Do you like coffee? I don’t. Now they’re saying it’s our genes.
I’ve written before about the fact that I hate coffee. So this National Geographic article, which reports that scientists have said that whether we like coffee or have trouble with it is at least partly genetic, is of interest.
Of course, a genetic basis for coffee love and coffee hate isn’t really any sort of a surprise. But my attention was caught in particular by the article’s opening sentence:
A warm cup of coffee is a necessary part of the morning routine for millions of people around the world.
A warm cup of coffee? Even I, non-coffee-drinker extraordinaire, am aware that most coffee-drinkers prefer a hot cup. Isn’t “warm” some sort of abomination?
Which makes me think that the article was written by a non-coffee-drinker like me.
More:
Regular coffee drinkers will develop some level of tolerance to caffeine over time that can be reversed just by backing off the daily cup. But if you avoid coffee because it makes you anxious, sleepless, or nauseous, it could be due to variations as small as a single nucleotide in your DNA—the A, G, C and T of the genetic alphabet…
…[W]hen it comes to caffeine, just two genes handle most of the work. CYP1A2 produces a liver enzyme that metabolizes roughly 95 percent of all ingested caffeine. AHR controls how much of that enzyme you produce. Together, these genes control how much caffeine circulates in your bloodstream, and for how long…
“For someone who has a genetic variant that leads to decreased caffeine metabolism, they’re more likely to consume less coffee compared to someone who has a genetic variant that leads to increased caffeine metabolism,” Cornelis says.
There’s another gene that influences how much anxiety a person feels from ingesting caffeine, and also genes that influence whether you perceive coffee as noxiously bitter or not.
For me, coffee makes me nervous both physically and mentally, upsets my stomach, and tastes bad, too. Not a great combo. Why on earth would I drink it? The only kind of coffee I like is coffee ice cream, which isn’t coffee at all, really. With coffee ice cream, the sugar overrides the bitterness, and the amount of caffeine is negligible. As for an upset GI system—well, since I’m lactose-intolerant, too, that already happens if I eat a large quantity of ice cream.
But—go ahead, enjoy your coffee. I’ll just sit here in the corner by myself.
You don’t like coffee or Dinah Shore. Oh, well. More for the rest of us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ2aEqXyCz0
I like hot tea better, but coffee with cream and sweetener is OK. I don’t like a teabag in a cup of lukewarm water kind of tea. I want a teapot.
I love coffee but find it bitter without creme and sugar. I still remember the thin layer of jet fuel floating at the top of a cup of coffee aboard ship in the Navy.
I’ve long thought that the genes that determine our particular make up of tongue receptors; sweet, bitter, sour and salty are responsible for what we like and dislike.
My daughter dislikes hot coffee but enjoys cold coffee, I’m just the opposite.
PS: some people strongly prefer hot cocoa to coffee.
Do you like the smell of coffee? My mother-in-law, an affirmed tea drinker, loathes coffee but loves the smell of fresh grounds and fresh brewed coffee, or so she says. I know of other foods that some people are repulsed by – cilantro is one – and wonder if those are due to genetics?
I’m a coffee drinker. Two large mugs in the morning, a mid-morning large cup, and a mid-afternoon large cup. The latter two are often espresso based. All are of the caffeinated variety. I only drink decaffeinated when there is no other choice. I prefer it hot but do like an iced-coffee on a hot day. As you note, “warm” coffee, lukewarm or room temperature, is disgusting. I’ve never had an issue with sleep or indigestion as a result of my coffee drinking. Must be one of those coffee gene people.
I drank tea in college, coffee occasionally in grad school, and then I visited the very first Starbucks across from Pike Place Market. It was all downhill from there.
Coffee ice cream has been one of my favorites for a long time, but a couple years ago I discovered Lappert’s Kona Coffee ice cream. Wow. They don’t use one of those pseudo Kona blends, but the real deal. And it’s strong. Two scoops are guaranteed to give you a caffeine buzz. Their website claims they don’t ship it past the Rockies.
At least this study is better than the one I saw the other day, asking if people who like their coffee unsweetened (I do) are more likely to be psychopaths. Seriously, someone researched that question.
I like it hot with cream, cold with cream, and in a pinch will drink it room temp when I’m desperate. My daughter, on the other hand, says, like Neo, it upsets her stomach. She needed to ingest caffeine to deal with migraines (it helps), so I found a brand of caffeinated energy drink which is artificially sweetened and gluten free for her celiac disease.
Never had a cup of coffee in my nearly 50 years. Diet Coke on the other hand…
I’ve tried coffee twice in my life. It tastes like it’s made from dirt and hot water to me. I do sometimes feel left out of the coffee cult, plus I’ve been offered coffee about 300 times in my life.
I drink one cup of strong dark roast with a bit of cream after the morning dog walk.
steve walsh:
I’m kind of lukewarm on the smell of coffee. I like it a little bit, but not much.
I wonder if there’s a similar set of genes for beer. I can’t for the life of me figure out how anyone can stand the taste, much less down multiple 6-packs in one evening.
Never had an entire beer in my life either. Or most other hard liquor. A little wine. Just a little though.
Peggy Lee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVnrEh56f_g
My 23 and Me results told me I’m predisposed to drink a lot coffee–or words to that effect.
And they’re right.
Watt:
I bet you’re right. I can’t stand the bitter taste of beer, although I’ve tried to learn to like it.
Art Deco,
How about Sarah Vaughn or Etta James late work?
It is sad that are people who don’t appreciiate a good IPA.
Wait, isn’t the article stating only that a predilection for CAFFEINE is genetic—not the taste for coffee per se? I love caffeine and drink lots of tea every day to get the buzz. But I can not stand the taste of coffee, although I have tried. It would be incredibly convenient and pleasurable to enjoy coffee, given how easily it is obtained everywhere you go. Plus, husband who likes coffee can have a delectable low-carb treat with an iced coffee, double cream, and a little Splenda— whereas iced tea with cream is a repulsive concept, lol. And the smell of coffee is just grand!
I love coffee and drink it regularly until about 3:30 PM, after which I apply it topically. Maybe it’s in the genes. My parents used to perked up a pot of coffee for dessert (along w/ a pack of Raleighs) after dinner.
Thirty eight years of flying for the Navy and airlines was fueled by coffee. I’m down to one cup a day now, but back in the day it was customary to drink five to ten cups of hot, black coffee.
Which reminds me of a coffee joke. At the battle of Mobile, Admiral David Farragut had been holding outside of Mobile Bay all night drinking coffee. He was waiting or full light so they could avoid the torpedoes (mines) that had been set out to deter their passage. When they began to move into the bay one of the lookouts called out that he had sighted torpedoes ahead. History has recorded that Farragut called back, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.” Some salty old sailors and coffee drinkers believe what he actually said was, “Damn the torpedoes, I’m going to the head.” Coulda happened. 🙂
Cafe du Monde chicory cafe au lait for me. I visited New Orleans many years ago and got hooked on the coffee, been having it shipped since. No beignets sadly.
I’m pretty sure that I got all my genes from my parents, both of whom liked coffee. I detest it, I don’t much care for the smell of it, and I also don’t like the smell of the breath of people who drink a lot of it.
I have no problem with caffeine (and am trying to cut way back on energy drinks) but have never liked the taste of coffee. Like the mother mentioned above, though, I do like the smell of fresh ground beans.
I have never had any desire to drink hot coffee, despite the example of most of my family and many friends, but my Mom’s best friend made a superb coffee & cream cold punch which she always served on New Year’s Day (my biggest regret about becoming a Mormon was having to skip the punch thereafter). Never liked iced tea, either, which made me very suspect in Texas.
My Grandad was a cowboy born & raised, and made coffee in an old tin pot over an open fire most of his life, then on the gas burner in the house. The only time I ever heard of him getting mad at anyone was when my mom washed his coffeepot — apparently they are rather like cast-iron, and only brew right if well-seasoned.
FWIW, I like the smell of good coffee, and also of good pipe tobacco. Go figure.
PS This made me think of a book popular back in the day, which I never got around to reading, about fictional airline stewardesses, titled “Coffee, Tea, or Me?”
Once, at 14 yrs old, was handed a cup of black Kono coffee while on vaca on the Big Island….(shudder)…vile stuff. And I’m very sensitive to caffeine. I pretty much stick to herbal tea.
Don’t have the genetics for alcohol, either. Find both beer and wines unpalatable. Oh well, it has saved me plenty of money over the years.
I must have the caffeine metabolizing genes. I can drink two cups of expresso at night and sleep like a baby. I love both tea and coffee, both prepared extra strong.
This looks as oversimplification to ascribe all effects of coffee to caffeine alone. Actually, coffee contains about 30 known physiologically active substances interfering with human metabolism, and many sorts of tea contain more caffeine than coffee.
Neo, this is probably not caffeine that produces migraines, but tyramine or tyramine-like substances. See headaches.org/2007/10/25/low-tyramine-diet-for-migraine/. Chocolate is not included here, but it is known to trigger migraines in many cases. And yes, migraines are a genetic trait, existing only in humans but not in apes.
It is also known that tyramine-induced headaches are often associates to lactose intolerance, affecting two thirds of African-Americans, Native Americans and Ashkenazi Jews.
Sergey, my daughter is both migraine-afflicted and lactose intolerant (I have the latter). My daughter takes caffeine and ibuprofen in gel-cap form at the first sign of a migraine, and can often ward it off that way.
For those who think beer tastes bitter try shaking a little salt into it after it’s in the beer glass. Just a slight tap of the shaker, about a dozen grains will do.
The Sounds of Starbucks — an ode to caffeine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlc5Bii_Qf8
Sergey…
I won’t go to any website that DEMANDS a link through to Faceborg.
What’s with these fellas?
Kate on November 6, 2018 at 8:14 am at 8:14 am said:
Sergey, my daughter is both migraine-afflicted and lactose intolerant (I have the latter). My daughter takes caffeine and ibuprofen in gel-cap form at the first sign of a migraine, and can often ward it off that way.
* * *
One of our sons has intensive migraines, and found it helps to drink the super-caffeinated “soda pops” they make now. Kind of a bummer, because he doesn’t need the sugar, but says the capsules don’t work.
Troutfishing in America sings “All I Want is a Proper Cup Of Coffee”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XrAkPyStGg
I grew up in Chicago, spending most of our family time with the Italian (Sicilian) side. A pot of coffee was on, all day long, and not being offered a cup was considered a huge breach of manners. I have Aunts who drink it exclusively (still-and now in their 80’s) even in the hot Chicago summers. I have been drinking it since at least 5 years old (w/ half and half–no sugar). From late teens to about 40, I would drink it all day long. After 40, about 3 or 4 cups in the morning, early afternoon. The last 2 years (now 58) I drink 1 or 2 strong cups in the morning. My paternal Gramma (from Ireland) drank Lipton tea all day long. When we visited, we always had tea together and I took mine with half & half & sugar. In my adulthood I would have it plain or with some lemon & honey. Just recently started having it my favorite way, with the cream & sugar first thing in the morning Mon-Friday. Weekend mornings just the coffee and cream. My older brother didn’t drink coffee and my sister, very moderately and likes tea better. I’m also the only one who drinks alcohol (like my Dad who drank moderately), both cocktails and wine. Pretty much, if I’m having a beverage that is not water it has caffeine (daytime) or alcohol (evening) in it.
AesopFan, my daughter, when fighting a migraine, drinks Celsius, which is sweetened with sucralose (i.e.Splenda). It also has some vitamins and so on, which don’t hurt her, anyhow, although we don’t know if they help. She has been advised to take Vitamin B2 supplements, and that helps.
Kate – thanks, I will pass that on.