Relationship Between Coffee Drinking and Reduction of Mental Stress in Young Women

The relationship between ingestion of coffee and reduction of mental stress was investigated in 256 young Japanese women. Among the 68% of subjects whose questionnaire responses indicated that they liked coffee, 68% indicated they feel relaxed when they drink coffee. In an organoleptic test, coffee extracted at 80°C exhibited a greater relaxation effect than coffee extracted at 65 or 95°C. This effect showed a significant negative relationship to sourness, suggesting that the relative lack of sourness enhances feelings of relaxation. Coffee drinking also decreased experimentally-induced mental stress evaluated by chromogranin A concentrations.