Method for the preparation of a caffeine-containing solution from dehydrated magic beans
Introduction
Caffeine is a stimulant that can induce alertness in certain individuals when consumed at an appropriate quantity. Caffeine is often obtained by ingesting caffeine-containing solutions. However, no protocol for obtaining caffeine from dehydrated, roasted beans using materials typically available in a Philadelphia office has been described in the published literature. Here, we report on the one-pot creation of a caffeine-containing solution from such beans using only the available materials.
Materials
- Roasted beans
- Technivorm Mochamaster KBT Model
- Hario Bamboo Coffee Syphon Stir Stick
- Kitchen scale
- Melitta #4 Cone Natural Brown Coffee Filters
- Baratza Virtuoso Coffee Grinder
- Coffee Gator Stainless Steel Coffee Canister
Methods
1. We weighed 2g of whole beans for each ounce of water. We brewed ten 4oz cups of solution in our Technivorm Moccamaster using 80g of beans.
2. We ground the beans setting our Baratza Virtuoso to grind size 16.
3. To prepare the filter for brewing, we folded the #4 cone filter to fit in the brew basket and pre-rinsed it with filtered water to remove any paper taste and prevent tearing.
4. We added 80g of ground beans to the brew basket and gently shook to create an even, flat surface.
5. We added 40 oz of cool filtered water to the Moccamaster tank and placed the manual-adjust drip stop in the “half open” setting.
6. We turned the machine on. At this point in the process, we felt like we were making real progress and said to ourselves: “You’re doing great! [Taroni and Taroni, Personal Communication]”
7. We ran two cups worth of water through the machine reaching the 8 cup mark. We sought to ensure an even extraction, so we stirred the grounds in the brew basket.
8. We adjusted the brew basket drip stop so that it was fully open. In previous work, we found that skipping this step led to an overflow error [Prasad et al. 2019].
9. We stirred the grounds a second time. This ensured an even extraction and prevented us from replying to GitHub issues before we consumed the caffeine-containing solution.
10. We waited for brewing to complete and closed the drip stop on the brew basket.
11. We poured the caffeine-containing solution into an 8 oz mug.
12. We drank the solution.
Results
The liquid tasted delicious. We were able to effectively respond to GitHub issues for a period of time following consumption. Subjects experienced a “caffeine crash” a few hours post-consumption of the solution. Unfortunately, such a decrease in caffeination levels tended to coincide with typical mid-day meal times. Subjects reported feeling “hangry” in semi-structured interviews and in mutterings under their respective breaths.
Discussion
Through extensive testing, we’ve found medium roasted beans that work as an espresso blend to yield solutions that are acceptable to all participants in our small pilot study. We currently serve Sterling Coffee Blendo Stupendo and have used Intelligentsia Coffee Analog Espresso Blend in the past. We purchase our whole beans in bulk (5 lbs at a time) to maximize the volume discount. All beans are stored in airtight containers that protect them from light. We use the Coffee Gator canister to store beans for use in the immediate term and store the rest in an airtight Cambro container still in the bag. Upcoming work will characterize methods for generating caffeine-containing solutions at room temperature (Taroni et al. In preparation.). In total, this approach lays important groundwork for brewing coherent responses in the context of asynchronous text-based communication.
RESOURCE AVAILABILITY
Brewed coffee described herein is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, where it is understood that no request is reasonable before coffee or from greater than 20 feet away from the brewing device.
Introduction
Caffeine is a stimulant that can induce alertness in certain individuals when consumed at an appropriate quantity. Caffeine is often obtained by ingesting caffeine-containing solutions. However, no protocol for obtaining caffeine from dehydrated, roasted beans using materials typically available in a Philadelphia office has been described in the published literature. Here, we report on the one-pot creation of a caffeine-containing solution from such beans using only the available materials.
Materials
- Roasted beans
- Technivorm Mochamaster KBT Model
- Hario Bamboo Coffee Syphon Stir Stick
- Kitchen scale
- Melitta #4 Cone Natural Brown Coffee Filters
- Baratza Virtuoso Coffee Grinder
- Coffee Gator Stainless Steel Coffee Canister
Methods
1. We weighed 2g of whole beans for each ounce of water. We brewed ten 4oz cups of solution in our Technivorm Moccamaster using 80g of beans.
2. We ground the beans setting our Baratza Virtuoso to grind size 16.
3. To prepare the filter for brewing, we folded the #4 cone filter to fit in the brew basket and pre-rinsed it with filtered water to remove any paper taste and prevent tearing.
4. We added 80g of ground beans to the brew basket and gently shook to create an even, flat surface.
5. We added 40 oz of cool filtered water to the Moccamaster tank and placed the manual-adjust drip stop in the “half open” setting.
6. We turned the machine on. At this point in the process, we felt like we were making real progress and said to ourselves: “You’re doing great! [Taroni and Taroni, Personal Communication]”
7. We ran two cups worth of water through the machine reaching the 8 cup mark. We sought to ensure an even extraction, so we stirred the grounds in the brew basket.
8. We adjusted the brew basket drip stop so that it was fully open. In previous work, we found that skipping this step led to an overflow error [Prasad et al. 2019].
9. We stirred the grounds a second time. This ensured an even extraction and prevented us from replying to GitHub issues before we consumed the caffeine-containing solution.
10. We waited for brewing to complete and closed the drip stop on the brew basket.
11. We poured the caffeine-containing solution into an 8 oz mug.
12. We drank the solution.
Results
The liquid tasted delicious. We were able to effectively respond to GitHub issues for a period of time following consumption. Subjects experienced a “caffeine crash” a few hours post-consumption of the solution. Unfortunately, such a decrease in caffeination levels tended to coincide with typical mid-day meal times. Subjects reported feeling “hangry” in semi-structured interviews and in mutterings under their respective breaths.
Discussion
Through extensive testing, we’ve found medium roasted beans that work as an espresso blend to yield solutions that are acceptable to all participants in our small pilot study. We currently serve Sterling Coffee Blendo Stupendo and have used Intelligentsia Coffee Analog Espresso Blend in the past. We purchase our whole beans in bulk (5 lbs at a time) to maximize the volume discount. All beans are stored in airtight containers that protect them from light. We use the Coffee Gator canister to store beans for use in the immediate term and store the rest in an airtight Cambro container still in the bag. Upcoming work will characterize methods for generating caffeine-containing solutions at room temperature (Taroni et al. In preparation.). In total, this approach lays important groundwork for brewing coherent responses in the context of asynchronous text-based communication.
RESOURCE AVAILABILITY
Brewed coffee described herein is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, where it is understood that no request is reasonable before coffee or from greater than 20 feet away from the brewing device.
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The workshop will take place on March 22 - 26, 2021 from noon - 5pm Eastern. Each day consists of lectures and designated time for attendees to work on exercise materials and their own projects with CCDL staff available for consultation
The workshop will take place on June 28- July 2, 2021 from noon to 5pm eastern. Each day consists of lectures and designated time for attendees to work on exercise materials and their own projects with CCDL staff available for consultation.
Hack4Rare is a virtual event that calls for healthcare startups, developers, solutions architects, and hackathon enthusiasts to join researchers, clinicians and patients in developing solutions built around a number of rare diseases including neurofibromatosis, PTEN Hamartoma Tumor Syndrome, RASopathies and Desmoid Tumors.
The workshop will take place on September 20 - 24, 2021 from noon - 5pm Eastern. Each day consists of lectures and designated time for attendees to work on exercise materials and their own projects with CCDL staff available for consultation.
Introducing refine.bio examples. Here, users can access a variety of example analyses implemented in R, such as clustering and heat maps, differential expression analysis, and pathway analysis, for use with refine.bio data.
The workshop will take place on November 1-5, 2021 from noon to 5pm eastern. Each day consists of lectures and designated time for attendees to work on exercise materials and their own projects with our staff available for consultation.
I work at the Childhood Cancer Data Lab, where we use very big data to find cures for childhood cancers. To move data around the internet at very high speeds, we are forced to use a proprietary software suite called Aspera. If somebody could make a Free Software alternative, the future of the internet would be way more awesome! Best of all, you can be the one to do it!
When my daughter Alex was diagnosed with cancer and throughout her battle, we saw how our community of people rallied around our family. No one knew quite how to help, but they were willing to do whatever was needed to ease the burden we faced.
'Work smarter not harder’ is useless advice if you don’t know how to ‘work smarter’. But the Childhood Cancer Data Lab's work and processes may be the smartest I’ve ever had the pleasure of learning and adopting.
The Data Lab will hold our first virtual workshop of the year from March 14-18, 2022!In this workshop, we will introduce researchers studying pediatric cancer to the R programming language, the Tidyverse R packages for data science, single-cell RNA-seq data analysis, and pathway analyses.
At the Data Lab, we are big proponents of automating the boring stuff so we can spend more time thinking about the fun stuff. But how exactly do we do that, and what does it mean to automate the boring stuff?
November marked the final Childhood Cancer Data Lab training workshop for 2021. We held four week-long virtual workshops this year, teaching 88 researchers the data science skills they need to examine their own data.
Before working as a Data Scientist at the Childhood Cancer Data Lab, I spent time in my PhD and post-doctoral fellowship in two very different research environments. Each had their own unique way of doing research. I found that some things worked really well and others were not as successful.
When the Data Lab launched the Single-cell Pediatric Cancer Atlas (ScPCA) Portal in 2022, we knew it was only the beginning! We started by making data easily available for the research community and received an overwhelmingly positive response. But we know firsthand from training hundreds of pediatric cancer researchers in analysis that making data available is just the first step. We’re increasing the impact of the Portal by listening to the growing ScPCA community. Now more researchers can contribute datasets, new features are continuously being developed, and we started an open, collaborative project to further explore the available data! Here’s a look back at how we’ve enhanced the ScPCA Portal in 2024.
Launching the Open Single-cell Pediatric Cancer Atlas (OpenScPCA) project in April 2024 was a highlight of our year! This community-driven initiative aims to analyze data from the ScPCA Portal, which currently holds 700 samples from over 55 pediatric cancer types. The project is a step forward in advancing our knowledge of pediatric cancers through single-cell analysis, and we're excited to expand OpenScPCA in 2025! To that end, we're reflecting on some of our recent accomplishments and how we can keep that momentum going into next year.
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