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I'm Alia from the United States and I'm joined by » Sam from London, England.
» Perfect.
In today's episode, Sam and I are going to be talking about how we're addicted to caffeine.
Uh, I could say we're both probably pretty addicted to caffeine.
Um, it's something he's talked about in a lot of his videos in terms of, you know, what he likes to drink and why.
So, I thought we would chat a little bit more about that because I also feel like I am very attached to my caffeinated beverages.
Um, I'm actually drinking a coffee right now, which is not surprising for me in the morning as the first thing that I do.
So, uh, Sam, to open up the conversation, how about you tell us a little bit about the types of caffeinated drinks that you like and the types that you don't like?
» Okay.
Well, thank you for the amazing introduction and a really exciting first question for me.
I think it will be a little bit more fun to start with the caffeine or the caffeinated drinks that I do not like.
And the first one is definitely a controversial one.
I do not like coffee.
Yeah, I know you are probably offended, Alia, as I imagine many of you listening are also offended » because I think coffee tastes disgusting.
I genuinely think that coffee is one of the worst tasting drinks in the world.
I have tried espressos.
I have tried iced coffee.
I have tried lattes, mochas.
I have tried every different type of coffee.
And guess what?
All of them taste horrible.
I've tried coffee from Ethiopia.
I've tried coffee from Chile, Brazil, Colombia, wherever you can grow coffee.
I have tried it.
But the truth is it tastes really horrible.
It has such a bitter taste.
I think it's a little bit like eating some stones or like eating the pavement on the floor.
» I think it's a pretty bad experience overall.
» Wow.
Okay.
[laughter] Very interesting comparisons that you just made.
Um, but you know, I see that you have you've tried you've tried to find a coffee product that you might enjoy and clearly you haven't.
But yeah, I think um, you know, most people don't usually have this problem.
Most people drink coffee in my opinion that I that I come across, but I have known a few people who just couldn't stand the taste of coffee.
And you know, everybody has different taste buds.
Um, I mean, I I don't think I'm a big fan of bitter flavors in general.
So, when I drink coffee, I definitely drink it with milk and sugar or some other type of flavor.
Um, and that's the kind of coffee that I enjoy.
Um, so yeah, not a big black coffee drinker myself, but so I understand where you're coming from.
Um, I have to do certain things to it to make it » uh to make it taste good to me.
» Uh-huh.
I I understand.
So the thing is when I do drink coffee because sometimes I need to, sometimes I am in need of caffeine, in need of a little energy boost, but I don't have access to other things.
When I do drink coffee, I always try to drink as little as possible.
» Mhm.
I order the strongest espresso that the cafe possibly has and I drink it like a shot.
I get it all down in one to sort of limit how disgusting it is to try and spend as little time drinking coffee as possible.
So » that's pretty » that is the drink that I don't like.
Mhm.
» Now, I'm sure everybody knows by now this little cup that I have in my hand.
This is a mate.
And inside the cup, we have yaba.
The drink is often known as ya mate.
It is a sort of mixture between green tea and coffee.
It has some of the taste of green tea.
It gives some of the relaxing benefits as green tea, but it gives you the energy of a cup of coffee.
There is a lot of caffeine in this bad boy.
» Yes.
Seeing you drink your mate is is part of what um inspired this episode actually because it made me realize that if you're carrying that around all day, it probably means that you you you need a little boost of caffeine, you know, several times
throughout the day.
Um and that is part of your normal routine and that you're very used to it.
Um let's uh let's move into that.
Let's talk about our routines.
I I already mentioned that I tend to drink a cup of coffee, you know, first thing in the morning.
Um is it correct that you usually have mate with you throughout your typical day?
» Yes.
So, where mate and coffee are a little bit different is when you drink coffee, all of the caffeine hits you at once.
You can't drink coffee over a really long time, right?
Because you're going to have lots of energy.
It's probably going to make you a little bit anxious.
It's going to be a bit overwhelming, a little bit too much for you.
Whereas with mate, you only need to fill up your mate a couple of times in a day.
What you really do is you fill up a thermos.
This this big thing here, for those of you who are only listening, it is a big metal bottle that keeps your your water warm.
Okay?
So when I wake up in the morning, I fill up my mate with yerba at around 7:30 and I of course heat up some water and fill up my thermos.
I drink about one and a half of these before I change the yerba.
Before I change about half of the yerba, » in total, I'd say I drink about three thermoses of water a day.
So that is about 2.7 L of water, which I'm just realizing now is a lot.
But in terms of caffeine, I probably don't drink all that much.
I only have two to three mattes a day.
So it's like maybe like two big coffees, I would say.
» Mhm.
Mhm.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Uh yeah, I would say most days I uh I really prefer to have a coffee in the morning uh to sort of just get myself awake and ready for the day.
And then about midday, maybe around 3 p.m.
in the afternoon, is when I'm starting to feel like I need another boost.
I need another » something that has caffeine in it.
So, I might choose to have another coffee.
Uh especially if I'm out and about, I might stop at a coffee shop and get an iced coffee at around this time or uh I might have something like a soda with caffeine in it.
Um, [clears throat] » and you know, so you have to make a decision, you know, about what type of beverage you want to have.
If you want to have one that also has a lot of sugar in it, um, there are definitely days when I skip this second beverage because I don't want, you know, the extra sugar or whatever it is.
And I think I can just continue.
I can manage without the extra caffeine.
But I can tell you that I definitely want it.
I definitely want it by around that time of the day.
And I'm not too sensitive to having caffeine uh super late.
Um, in fact, I've been uh in a lot of situations where I've been offered like a tea or a coffee or something um at nighttime and accepted it because it doesn't usually affect my ability to go to sleep.
Um, so that's starting to get into, you know, maybe a conversation about how dependent on caffeine are we?
Um, what do you think about your own personal dependency on caffeine?
» My dependency?
Well, this is an excellent question and it's something that I have been thinking about for a little while.
Now I think in order to explain my dependency on caffeine, I need to first explain how I got addicted to caffeine.
Because for a very long time, I did not drink caffeine.
I didn't drink coffee.
I didn't drink mate.
I didn't drink tea.
The only caffeine I would drink was from a fizzy drink like a Coke Zero or a Pepsi Max, something like that.
» So, a few years ago, I was a lifeguard at a swimming pool.
It was my job to look after the people swimming and to make sure they did not drown, to make sure they did not die.
So unfortunately my schedule as a lifeguard was pretty crazy and I had to wake up really early in the morning.
Most of my days would start at about 5:15 a.m.
and I would need to be in work for 6 a.m.
» At 6:30 a.m.
the pool would open and I would spend my first rotation on pool.
Now the pool room was always really really hot.
So imagine I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep.
I had woken up early and then I sat in a really hot, really stuffy room doing something boring, watching a swimming pool.
So it was only natural that I would start to drift asleep.
So in order to prevent this from happening, I began drinking coffees.
I began drinking a coffee directly before I got up on the chair.
Um, and that is how my caffeine addiction began.
For a while, I was drinking coffee, but I hated it.
I absolutely hated it.
» But I thought it was necessary.
My working hours were really difficult.
I didn't have a lot of energy and that boost from the caffeine was the thing that got me through.
Fast forward a few months and I visited Argentina for the first time as a tourist and of course I noticed everybody with a mate in one hand and a thermos in the other and I was so intrigued.
I was so interested the entire time I was thinking, "What is that drink and how do I get myself some?"
So, one day I was in a taxi and a taxi driver was drinking some mate.
So, I of course asked him, "What is it?"
And he said, "Here, try some."
And I did something that you should never do when traveling.
I accepted a drink from a complete stranger.
Now, that was a bad decision.
That could have been really bad, but thankfully it was just mate.
I remember taking a sip of it the first time and feeling an instant energy boost and thinking, "Okay, it's bitter, but it is not as bitter as coffee.
» It's not that gross."
» So, I bought myself a little mate and I bought myself some yerba and I started making my own yerba mate.
And the first time I made it, it was disgusting.
It was horrible.
It was one of the most disgusting, horrible things I have ever drank.
But for some reason, I decided to stick with it.
[snorts] When I returned to England, I started buying yerba on Amazon » and I started drinking yerba mate instead of coffee.
» And very very quickly I grew to love ya mate.
And I say even today yerba mate is one of the most important things in my life.
But this is about addiction.
Right.
» Mhm.
I also have to admit that I am now very much addicted to ya mate.
If I don't have a ya mate in the morning, I get a really bad headache.
I get a really bad headache and I feel really tired and really lazy.
So whilst I love mate and it is really important to me, I am also addicted to it.
» Mhm.
» What about you, Alia?
What was your experience like with coffee?
I want to say that maybe I grew up being used to some of the effects of caffeine on my body because in my family's culture they drink black tea.
Um they drink chai which usually is made from a pretty strong black tea and we would drink that at different times of the day.
And so I was used to caffeine in my system from the time that I was, you know, a pretty young kid.
Uh, and I was also introduced to the taste of coffee.
I wasn't really given it to drink um as a beverage on my own, but you know, I would try a sip of my mom or my dad's coffee, and I liked it.
Uh, I didn't really start drinking it for myself until high school.
We had some days of the week that were called late start days where we started about like 45 minutes to an hour later than normal.
And I think it was Thursdays.
And so every Thursday morning, my parents still needed to drop me off at the same time because they needed to get to work, but I would just spend that extra hour in the morning at Starbucks with my group of friends.
And you know, » Yeah, I know.
There was a Starbucks across the street from my high school.
So, we would just hang out there.
And I remember the first drinks that I bought were like a mocha.
I I remember getting this like caramel mocha whatever drink.
Uh very sweet and sugary.
And that was kind of my first introduction to uh like purchasing a coffee drink for myself.
And you know it was a nice little start to the day.
I didn't think that I needed it at the time to wake up or anything like that.
That started to happen more in my college days.
Um when especially when it would be the time for finals, I would specifically go and get a Vietnamese iced coffee because they are very powerful.
They're very sweet as well, but they're also very powerful.
» And that's what I would » Yes.
» What is the difference between a normal coffee and a Vietnamese coffee?
» I have no idea.
» Sure.
So, Vietnamese iced coffee is basically like a prepared drink.
I think they just have like a really strong brew uh that they make on a regular basis and they put it into a really sugary sweet drink with a lot of um sugar [clears throat] and cream and also with of course ice.
And I can't tell you why it's so strong just that it is.
And I would buy this type of drink when I needed to pull an allnighter because it would definitely keep me up easily.
I wouldn't be able to go to sleep.
I actually completely avoid this beverage when I like need to go to sleep.
I can't be staying up all night just because I wanted to have a Vietnamese iced coffee.
Um, » so I started experimenting with like different types of beverages in college is what I would say.
» Okay.
Very nice.
» Can I ask you a little bit about drinking tea in England?
because I noticed that you said you would force yourself to drink coffee when you needed to stay awake, but my understanding is that tea is the beverage of choice in England.
Um, is there a reason why that's not » your understanding is based on a stereotype earlier?
[laughter] » It is.
I know » the truth is I would say that today the English or the British are more coffee drinkers than tea drinkers.
» More people drink coffee today than tea, I would say.
» Okay.
» Now, I am I do like a good cup of tea.
I'm definitely a fan of a cup of tea, but it's just not something I ever reach for » and I definitely don't find that it gives me much of an energy boost.
» Yeah.
» Compared to a coffee, there is a lot less caffeine in a tea.
» Yes, that's how I feel about tea as well.
Uh I'd love to enjoy a nice tea now and then.
And some have more caffeine than others, but even the strongest black tea doesn't have the same effect on me as a coffee.
So I I choose coffee for the same reason.
Um, so switching gears a little bit, I want to go back to something that you said about your experience in Argentina.
Going to another country introduced a new caffeinated beverage to you.
Do you have any other experiences with local beverages from any of your other travels?
» Um, there is one that sticks to that sort of comes to my mind that really springs to mind and it is a a drink called Inca Colola.
M » now in Peru uh it is absolutely everywhere.
Incacola is this little like yellow fizzy drink and when I say yellow I mean like bright fluorescent yellow.
Um it is really really nice.
It has a lemon sherbet flavor I believe.
Um, you can definitely get it here in Chile as well, but I remember in Peru it was everywhere and it was absolutely everybody's favorite drink.
» That's really cool.
I have tried Inca Cola here at Peruvian restaurants and » to me it tastes like bubble gum.
» Yeah.
Uh-huh.
So, do you have any plans to change your caffeine uh consumption these days?
» Absolutely not.
Not remotely.
Uh I plan on drinking just as much, if not maybe more mate than I currently do.
[laughter] » Good stuff.
Yeah, I think as long as uh I'm not having a hard time falling asleep at night, I'm going to keep drinking just as much caffeine as I currently do.
» Fantastic.
» Great.
Well, thanks so much, Sam, for joining me for this podcast and we will see you in the next English sponge podcast.
Take care, everyone.
» Bye.
