Caffeine Comparison, Diet Coke, Coke, Keurig Pods, PC Nitro, Station Cold Brew Coffees & Tea

The other night I had a Station Cold Brew Coffee around six o'clock in the evening. Usually, I can have a coffee or tea after supper and have no issue sleeping. That night I laid in bed until about 1 AM.

My wife, Teena, has always warned me about having a Diet Coke late at night saying that I won't be able to sleep. It has never affected me.

I started to wonder what the caffeine difference is between the different style coffee's, tea and cola's, so I decided to do some research.

Diet Coke contains 46 mgs of caffeine, which is interesting, as regular Coke has only 34. I thought it would be the other way around.

Keurig coffee pods have around 2 tablespoons in each pod and has between 100 to 140 mgs of caffeine per brew. The extra bold coffee pods are filled with 2.6 tablespoons of coffee, so would work out to between 130 to 180 mgs per pod.

The caffeine content of tea, and I really enjoy a nice Earl Grey, depends on the amount of time it steeps. Twinings Earl Grey contains 19 mgs for a 1 minute steep, 22 for 3 minutes and 25 for a full 5 minutes. I had always heard that tea contains the same amount of caffeine as coffee, but apparently not. Tea has a lot less. The link shows various tea styles and makes and the caffeine content for each.

Now, here is why I couldn't sleep the other night. According to the nutritional information of the cans, PC Cold Brew contains 215 mgs of caffeine. Station Cold Brew has 225 mgs. Both are perfect for an afternoon, especially a hot one, but not for the evening.

So for me, it's regular coffee in the morning, a cold brew in the afternoon and a nice cup of tea after supper.

I do love my coffee!

Why I Eat Dark Chocolate Every Day

Once upon a time, not too long ago, not only did I not have a sweet tooth, but I could care less if I had chocolate or not. Teena would buy chocolate and put it in the freezer knowing it was all hers, to have a piece of here and there, whenever she felt like it.

After I had my operation, that all changed. Suddenly I had a sweet tooth. Suddenly I loved chocolate. Suddenly her chocolate was no longer safe in the freezer.

Soon I found myself with a bit of an addiction to chocolate-covered M&Ms. Small bags no longer lasted and finally we went a bought a big one. I would fill a shot glass with them to munch on one at a time.

I was on a high dose of Prednisone, a medication I was on until this week. One side effect it has is that it causes food cravings and hunger. As I was weaned off the medication, my cravings lessened. Now a small portion of M&Ms remains in the bag and sits mostly untouched in the freezer. They don't call to me anymore the way they once did.

But I haven't stopped eating chocolate everyday and I do it for healthy reasons.

Healthy?


The chocolate used in chocolate bars, M&Ms,etc. is made with milk chocolate and added sugar. In fact,there is almost 9 grams of sugar, over 2 teaspoons, in 20 M&Ms.

Dark chocolate is different and I eat it for a reason.

My blood tests show that I am low on iron and magnesium, two things a body requires. As well as taking supplements, I researched foods high in both. I found dark chocolate (not milk chocolate) to be high on the list.

On the right is the nutritional information for Lindt dark chocolate. The top one is for dark chocolate, with 85% cacao and the bottom is for the 70%. I have 3 squares of the 85% each day.

The 85% contains 25% of a person's recommended daily allowance of iron. What is not shown is that it also contains 25% of your magnesium requirement. This drops to 10% of the RDA for iron and 15% for magnesium in the 70% bar. Also, there is much more sugar, 9 grams, in the 70% compared to 4 grams in the 85%. Keep in mind that 4 grams equals 1 teaspoon.

I have always enjoyed foods and drinks that have a bit of bitterness to them. The 85% has that slight enjoyable bitter bite but one that is not overpowering like bakers chocolate.

The 4 grams of fibre is good news, plus there is no trans fat. 170 calories can put some people off but there is so much junk out there that has more calories and little benefit.

So after every meal, instead of dumping down a bunch of M&Ms, I have a square of chocolate. Tasty and better for me.

Now, to get myself off of the nighttime munching. Hey! One issue at a time!

Lithops in Growth

OK. I'll tell you what I expected.

When I wrote my last column on lithops, I explained how the new growth inside a lythop, would grow up and split the existing top. What I had expected was though the plant was brown, as it grew, the stem would be brown.

Imagine my surprise this morning, when I looked and saw all that green. Yes, I know that plants grow green, I had just not expected this to sprout with a green stem.

The above picture not only shows the green but the withered leaves that once looked like the present one looked, only smaller. As the new stem grows, it draws water from the leaves, which dry up and eventually fall off.

Obviously I need to add some new soil to this as the present earth is dried up and the roots may become exposed. My weekend project, among others.

Lithops

I am not much of a gardener. In fact, I hate gardening. For some reason, though, I have always enjoyed having cactus and succulents. Perhaps it's because they thrive on neglect. If you give them too much love, water them too much, they will turn to mush and die.

Maybe that's why I like them so much. There's very little work to them.

What is the difference between a succulent and a cactus? Succulents are plants that store water in leaves, stems, or sometimes both. This means that a cactus is a succulent. The difference is that cacti grow thorns, spikes or needles to protect itself.

A long time ago I managed to own a couple of Lithops which are hard to come by in Canada. Unfortunately, I over watered and, of course, they died.

Lithops are native to South Africa. Also known as living stones, they survive in the wild by growing among real stones. This matter of camouflage keeps them hidden from hungry or thirsty predators and sometimes, even experts miss finding them. They get their moisture from mist and fog and can survive for many months without rain.

The above lithop has sprouted. Originally, it had only looked like the two centre pieces but smaller and without the shriveled leaf on each side. When it sprouts, the new growth rises through the middle of the plant from the inside. This splits the two outer bumps (leaves). As it is growing, it draws water from the original leaves, which dry up and whither away. You can see this from the picture above and below.

These two plants I found at Dynasty, a flower shop on Queen Street West. Lithops leaves can have many different designs and colour patterns on them. After the new growth comes in, they apparently flower. I can't wait for this to happen and will post pictures, if and when it happens.

A Look Back at Music and the Stores That Sold Them

I found this picture on Twitter and saved it. These are record store listening booths in England circa 1962. Nowadays they are known as vinyl stores if they sell records, or music stores if they sell music in different formats. In this article, I will be showing my age.

The first way I'll do that is to admit that I have owned Led Zeppelin 2, originally purchased new in 1969, in every format. Great album but the changing technology has cost me a lot of money for it over the years.

When I was finally old enough to go to record stores, there were listening booths at the back of larger record stores but more up-to-date than the one shown here.

Growing up in Willowdale, the closest music store to me before Fairview Mall was built in 1970 (yes, I am that old) was the Sam the Record Man in Newtonbrook Plaza at Yonge and Cummer.

When you came through the door, the cashier's counter was on the right. Mounted on the wall behind it was a large slotted shelf with 50 slots, almost like mail slots, each one number from 1-50. The slot would hold a stack of 45s, single play records and the number represented its place on the Chum Chart.

I know further explanation is need for what I just wrote.

A "45" was a small record that had just one song on each side. The "A" side had the feature song on it and the flipside usually had some crappy filler song. The record had a big hole in the middle that required an adapter so it could be played on a record player. Why was it bigger? Likely to sell the piece required to play it! It was interchangeable but if you wanted to stack the records on a player, then one was needed for each. We all cursed it!

The next question would be ... what was a Chum Chart?

Toronto had a rock and roll radio station with the call letters C-H-U-M, which, of course, spells chum and was located at 1050kHz on the AM dial and was known as 1050 Chum. Each week it put out a pamphlet with the record ratings for the week, based on sales. From 1957 to 1968, it was the top 50 and after that the top 30. Kids like me waited in anticipation each week to see where our favorite records stood.

The middle and sides of the store had large bins with albums (33 rpm records with six to seven songs on each side) stacked vertically so shoppers could flip through them. In the downtown Sam the Record Man store on Yonge Street, they had a basement full of bins of old and discontinued albums. Gems could be found if you flipped through patiently. I personally spent hours flipping through those bins.

The store closed in 2007 and the large iconic sign that hung above the store, which everyone knew and was a piece of Toronto history, was put into storage by Ryerson University who promised to put it on a building they were constructing on the same spot. They lied, though, and claimed the neon would clash with the new building's architecture and could be dangerous if the sign broke and there was a mercury spill.

So basically they lied when they submitted to take down the sign, which had a historical designation from the city, and obtain a building permit. The bastards! I wonder if they teach fraud to their students.

The sign was resurrected above a building at Yonge/Dundas Square but is so high and set back it's easy to miss. I hate Ryerson for it!.

Now they way people obtain music has completely changed. It all can be done from home. There is so much to say about how accessible music is now but there is also something to be said for the way it was. You could hold on to what you bought. Read the album liners. Lend it to friends. Now a person's music sits in a program on their phone or laptop.

No doubt it is better today but there is a part of me that misses records and albums.

Miss Confederation: The Diary of Mercy Anne Coles by Anne McDonald

I have just finished Miss Confederation: The Diary of Mercy Anne Coles.

History without the stiffness and polish time creates.

Canada's journey to Confederation kicked off with a bang - or rather, a circus, a civil war (the American one), a small fortune's worth of champagne, and a lot of making love - in the old-fashioned sense. Miss Confederation offers a rare look back, through a woman's eyes, at the men and events at the centre of this pivotal time in Canada's history.

Mercy Anne Coles, the daughter of PEI delegate George Coles, kept a diary of the social happenings and political manoeuvrings as they affected her and her desires. A unique historical document, her diary is now being published for the first time, offering a window into the events that led to Canada's creation, from a point of view that has long been neglected.

I thought this was a very interesting read. Not only does this book give us an inside look at the makings of Canada's Confederation from a woman's point of view, but is an excellent look at the social aspect of upper society back in the mid 1800's. It seems that dance cards were of great importance back then. I also found out that "humbug" has a different meaning than what I thought it was from "A Christmas Carol".

Definitely worth reading.

About Anne McDonald:

I studied at Second City, Humber College’s creative writing program, Sage Hill’s Fiction Workshop, the Sage Hill Poetry Colloquium and I have participated in numerous voice and theatre workshops. I teach theatre improvisation for Education students at the Gabriel Dumont Institute, and theatre classes for the Faculty of Media, Art, and Performance at the University of Regina. I also teach creative writing to a number of groups, from inner city youth, to newcomers to Canada, to participants in creative writing courses. I also love to facilitate workshops for organizations interested in collaborative communication and creativity.

If you want to know more about me and my influences:

I studied psychology, creativity, improv and finally creative writing. All these areas come together for me I find, when I'm writing. I love writing - and reading - books that are related to real historical figures and events. I love the researching and discovery of unusual connections, and the reading between the lines.

One of the things I love about writing is the exploration of the past – the interaction and impact the public and the personal have on each other. I also teach and study improv where the focus is on play, the principles of creativity and the discovery of one’s own uniqueness.

Anne lives in Regina, Saskatchewan.