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Note to all: James Hoffmann, while denying being a health professional, *did not* deny being a professional athlete

Its nice of them to let Hames Joffmann continue his video-making hobby at the mental institute

Cancer epidemiologist here, this was really quite a measured video. One thing I might have considered including is that what people report consuming is rarely easy to parse from other factors such as socioeconomic status. This makes is challenging to know whether higher coffee leads to differences in disease risk or whether some other covarying factors may be accounting for that result -statistically significant, or otherwise.

The effects of caffeine on anxiety, panic attacks and depression are missing, and it would be interesting if more studies would further explore this field using different roasting and brewing methods. Besides, the video is great as always!

Imagine waking up in hospital and seeing James Hoffmann intravenously administer a cup of coffee into you.

I work for a publishing house devoted to science communication... This video is a prime example of how to do *great* SciComm. I just shared it with our senior editor. Thank you, James! ❤☕

I remember reading a study on heart decease for office workers and they saw a positive effect for the coffee drinkers compare to the people who didn't drink coffee. But when they re-did the study with coffee drinkers vs a group who drank an equal amount of water they saw no difference. That is when they realized that it was the tiny amount of exercise (walking to the office cafeteria 2-3 times a day) that gave the positive effect on heart decease and not the coffee.

"Coffee does improve another kind of performance too." The editing, him laying down and looking at you from below, the pause, and even the tiny smirk really made me think of something else. This isn't just a video, this is a three-day Manchu-Han Imperial FEAST for Hames Joffmann, there's just so much for them to go wild with.

James really meticulously researched for a whole literature review and then presented it in a hospital with a coffee IV whilst wearing scrubs. Both the most ridiculous and most educational video I’ve watched in a long time.

I think my biggest question out of all of this is what is happening with the production of that video. That's a crazy amount of information delivered in a crazy good production setting.

At the start of this year I detoxed from caffeine for a month, then limited myself to one caffeinated beverage per day. I no longer have a headache by 10am if I haven’t had a coffee, and once or twice a week I don’t have one at all. I’ve also discovered that in the last 10 years decaf has gotten pretty good (in the right cafes) I’m enjoying coffee more than ever before, because I’ve broken my reliance on it

The aspect of this video that surprised me the most was that James & team found a hospital willing to let them film in their facilities. Nicely done, but I think they deserved a shout-out.

The production value of this video was amazing. Also the level of research takes this to another level. Well done, James and team, well done!

James, congratulations! As a doctor, I have rarely seen someone communicate scientific findings so clearly, concisely, and responsibly on the internet. Excellent work!

I can’t began to express how much I appreciate you James Hoffmann. You’ve legitimately gotten a clinic to agree to you going about filming a video on coffee. I don’t know anyone else that would put this level of effort into such a project!!

I would love a behind the scenes video because the production of this was wild!

As a physician, a neuroscientist, and a home coffee roaster, I've naturally been interested in this topic for quite a while. My review of the literature concurs exactly with what James said here---coffee is definitely not bad for you, it's probably very good for you, and it really is one of life's great joys. I think that further research may show that coffee is the one true Superfood. Drink up!

8:37 - "The side eye while looking at phone, then move away from the crazy man talking to himself" is the maneuver all people in large cities learn to do.

I am from Chile, a small country in South America. I am learning English and today I learned a lot about coffee. Thank you very much for teaching me about coffee. 😊

Slight precision: GERD is worsenned by coffee mainely because it relaxes the inferior esophagal sphyncter, which allows the stomac acids to go backwards in the esophagus. Great video, I love the reserch you do and the humor you bring to the subject!

I would absolutely love to know how much work went into producing this episode, with all the props and side gags. Fantastic work.

I am an Italian American physician and just wanted to reiterate two things-coffee is amazing, and your last point that, like so many things in life, moderation is key. ☕️

@JamesHoffmann Great video as always! Just wanted to point out that in medicine we generally talk about it taking about 4-5 half-lives for a drug to clear your system so this would mean caffeine takes closer to a full day to be eliminated. This is because with each half life, only half of the remaining drug will be cleared. So after the second half life you have cleared 75%, after 3 half lives you are at 87.5% cleared, 4 half lives gets you to about 94% and 5 gets you to 97%. The point remains, if you have a coffee at noon a lot remains in your system at bed time and you will even still have more in your system the next morning than you would expect.

I always love your demeanor and personality during these videos. Somehow you seem logical and yet lighthearted, passionate but also relaxed, and ofc that smooth british accent is like a nice relaxing massage for my ears. Thank you for being you and providing us with such quality content ❤

dealing with getting ADHD meds is extremely frustrating but good coffee and exercise has helped me focus on the business of keeping house in a similarly useful way

Toward the end of her life, my grandma was told to drink decaf coffee for her health. She did it a while and said “I’m going to die soon anyway, I might as well enjoy my coffee”. Wise words from a wise woman. What good is living longer if you don’t enjoy it?

So fun! Loved the video, and the playful shooting style. Always a bright part of my day when I get to spend a few minutes watching James.

James and Team, well done everyone who was involved in the making of this video, amazing work!

The level of quality videos James puts out is incredible

The lighting in the set is astounding. If it's an actual hospital and not just a studio it's even more impressive 😮

Informative, quietly humorous, creatively filmed. James always delivers.

This is exactly the kind of video I've been looking for for ages. I wish more objective, balanced, and considered analysis of information videos like this were done, excellent work to all involved.

Another point to consider regarding cognitive/performance benefits and effects on sleep is that caffeine generally has the opposite effect on those of us with ADHD. Many of us use it for its calming & sedating effect (and self-medicate with it, particularly to aid sleep). I genuinely spent 53 years until diagnosis thinking the world was suffering from some sort of collective delusion/suggestion/just making stuff up because I had never felt more awake, alert or experienced any "buzz" from consuming caffeine (but do love my strong coffees/espressos).

I would definitely watch Mr Hoffmann’s content even if I wasn’t a coffee person. What a quality!

My name is Jimmy Torres and I’m from Texas. I moved to Peru to grow coffee over 17 years ago and I’m still down here. I have watched several of your KZfaq videos and can sense that you are a real ‘coffee nut’ and know a great deal about coffee, flavor, caffeine, etc. I wanted to float a couple ideas across to you that you might find interesting. First thing that must be understood is time from harvest versus boiling coffee for drinking. Coffee is shipped/sold (normally) in its ‘pergamino’ or parchment paper. It is visible after drying as an opaque film over the bean. This ‘paper film’ retains the flavor and caffeine of the bean until ready to roast. Second, the time from harvest is shipment to the U.S. (or any country) varies greatly. Here in this area (north/central Peru), from harvest, drying, sale to mid-man, and shipment can vary from two months to four months. An 18-wheeler arrives from Lima and picks up a truck load of coffee sacks. A 2,000-mile road trip starts back to Lima taking another week. Then the coffee is stacked in a warehouse until a ‘coffee ship’ arrives to move it to various countries around the world. That can be an additional two to four months. So, we’re now somewhere between 4 months and 8 months of elapsed time. Then it must be sold to a ‘dealer’ somewhere within the U.S., shipped and stored ‘again’, before being actually roasted and sold for consumption. Time is coffee’s worst enemy! Deterioration of caffeine starts at the time I expose the bean to the air, i.e., take the husk/shell off of the bean. How much caffeine has deteriorated from the time the outer protective shell is removed (usually red or yellow) to the time it is consumed? I don’t know!? I make my own coffee here where it is grown. I have no machine to roast it. I roast over a wood fire with a large one inch thick, 24-inch wide, flat bowl. Time of roach and color are my guides (plus the second ‘crack’). I roast to dark - second crack. All of the coffees you test have a time factor. Also, a time factor AFTER the pergamino is removed (which allows more air to enter the bean). Time between removal of pergamino and the roast, and time to the selling/drinking. Have you taken all of this into consideration during your testing? Have you visited a coffee plantation and roasted coffee after it has dried (freshest available)? Have you compared that result to ‘off the shelf’ coffee?

Your subtle video editing is actually the best part of your videos, and it's taken me dozens of videos to realize that, you sly bastard.

My dad bless him, was drinking 9-10 instant coffees a day pretty much for something to do. Doctors couldn't understand why his blood pressure was so high and continued to stay high despite the various medications they tried. He then read something about coffee and blood pressure and cut it out almost completely... blood pressure back to normal!

The production quality of this is top notch! Keep up the good work, love watching your videos :)

The fiber content of coffee was a big surprise to me, I had no idea it contained so much soluble fiber. Great video all around, loved how you gave a very serious summary of complex research in such an approachable and goofy way. Keep up the great work James!

I don't know why, but it's extremely pleasing to my ear when you say the word "Coffee". I think it's something about the tone or timbre in the sounds of the word coming from your mouth. I could listen to that on repeat the whole day. Now, I'll take my meds. Cheers.

Nice touch at ~ 8:40. That's exactly what would happen if some rando in scrubs starting talking out loud about coffee studies whilst sitting in a hospital waiting room (or, really, pretty much anywhere).

“Awful Tabloid Rag” - Produces a copy of the Daily Mail 😂 As if it was possible, James has just gone up even further in my estimation!!

Very difficult for James to achieve at this point, but he somehow went up one more notch in my admiration when he held up that Daily Mail 👏

Big compliment to this man as I don’t even like coffee AT ALL! but have somehow consumed hours worth of his content watching the whole aeropress series and then some… I don’t usually comment but I felt I had to give back and am now subscribed to a coffee channel HAHA

I think an underrated discussion point is coffee's relation to stress. I often am a stressed individual and brewing and sitting down with a great cup of coffee is an incredible stress reliever. I think reducing stress is healthy and coffee makes me happy so, I believe with my entire being, that coffee is good for you

I worked in science for 20 years and I always had a bit of a dislike to many of these kind of studies. Many are done by medical students in training to become a doctor... why? Simply because it gets you into a field sooner, without a PhD you already lost almost. They want to become a doctor, not a researcher (most of the time, there are really good ones ofcourse). And that motivation isn't good for the quality of the research, you get a looooot of these meta-studies. The biggest issue is that trends are so hard to prove, bias can be all over the place and meta studies rely heavily on the other studies to have been done well. All in all, I take conclusions from these studies in and always with the biggest grain of salt added to it in my brain.

I actually wrote my senior thesis on the health benefits of the moderate consumption of black coffee for my bachelors of science in biology and presented it. I appreciate this video, there are lots of studies on consumption of caffeine in relation to antioxidants, lower risk of cardiac events, and possible lowered risk of Alzheimers. I agree with your wrap up as coffee is in fact good for you and I believe in moderation the pros greatly outweigh the cons. This of course is when the coffee is not loaded up with tons and tons of extra sugar, oil, and cream, and moderation is the key word. Although, life is short, do what makes you happy. Cheers.

This didn't surprise me, since I've read a lot of the same publications you came across in the production of this, but this was still super entertaining to watch, and was a great summary of the different areas of health affected by coffee! Great work on this one James & team!

Brilliant content with editing to match. You never miss James!

The problem in my case is that an absence of coffee is bad for those around me…

James - once again you have surpassed yourself. I recently was referred to a psychologist for a neuro-review - battery of tests to 'look' under the hood of how your brain works. Prior to this discussion - drug use was discussed - i had almost none to be honest, except caffeine in coffee. It was strongly suggested that I reduce my caffeine intake to as close to zero as possible - and if possible drink some green tea to 'slow down' metabolism of caffeine. I have recently found if enjoy more than 3 cups a day, i literally start to fall asleep. Was not always the case - But she continued telling me it was the rise in level and a sudden crash - I don't feel like that. I am so glad you pulled this video together - it was fun and stiffened my resolve that moderate levels of caffeinated coffee are better for you than a 3 martini habit each afternoon. (at least in the way I view things). All my best, Tony

This is a really well produced video! Whole sets, great lighting and really professional editing. I dont drink coffee but I enjoy learning things!

I watched already expecting the answer, and I watched fully knowing I would only believe my own confirmation bias that coffee is fine for me

Coffee makes me happy and therefore improves my mental health. Seems good to me 😊

James, I really enjoy your videos and have learned a lot. I started coffee as a hobby in 5/21 and got a Flair 58 with a hand grinder in 7/21, only medium to dark roast. My Cholesterol went up 54%, Triglycerides 41%, HDL decreased 12%(bad) LDL increased 124%, I started using a paper filter with the portafilter and labs returned to previous levels (Normal). The hand grinder limited my espressos to 2 to 3 double shots per day. Recently, I got a Titus Espresso grinder from Frank Durra and had 35 to 40 double espressos with medium light and medium dark roast using a Weber Unifilter with espresso filter paper a week before my labs. Cholesterol increased 60%, Triglycerides 89%, HDL increased 30% (good), I stopped espresso for two weeks and labs returned to previous levels. Mainly 20g of coffee, 1:2. I started more decaf espressos and will repeat the labs in a month.. I'm a physician.

This video was fascinating for me. I used to think coffee is not healthy at all, cuz of all the talk of how it's bad for your sleep. On top of that, I've heard people say it's actually bad for your stomach. Wow, thanks for making this

I don't think there has yet been a video more primed for a superb Hames Joffman cut than this one

Great subtle eccentric humour - fingers crossed for more in this style!

Loved this. And shout out to the supporting cast who were giving you odd looks, ignoring you, holding inhumanly still, or avoiding you. I'm happy that it confirms my belief that coffee is at least not bad for me :) I'd love to see a similar treatment about the current freakout over gas stoves in the US, which feels ripe for debunking. (I mean, if they're really as toxic and cancerous with benzine as some are saying, doesn't it seem like we would have noticed by now, given how widespread their use is in the population over many decades?). But that's probably a bit far afield from coffee! Also, I loved how your ID badge says "Not a Hospital"

Teeth health would have been super interesting to cover…I’ve noticed my teeth health worsen over the last 5-8 years drinking 1-2 high quality cups per day & I find almost anyone seriously in the coffee industry such as a roaster, barista or taster often has less than ideal teeth appearance & oral health. Thanks for your amazing insights & effort as always James you’re a gift to the world!

Interesting note: there is a certain subset of the population, typically with ADHD (although not all people with ADHD experience this), where drinking coffee actually makes us drowsy, and feel the need for a nap. Happens with certain other stimulants as well. I always wondered why coffee had that effect on me, until I was diagnosed with ADHD. Coffee also works really well for headaches, as caffeine is a vasodilator. So, you can give your paracetamol a supercharge. Should also point out I'm not a medical expert, so don't do that unless you talk with your doctor first.

Can we--can we just appreciate the production that went into this video.

YES 🙌🏻 As a health enthusiast and home barista, this video was super enjoyable. And you even touched on the gut microbiome! I first heard about chlorogenic acid / polyphenols and all the benefits of coffee in Dr. Li’s book ‘Eat to Beat Disease’. It definitely got me thinking, it would be interesting to see a study measuring serum cholesterol on espresso drinkers but have one group use bottom paper filters… Appreciate the production value and just overall effort that went into all the research for this one. And glad to have confirmation that coffee is in fact good for you ☕️

wow the produktion value is thrue the roof, it's amazing! and you learn something, it's not just "klick me, I'm entertaining". This channel is a rare gem, I binged it on my unwillingly corona bed "pause"

the production value is INSANE. fantastic informative work, James.

How much ever you've spent on production for this video, I'm going to say it has been worth it. Real philosophy tube contra points vibe. Good job, a truly entertaining and informative bookmark and share-worthy video.

I love the lady giving James the side eye and then moving away from him when he sits next to her.😊

Thank you so much James. Absolutely loved this video. In my opinion, this is the highest level of coffee related content anyone could make.

It's good for the soul; that much is clear.

the amount of research put into this video is just mind blowing and the way you explain things makes it so simple to understand.. and loved the production in this one.. always learning something new from you Mr. Hoffmann. Thanks!!!

Incredible job of vulgarisation. Thank you so much. This is such a huge difference with wine, for example. Although I know that wine can taste delicious (I am French), it is known that wine is bad for your health, like every alcohol. Even if you drink one glass a day. This is actually a poison, period. But not coffee. We can also add that some Arabica coffee have low level of caffeine, which reduces even more the risk of bad sleeping.

I just love your scientific approach, it shows here obviously, but is present in almost all your videos

This was an incredibly detailed video and covered a lot! Awesome work :D I would love for more research to be done into how our bodies can become dependent on coffee and the science behind caffeine withdrawal symptoms. I tried to go cold turkey on caffeine a short while ago as I'm pretty sure it was (and probably still is) effecting my sleep. I wasn't able to get over the such extreme withdrawal symptoms though, I felt like crap. It's not that I felt addicted like I had to have the coffee, I just felt like pure crap until I did.

Informative video. I'm now decaffeinated coffee only, by order of the Doctor, so it would be interesting to know if you'll include anything as regards 'Is Coffee Good for you?' in the planned decaffeination process videos that you mentioned a few months ago. Hopefully they're still in works.

i love the transitions andd outfit changes, makes this video feel more like an educational tv program than a youtube video, like an old school style done better

How have I just come across this channel? Coffee is literally one of my favorite things in the world.

A question in which I'd be very interested to have an answer to: The psychoactive side of coffee. Specifically on neurodivergent people, ADHD for example. I'd love to see a colaboration with you, where you talk to someone from the youtube space who is presenting knowledge of the fields of neurodivergence and find that out together

Glad you discuss the effect on GERD -- when you appeared on the video with Zoe discussing these issues, this was the main issue that I wished had been discussed. (My own experience is that coffee has a very mild exacerbating effect on GERD compared to some other foods, but everyone's triggers are a little different.)

Not drinking coffee will cause an early death, mainly due to desire. I used to get a lot of acid reflux, from bread, pastry and instant coffee - I take a spoonful of Apple cider vinegar twice a day - no acid reflux in 6 months. Coffee was given to us and is a natural product - just like garlic, ginger, turmeric, blueberries etc, designed to be useful in our bodies. Too much of everything can cause issues. I drink coffee up to 8:00 pm, and sleep incredibly well when I go to bed at 10:00pm. All the coffee I drink is freshly roasted and ground daily. Normally through an Aeropress and I just love it - love it - love it.

I suffered from GERD for years. I cut my alcohol consumption by around 95% and dont drink much at all anymore. That cleared up my gerd- I still drink a lot of coffee.

I'd love a video comparing different types of coffee for their health benefits. Blonde arabica vs. dark robusta, etc. Amazingly well put together video as always!

It's definitely healthy for me. Caffeine helps mitigate my ADHD symptoms and greatly improves my ability to focus. Learning that different people metabolize caffeine at different rates explains a lot for me. Every evening, around 6 pm, I have one or two 12 oz. cups of iced coffee and I'm struggling to stay awake by 9 or 10. I always thought that it was odd, given that most people I know can't touch caffeine after around 2 pm without being up all night, but now, I better understand my tolerance for it. I'd love to see these studies be more specific about cup size. As mentioned earlier, the cups I drink are rather large, but it is the recommended serving size. I wish I kew if it counted as a cup according to these studies.

This is the only responsible coffee based video that I have seen on any channel till now. Thank you so much James. Full disclaimer. Better information that you get from most physicians. It is not their intent. They just don't have the time.

My daughter had caffeine administered as a premature baby. I was a bit shocked but it was explained :) shes a fighting fit 23 yr old these days. ❤

From someone who every now and again throws scientific papers like this at you on Twitter, I'm grateful for you making this video. Even though I'm sure there are plenty of others who have done the same thing, I kind of feel a little more valid. Thanks James :)

A little tech tip for caffeine in general, if you wait 1.5 - 2 hours after waking you can avoid the crash associated with caffeine. The reason is your brain isn't done processing adenosine until a couple hours after waking. In laymen's terms adenosine makes you sleepy and caffeine blocks cortisol but that adenosine still needs to be processed

Chiming in regarding Reflux disease: I had been suffering it for years (mostly happening at night with the stomach acid coming out my nose sometimes). I was being handed about from one specialist to another and had maybe five or six gastroscopic exams (not fun), CT scans, biopsies, what have you. Had to swallow Pantoprazol 40 mg (a heavy proton pump inhibitor) daily for years on end and it still wouldn't always help. Traditional medicine basically was stumped. Coffee would often - but not always - trigger it. Other acidic foods that other people would say trigger reflux like foods containing acid, ie tomatoes or citrus fruits: no problem for me. What I noted was that mainly cheap coffee from vending machines, highway stations, instant coffee and pourover that caused problems. So I started experimenting. I had almost no problems with coffee I made myself (hand ground and using an Aeropress or a french press) or usually with coffee that had a lot of milk in it. Cold brew also no issue. Maybe helpful for some people here: I am happy to say that I was finally able to find the reason for my reflux issues a couple of year back with the help of an orthemolecular therapist. They tend to think of the body more as a system compared to traditional medicine which usually is hyper-focused on fighting the symptoms instead of trying to find the root cause. He wagered that with a stressful job my brain was using up too much Choline (an essential nutrient formerly known as Vitamin B4) which means nothing or too little was left for the rest of my organs to regulate my stomach acid properly. The deciding hint was that the issues seemed to fade when I was on vacation. Also, I seem - or rather my stomach - to react to certain carbohydrates (mostly bread). I stopped eating bread regularly and started supplementing Choline. I was also prescribed Adaptogen supplements to help keep the stress levels in check. The problems were gone within two days and have stayed awae, I dropped the Pantoprazol (against the protests of my doctor) and have been a happy camper ever since. Since then it hardly matters what kind of coffee I drink even though I still tend to stay away from the previous "trigger coffees". But that's just me getting spoiled and more sensitive to what "good coffee" actually is.

This mans presentation is second to none, theres no doubting hes highly intelligent.

Thanks, great video again. Only thing I think was missing are withdrawal effects if you drink too much and the effects on the brain from overconsumption.

Your videos are so well produced I don't even mind watching the sponsored part of the video

On future health-related topics: I would be interested in withdrawal symptoms. Prevalence, predisposition, etc. I spent at least half a year, possibly longer, suffering from terrible headaches most Sundays, which I initially attributed to overwork and lack of sleep. Both issues are probably causing other problems, but the headaches vanished as soon as I stopped consuming espressos at work on weekdays (and no coffee whatsoever at home during the weekend).

The doctor/patient/hospital cosplay presentation was hilarious, James! Good job!

I’ve always loved the smell and taste of coffee since I was a child, but thirtish years ago I had to give up caffeine, it made me so jittery and killed my sleep regardless of time I drank it; then, as years passed I began to experience anxiety when I occasionally (usually accidentally) got a regular coffee. I still drink my high quality decaf every day because I still love the taste and smell of coffee. I gave it up for a month and didn’t find I felt any better so added it back for the enjoyment it gives.

This felt like a Wes Anderson film

The extras (like the one girl in the waiting room moving after he sat down to talk) are top notch.

Interesting point; if caffeine does not affect your sleep, your alertness, or even makes you sleepy for the first cup or two, consider ADHD, even self-assessment (last personal stage before Drs/official assessment). Many or most ADHD people use caffeine to self medicate, and because it affects us through a similar mechanism to stimulant ADHD meds, many see drowsyness or no affect on alertness Before we reach doses that actually stimulate.

As a practicing scientist whose family has been asking for these kinds of summaries of nutritional investigations for decades, I can say, well done, James! Deep, even-handed, thorough, and fantastic meta-cognition (keeping the big picture in mind) throughout. Next, do one on the virtues of red wine!!

Wonderful video James!!! I love that you explore and educate us on more areas of coffee other than brewing and product reviews!

I was diagnosed with high LDL cholesterol (after they changed the guidelines and no longer account for high HDL levels) Although they wanted to give me a prescription, I opted to change from unfiltered to filtered coffee and actually lowered my levels.