few Chapters