Coffee, espresso, coke and investing: I

The caffeine effect
Which one has the most caffeine? A tall (12 fl oz, or 355 ml) brewed coffee, a tall latte with one shot of espresso (both at Starbucks), and a can (12 fl oz) classic Coca Cola?

Your instant answer maybe the latte (espresso), but the correct answer is the brewed coffee. According to Starbucks Nutrition By the Cup (PDF), 12 fl oz coffee has 240 mg caffeine, one shot espresso (1 fl oz) has 75 mg caffeine. As to Coke, I saw it says “caffeine content: 34mg per 12 fl oz”.

I don’t know what is the appropriate amount of caffeine a person could consume daily. My guess is one small cup a day should be ok for most people. I think it also depends on person’s health condition (weight, height, habbit of drinking). But just like many other things in life, moderation is the key. A cup of regular coffee will get one refreshed in the morning (it has caffeine equivalent to 7 cups of Coke). But when the initial effect of coffee goes away in a few hours, he/she will resort to another coffee. And so on. I think we can be more easily get caffeinated that way.

(picture souce: will work for food)

Secular growth, Mindray, New Oriental

I was looking for a secular growth stock in China. By secular growth I mean the business grows continously without the normal business cycle. One benifit of secular growth is it usually does not go up or down a lot as economy cycle does. A side benifit of this is we (investors) can sleep better in the night 🙂

The opposite of “secular” is “cyclical”. For example, we normal think the following industries are “cyclical”:

1) Oil, metals and other commodities;

2) Real estate (we have seen the downturn in the US housing market lately);