I had my first cup of coffee when I was 16 years old. I drove an ice cream route for Mel-O-Dee Ice Cream that summer. The headquarters for the company was about a block west of Lewis Avenue on Pine Street in North Tulsa.

I had to report to work at 9 a.m. and be on my route by 10 a.m. I had to make sure my truck had gas and that I had checked out my inventory of ice cream.

I still had some time to kill. The shop had no water fountain but the owner brought in donuts every day and made a big pot of coffee.

The coffee smelled great but tasted terrible. But I got used to it. Eating a donut while drinking a cup of coffee made it more tolerable.

Now, I love the taste of coffee. It is an acquired taste. I drink it black but I love it doctored up with honey and flavored coffee creamer. I drink it black now to cut calories.

I like it better when it is doctored up.

It turns out, coffee is really good for you.

Some recent studies show that drinking coffee – especially a whole lot of coffee – has measurable health benefits. That is tempered somewhat because you don’t want to ingest too much caffeine.

A study from The University of South Australia studied 347,077 coffee drinkers . It concluded you should drink five cups of coffee per day to get the full medical benefit.

That’s a lot. I drink two cups a day and I never drink coffee after lunch. If I drink it later, it keeps me up at night. 

The study was published in the March edition of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Why is five cups the right amount?

A study funded by the American Heart Association and The University of Colorado School of Medicine found that the risk of heart failure or stroke went down 8 percent for each additional cup of coffee per day.

A British study of 498,134 people that found that those who habitually drank coffee were between 10 and 15 percent less likely to die during any 10-year period than non-coffee drinkers.

A Stanford University study tracked 100 people over several years and found that coffee drinkers tended to live longer than non-coffee drinkers.

A Spanish study that found that participants who drank four cups of coffee per day had a 64 percent lower risk of dying compared to non-coffee drinkers. 

“In order to maintain a healthy heart and a healthy blood pressure, people must limit their coffees to fewer than six cups a day—based on our data six was the tipping point where caffeine started to negatively affect cardiovascular risk,” said Elina Hyppönen of the Australian Centre for Precision Health.

And when you hit six cups of coffee per day, the risk of heart disease increases by 22 percent, according to the study. 

A British study, examining the coffee habits of nearly 500,000 adults, reported there’s an across-the-board increase in longevity among people who drink lots of coffee. “Coffee drinkers were about 10 percent to 15 percent less likely to die than abstainers during a decade of follow-up,” according to an Associated Press report on the study.

“Lead author Erikka Loftfield, a researcher at the U.S. National Cancer Institute, said coffee contains more than 1,000 chemical compounds including antioxidants, which help protect cells from damage,” the AP reported.

The study, titled, “Association of Coffee Drinking With Mortality by Genetic Variation in Caffeine Metabolism,” was published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

“Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages around the world,” said study author Dr. Adela Navarro, a cardiologist at Hospital de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, adding, “Our findings suggest that drinking four cups of coffee each day can be part of a healthy diet in healthy people.”

This is good news for coffee drinkers like me (unless these studies were funded by Starbucks or Folgers).

I drink most of my coffee at home. I have a weekly breakfast meeting in which I pay about $2 for an endless cup of coffee.

The price of coffee in convenience stores and most restaurants is way out of line. The average American spends $1,000 a year on coffee.

Around Christmas and Thanksgiving, I will buy a pumpkin-spice flavored cup of coffee because it tastes really, really good in cold weather.

Years ago, I switched to decaffeinated coffee for several months but it just wasn’t the same. If I were to skip a day drinking coffee now, I would have a headache for a day or two because I am addicted to caffeine (my only vice).

I have worked places that kept a pot of coffee going during working hours. Cheap coffee tastes terrible but I will drink it anyway. I spend a little extra for my home coffee these days because it tastes better when it is not so acidic.

I acquired a taste for coffee. I never acquired a taste for beer, win or spirits.

I think I made the right choice.