Your coffee tells who you are: "The sort of coffee you drink says a lot about who you are and where you're from. According to a report by industry analysts BIS Shrapnel, the caffe latte is the drink of choice in the inner, more affluent, suburbs of Melbourne, while the cappuccino is king in the outer suburbs. The hard-core espresso is preferred by young males and the flat white is more likely to be ordered by older drinkers. "When they go out, the older people tend to have the equivalent of what they are used to drinking at home, so a flat white is the equivalent of an instant coffee with milk," said report author Sandro Mangosi, leader of BIS Shrapnel's international food service study team. "There is a reluctance to change, which increases with age, while younger people get on with the new trend." For those looking for the next coffee craze, Dr Mangosi tips the espresso. "It won't be long and we will see the introduction of variations with straight coffee," he said. "In Italy, there are at least five types of espresso, and this is gradually developing here."


Coffee is bad for you -- of course! "Coffee drinkers who have more than three cups a day could significantly increase their chances of suffering a heart attack. Research suggests that some people who carry a particular variation of a gene cannot process caffeine as quickly as other people. Such individuals could be 60 per cent more likely to have a heart attack if they drink large amounts of coffee. It is not known how common the gene variation is in the British population. Some studies indicate that up to a third of Caucasians may carry it. Canadian scientists have discovered that people with the slower metabolism gene variation, known as *1F, run a dramatically higher risk even if they drink only two cups a day. Researchers found that heavy coffee drinkers under the age of 50 were four times as likely to have an attack compared with those who had one cup a day".