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1 hour ago, JSHarris said:

In the 1980's, the Institute of Aviation Medicine were concerned about the impact of caffeine withdrawal on crew performance, especially on long sorties, so they did some experiments, monitoring crew performance during long flights both before and after removing the coffee machines.

My Father was in the RAF 1939.  He was sent to Buffalo for his initial training.  They were looking for some volunteers, stupidly my Father put himself forward (was 18 and naive).

They got him to take some pills and then monitored his performance over several hours.

3 days later my Father had still not slept.

They had put him on amphetamine.

There is not a lot to do in Buffalo at night.

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8 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

My Father was in the RAF 1939.  He was sent to Buffalo for his initial training.  They were looking for some volunteers, stupidly my Father put himself forward (was 18 and naive).

They got him to take some pills and then monitored his performance over several hours.

3 days later my Father had still not slept.

They had put him on amphetamine.

There is not a lot to do in Buffalo at night.

 

Still use the stuff today.  There are times when when the choice is stay awake or die.

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4 minutes ago, Pete said:

If I have another cup later on I cannot get to sleep because of the Caffeine I think?

 

Exactly the same as me. One coffee early in the day. Definitely nothing past lunchtime or I'll be staring at the ceiling for an hour when I go to bed.

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2 hours ago, JSHarris said:

 

Very real.  One feature of military flying is that crews spends many hours waiting around in crewrooms, often drinking coffee.  Coffee machines were (maybe still are) a fixture in every crew room I've ever sat in.  In the 1980's, the Institute of Aviation Medicine were concerned about the impact of caffeine withdrawal on crew performance, especially on long sorties, so they did some experiments, monitoring crew performance during long flights both before and after removing the coffee machines.  They proved conclusively that crew performance was adversely affected an hour or so into a sortie, when that crew had been sat drinking coffee beforehand.  AFAIK this didn't result in the permanent removal of coffee machines from crewrooms, (there would have been riots, I suspect) but it did become more common for crews to smuggle flasks of coffee into their flight bags...

 

Had no effect on Nimrod crews, as there was always one crew member on board walking up and down the A/C with either a big teapot or coffee pot.

 

I worked at Microsoft for a few years and would spend a week in the HQ in Seattle every couple of months or so. Seattle is coffee central (home of Starbucks) and the offices had amazing bean to cup machines.

 

Lots of coffee at breakfast (you blink and the cup is refilled) and then more as the jet lag kicked in around 2pm, I'd end up drinking way more coffee than usual over the week. Had a distinct comedown when back in UK, sore head etc. The Microsoft UK coffee machines were never as good :)

 

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9 hours ago, jack said:

 

12? :o  Ye gods that's a lot!

 

I'm very caffeine sensitive. More than one decent coffee a day and my sleep quality drops, and I'm more prone to becoming anxious in stressful situations.

It's pretty much all I drink, apart from the odd Havana Club (or six ?). Coffee is the first thing I have in the morning and last thing I have at night, and I still sleep like a log ?

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6 hours ago, PeterStarck said:

I don't like tea either. I'll drink tea or coffee if out visiting but never at home. I am partial to a hot chocolate occasionally especially the dark ones.

I've never liked tea, but my mother, 'til her dying day, would still offer me a cuppa every time I visited. "No thanks Mum, but I'd love a coffee please" was always my reply. She never did seem to catch on to the fact, bless her ?

Edited by NSS
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A Gurkha friend's wife makes masala chai from scratch on special occasions (like when I go over ? ). It's unreal, talk about a natural high! You can feel it coursing through your veins.

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2 hours ago, NSS said:

It's pretty much all I drink, apart from the odd Havana Club (or six ?). Coffee is the first thing I have in the morning and last thing I have at night, and I still sleep like a log ?

 

If I could drink just three a day I'd be a happy man. No such luck... 

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14 hours ago, Bitpipe said:

Another +1 for De Longhi - I treated myself to a Prima Donna bean to cup, frothy milk etc 11 years ago and it's still going strong - I've only had to replace an internal O ring in all that time. Easy to get spares for also.

 

+1 here too, picked one up half-price on ebay a couple of years ago (i'd previsouly returned a cheaper De Longhi to currys at it just didn't heat enough). I obvisuly didn't maintain mine as well as @Bitpipe though because either it's jammed or the elements gone and it's currently in it's box in the garage since we moved into rented accomodation ?

 

Out of interest, are any of the built-in options any good (just in case this can't be repaired) for the new kitchen once it's built, miele/siemnes etc?

 

 

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I have a De Longi. I don’t drink much coffee, just one cup per day max, but the De Longi seems fine. It has a milk gadget for lattes but I just keep that in the cupboard and drag it out when visitors come. 

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7 hours ago, Dan Feist said:

 

+1 here too, picked one up half-price on ebay a couple of years ago (i'd previsouly returned a cheaper De Longhi to currys at it just didn't heat enough). I obvisuly didn't maintain mine as well as @Bitpipe though because either it's jammed or the elements gone and it's currently in it's box in the garage since we moved into rented accomodation ?

 

Out of interest, are any of the built-in options any good (just in case this can't be repaired) for the new kitchen once it's built, miele/siemnes etc?

 

 

I deliberately did not go for a built in one as had heard lots of stories about them being white elephants. Very expensive and limited choice, not the best coffee either..........some on here have them look at earlier posts in this thread.

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2 hours ago, lizzie said:

I deliberately did not go for a built in one as had heard lots of stories about them being white elephants. Very expensive and limited choice, not the best coffee either..........some on here have them look at earlier posts in this thread.

 

My parents bought a house with a built in Miele. Despite drinking a reasonable amount of coffee, they ended up getting rid of it due to the amount of cleaning and maintenance required.

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  • 1 year later...

Well lockdown and home-working has made pod use interesting ?

 

I'm now buying 250 a time to get OEM pods at 20p and using 5-6 a day at home but still not looking to change. However the economic balance has definitely tipped toward beans now our annual consumable bill is in the region of a decent machine. 

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On 22/07/2019 at 09:38, Bitpipe said:

Another +1 for De Longhi - I treated myself to a Prima Donna bean to cup, frothy milk etc 11 years ago and it's still going strong - I've only had to replace an internal O ring in all that time. Easy to get spares for also.

 

I don't really use the milk jug much myself but visitors tend to like it.

 

You do need to give it a good clean every month or so - I found that the internal 'brewer' unit needed treating with food safe lubricant after cleaning as it had a tendency to jam up - there's a telescoping element that adjusts for different brew strengths.

 

I limit myself to two nice large americano's a day, both before 12pm.

 

Kids have just realised that they can make their own decaf iced coffee and save the £££ they were wasting at Costa :)

 

 

My De Longhi started to play up last year so I sent it for one of their fix price services.

 

Super impressed - it was collected by courier and then within a week I had a diagnosis and a fixed price repair quote (£150 inc. delivery ) or return un-repaired for £30.

 

When it was returned, they'd replaced the pump, grinder and a few sensors and it was good as new and has been no trouble since. Will probably get another 10 years or more out of it.

 

While it was very expensive at the time (£1000) it was a treat after a windfall at work (company was acquired) and the rest of the lump sum went into the build fund.

 

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On 23/07/2019 at 10:18, jack said:

built in Miele

 

I had one of these.  It was not the most reliable and servicing was expensive.  I have also had a Jura, De Longhi and am currently on a Melitta with milk frother.  The Melitta is the best so far.

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42 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Funny number that, what the price, in pence, got s coffee when out.

But only 219p now.

 

In English? not Cornish please.

 

Next order is 256 pods for £45.77 = 18p pod for one drink

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