Hi, hello, good day.
I’m Kevin, and this is Into The Rabbit Hole, a curated newsletter packed with all the fascinating, bizarre, and captivating “rabbit holes” I dive into, sent every second Monday. You can subscribe to the newsletter on buttondown.
This is issue 2, so I’m naturally still experimenting with the format. Let me know what you prefer.
Fungi and Sleep
I’m still on a quest to fix my sleep.
This week, I’m trying out some new decaffeinated coffee for the evenings. I’ve always enjoyed coffee for its taste, but never dared to drink any after 3 PM, even if I know I have a fast caffeine metabolism. Though, I’ll still stick to my caffeinated coffee in the mornings because I’ve got some fancy beans lying around.
For my fellow coffee snobs: I went with El Vergel by Manhattan Coffee Roasters, based in Amsterdam. I’ve been a fan of their coffee for a while, and I recently heard they also do a good decaf.
Decaf is fascinating because most decaffeinated coffee out there sucks. There are three methods to decaffeinate coffee beans: Swiss water process, ethyl acetate process, and supercritical carbon dioxide process. Each of these methods has its advantages and disadvantages, but they all impact taste. And since for most coffee shops decaf is just an afterthought, they might not always try to source the best type.
El Vergel uses the ethyl acetate process. It works like this: to decaffeinate the beans, they are first steamed to open up the pores, then soaked in a mix of water and ethyl acetate, where ethyl acetate binds to the caffeine molecules. Afterwards, the beans are taken out of this mixture to be steamed again to evaporate any remaining ethyl acetate, before they are dried and prepared for roasting. (And Manhattan Coffee roasts them the moment you order.)
While it all sounds like something straight out of Breaking Bad, ethyl acetate is a compound naturally found in fruits. But it’s still considered a chemical solvent and has a bigger effect on flavour than, say, the Swiss water process (but it’s cheaper to do).
This video goes into more detail (here is a follow-up with some amendments):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYTSdlOdkn0
I also ordered a functional mushroom blend called Astro Dust (non-magical, despite its name).
In all fairness, I’m super sceptical. I’ve seen way too many Instagram ads (which is how I discovered Space Goods) since my last newsletter, which makes me think it’s all hype.
The main ingredients of the Astro Dust blend are Reishi mushrooms, Ashwagandha, and other adaptogens like chamomile and jujube. Reishi is the hero of this blend. It works through several bioactive compounds like polysaccharides, triterpenes, and peptidoglycans:
- Polysaccharides have adaptogenic properties, which may help the body manage stress.
- Triterpenes can modulate neurotransmitters like serotonin and GABA, and can be mildly sedative.
- Peptidoglycans can help modulate the immune system and reduce inflammation.
(Neurotransmitters transmit signals between nerve cells (neurons) or from neurons to muscles.)
All the ingredients in this non-magical blend supposedly work together to help relaxation, decrease stress levels, and lower cortisol. Only that I’m not a stressed person and my cortisol levels are at healthy levels. Also, most studies so far were done in animals, not humans, so while it all sounds very promising, there isn’t enough evidence yet.
So I might have bought into the hype, but we’ll see. The placebo effect can work wonders too after all.
I’ll report back.
Mechanical Deep Dive
I’ve spent the last couple of days watching every video I could find that mentioned the Triumph Bonneville motorcycle.
First, some background for my American friends. Here in Luxembourg, and I’m guessing generally in Europe, you have a few types of driver’s licenses. In Luxembourg, there are four different types just for driving a motorcycle:
- A1: Allows you to drive motorcycles up to 15kW.
- A2: Allows you to drive motorcycles up to 35kW.
- A: Allows you to drive all kinds of motorcycles.
- B100: Equivalent to the A1, but only valid for Luxembourg. With this license, I can’t leave the country on a bike, and if you know anything about Luxembourg, passing the borders can happen quite quickly.
Right now, I have a B100. And I drive an electric bike. So while in theory, I can only drive bikes up to 15 kW, since it’s electric, it has much more power. A typical A1-valid motorcycle tops out at around 90 km/h (55 mph), but the RGNT can easily do a constant 110 km/h (68 mph), and for a short period go up to 130 km/h (80 mph).
But I want to pass the A, respectively the A2 now. To get the A, you need to drive with the A2 for two years and do four hours of additional driving lessons. And to get the A2, I need to do four hours of theoretical and sixteen hours of practical training, and pass two exams (one theoretical, one practical). In theory, this should be easy, as I've been driving a motorbike for a while now, but since it's an EV, it's automatic — I need to learn how to change gears.
Then when all this is done (1700€ btw) I finally want to get the motorbike that got me interested in the whole space in the first place: the Triumph Bonneville T100.
I don’t remember when I first fell in love with that bike. But it was ten years ago when I decided that I had to get one, after seeing this trailer featuring David Beckham and his Bonney (I never actually watched the documentary, but I downloaded it and will watch it this week; and yes, I’m fully aware that he falls in the trailer).
So, eh, if any of my European readers want to buy the RGNT from me, hit me up!
OK, that’s all I got for this second edition. As always, if you have any feedback, hit reply. If you want me to look at something, hit reply. If you want to say hi, hit reply. If you want to tell me how much you hate me, hit delete.