The most expensive coffee in the world can set you back as much as $600 for a little more than a pound, because it’s ground after passing through the digestive tract of the Indonesian palm civet (seriously).

Another of the rarest and most expensive coffee beans is Guatemalan El Injerto; it goes for about $500 a pound.

Luckily, you don't have to spend that kind of money to get the remarkable health benefits of drinking America's favorite beverage.

A new study in the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience reveals that drinking coffee increases brain activity in an area called the Right Executive Control Network (RECN), which involves short-term memory, attention, and focus. It also decreases activity in the part of the brain called the Default Mode Network (DMN), which is engaged when you're daydreaming or resting.

And the research showed that DMN connectivity decreases if you dose yourself with straight caffeine, but the sharper mental focus coming from the RECN does not happen.

These benefits come on top of the other remarkable advantages you gain from drinking coffee. According to a review in Johns Hopkins Medicine, drinking two to three cups a day can help you live longer, stabilize glucose levels, and ward off heart failure, liver disease, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, colon cancer, and lessen the risk of stroke.

You can see why I’m such a big fan of drinking coffee, as long as it is filtered — unfiltered raises your bad cholesterol levels — and doesn't come with added sugar or high-fat creamers.