According to a recent study conducted by Clarkson University and the University of Georgia, we should give more importance to a combination that is perfect and beneficial for our brains: mocha-mocha coffee (coffee, milk, and hot chocolate).
Both teams of researchers teamed up to examine "how cocoa consumption was related to attention, motivation to perform a mental task, and feelings of anxiety, energy, and fatigue." To accomplish this mission, a nearly year-long, double-blind study was conducted, in which volunteers drank various cocoa-based blends: caffeinated cocoa, caffeine-free cocoa, cocoa-free cocoa, and a placebo containing neither. They were then asked to perform several tests to assess their cognitive ability and mood.
According to Ali Boolani, lead author of the research, "It was a really fun study. Cocoa increases blood flow to the brain, which boosts cognition and alertness. However, caffeine alone can increase anxiety. This is how we discovered that cocoa reduces the negative effects of caffeineβa good reason to drink a mocha!"
And why not eliminate caffeine from the equation? According to researchers, the combination of both facilitates attention. Furthermore, the coffee -only group didn't notice changes in their energy or attention span, but they did notice changes in their mood. And not for the better: they were more likely to get angry after cognitive tasks.