Can I drink wine and coffee together?
In this text we will provide the answer to the query: “Can I drink wine and coffee together?”. In addition, we will discuss the relationship between alcohol and coffee and how wine and coffee influence your heart.
Is it safe to drink wine and coffee together?
It is not recommended to drink any alcoholic beverage (such as wine) together with coffee, since caffeine accelerates the absorption of alcohol by the body, affecting the central nervous system and also the cardiovascular system, which can cause discomfort, increasing the risks of intoxication and tachycardia crisis, putting the person at risk.
What is the relationship between alcohol and coffee?
Both alcohol and caffeine raise adenosine levels — so basically what happens if mixing wine and coffee in relation to your brain isn’t much, causing them to cancel each other’s effects and your adenosine levels go up normally.
Two key players in this story are adenosine and caffeine. One is found in alcohol and the other in coffee. Adenosine is stored in the brain, is produced by the body, and is accumulated throughout the day. This homonym tells the body that we need to sleep.
On the other hand, with caffeine which can be found in coffee and energy drinks, there is a common misconception that drinking these drinks will keep you from feeling tired. They won’t—they’ll just keep you from feeling more tired.
Because the way caffeine works is that it masks the flow of information from the brain to adenosine and slows down its production.
How does wine and coffee influence your heart?
Wine and coffee influences your heart because mixing coffee with wine your heart can beat twice as fast. For this reason, the healthy upper limit for daily caffeine intake at around 400 milligrams per day, which means — 3 to 5 teaspoons is the upper limit.
Drinking alcohol can also slow down your reaction times, reduce your balance and fine motor skills, and impair your cognition in a way that causes poor judgment, however, it temporarily fixes your heartbeat. And coffee too. However, mixing the two will not make your heart race twice as fast.
Most likely it will go at the same speed or higher by a margin. The same is true if drinking only coffee or only wine, marginal leaps in heart rate. But the real issue with mixing wine and coffee and its effects on the heart is not the temporary problems the mixture can cause, but the real concern is whether or not it has lasting effects, which is why scientists are urging not to mix wine and coffee recklessly.
Drinking wine and coffee together has the same effects on the heart as drinking them separately. However, if we drink them together in excessive amounts, the strain on the heart can become permanent.
The biggest issue in research looking at blending wine and coffee is that the data is limited and somewhat mixed. There is not enough data or research in this field for science to give a conclusive answer to how mixing wine and coffee affects your body.
How to pair coffee and wine?
To harmonize coffee and wine, fortified wines are recommended, which are wines that undergo an addition of alcohol to increase the alcohol content of the product.
As they are indicated to whet the appetite or to end a meal, they fit like a glove when pairing with coffee. In addition to Port wines, examples of fortified wines are: Madeira (Portugal), Jerez (Spain) and Marsala (Italy). These usually have between 17-22% alcohol.
Stronger, more robust coffees will be even better enjoyed with Cabernet Sauvignon, or with a spicy Zinfandel. Softer coffees combine more with the delicacy of a Pinot Noir.
What are the similarities between coffee and wine?
The similarities between coffee and wine are not limited to the fact that both are two great world passions, it goes far beyond that! Here are some other similarities between the two drinks:
Quality that starts at harvest: both come from a plant/fruit and have a certain ripening time that influences the quality of the product
The terroir: both wine and coffee have an ideal terroir, that is, they have that set of factors, such as topography, geology, drainage, climate and microclimate, among others, that impact their production.
Grape and beans varieties: like wine, coffee also has its varieties, each with its own characteristics and particularities.
Oxidation: after being served, both begin to undergo an oxidation process due to the great contact with the air.
Temperature: whether at room temperature, hot or iced, there is coffee and wine for all tastes
Conclusion
In this text we provided the answer to the query: “Can I drink wine and coffee together?”. In addition, we discussed the relationship between alcohol and coffee and how wine and coffee influence your heart.
