Kicking Caffeine and Counterfeit Coffees

The Lounge General Discussion
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When I was in my twenties, I went on a date with someone that ended in a sleepover. The next morning, we rolled, rumpled, out of bed and stumbled to a nearby coffee shop. I felt very cool ordering a large black coffee - until she ordered a kale smoothie. I was like fuck, that is so much cooler than what i ordered, a whole other level. You don’t need a lot of caffeine, you need none at all!

I continued to drink it, though. Then a few years ago - just pre-pandemic, and then the pandemic really didn’t help - I started having pretty consistent and intense anxiety. I reduced my caffeine intake to like a cup of green tea a day for a while, then a year or two ago I was like, ok fuck it, let’s just go for it, and I kicked caffeine altogether.

It was rough, I had the headaches and the exhaustion and the grumpiness and everything, but I made it to the other side and now i don’t mess with caffeine any more beyond the tiny amounts that are in things like chocolate. It has made a huge impact on the old anxiety.

In the same way that I’ve been a vegetarian for a thousand years but have no interest in living off fake meats - give me beans and rice, actual vegetables, food that is made out of food - I wasn’t that interested in replacing coffee with coffee substitutes… until I tried ojoche tostado. Omg. It’s so good, you make it in a French press and it’s strong and bitter, it’s great iced, it’s basically become my boyfriend. I love it. I’m evangelical about it.

…and also it’s expensive, the kind if thing I buy a bag of as a gift to myself when I can afford it, rather than something i have every morning.

I don’t feel like I need a new coffee substitute, but I guess i do want one. Over the years I’ve tried dandelion and chicory and the other go-tos, but none of them ever really stuck. I should probably give them another go.

Anyway, all of this is a characteristically long-winded way of asking, hey Elektronauts, what are your experiences with caffeine? Anybody else quit? No shade toward herbal tea - we’re hippie witches, we’ve got a bookcase full of dried herbs and a dehydrator going 75% of the time, this just is not that - but anybody got any no-caffeine, non-herbal tea drinks they recommend?

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Michael Pollan has an excellent essay on caffeine as part of this book:

It’s a fascinating history, but it’s also a journal of his experience with withdrawal.

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Ive just reduced myself to 2 coffees a day and feel way better. Was prob having at least 6!

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Off-topic anedotes and empathies

I kicked coffee for a year. I mostly enjoyed a couple of decaf teas a day, and not every day.

In the last month, a succession of late nights and hangovers have lead me to get back on coffee. Roughly one a day, maybe slightly less.

Today, I had a headache at about 26hrs after my last coffee, so I went out and bought a flat white. I can see I’m definitely on the slide back into regular usage.

I don’t know that caffeine is bad “for everyone”. I’m not gonna preach at anyone for their use, or not. I fucking love good coffee. I’m fairly sure it exacerbates my attention deficit and anxiety. (Not that, for me, those are even that intense, but they’re definitely noticeable to me). So, I need to get off this backsliding.

I was happy in my decaf days. Why’s it so hard to return to them?

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I never really took to coffee. I found I get addicted to it fast and it actually made me tired. Then when I was diagnosed with ADHD, lightbulbs went off. So I get zero benefits and all disadvantages of coffee. :laughing: I will say a good espresso-based latte tastes very good.

I drink one cup of tea a day in the morning. Just the most generic black/orange tea available.

I also keep a pitcher of decaf iced tea in the refrigerator. I use Splenda for a sweetener, since sugar destroys me as much as caffeine does. It tastes about one step above water.

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I had quit caffeine for a while a couple of years ago, also due to struggles with anxiety. Pretty much didn’t drink any caffeine for three years or so. Have since restarted, first with nice Japanese green tea. Now I’m at one good quality pot of coffee in the morning (pour-over with a V60), but that’s usually it, as I realized that having another during the day does nothing positive for me and might trigger anxiety quite intensely.

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I’ve hit that sweet tolerance spot when one cup is enjoyable and doesn’t affect me much, but two cups still fuck me up for a day. So I get myself a cup once a week or two and consider it a nice treat.

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I notice that quite distinctly, as well, when I consume too much caffeine.

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I quit drinking coffee 2+ years ago. I drink green tea, but AFAIK green tea has very little caffeine.

Edit: Shit, I just looked on the internet, and green tea has more caffeine than I had assumed.

I quit coffee because of elevated blood pressure. I don’t miss coffee in the morning. My job involves moving around a lot, and that wakes me up. Where I miss coffee the most is in the afternoon. I take a short nap when I get home after work. A cup of coffee at 3-4 pm helped me wake up and focus on homework/projects or get motivated to exercise.

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maybe you just want a little cup of coffee and not a big one.

[ breathes on cufflinks and wipes them on his lapel ]

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I’m a slave to the bean and that’s okay with me for now.
I drink it black mostly but I’m not some guy who considers that some sort of edgy personality trait. I will also drink it with cream, oat milk, half and half… whatever.
A while back I could take it or leave it and I had no real interest in it. It didn’t affect me if I didn’t have it and I could go days and days without it or even thinking of it. Those days are over.
It’s become a most welcome vice again.
In a moment here I will get up and make a pot and that gets me out of bed in the morning.
On my weekends I like to drink enough to where I feel like I’m losing my mind, and temper it with thc. Gets that old creative spark firing with some regularity.

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I get very little effects from caffeine but I like the ritual. Takes a few weeks or so to make me more or less immune :smiley:

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We used to call that the hippie speedball lol

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I kicked it for 2 years or so (a while ago). Had a lot more enthusiasm for life, more energy. It’s worth doing. I drink tea now but hoping to quit again soon.

I posted here a couple of years ago about my struggles with heroin and crack addiction (still clean today). Hard drugs are bad, but in a way it’s clearer the negative effect they have so it’s easier to find motivation to stop.

Caffeine is subtle. For me, I sleep worse, then need more the next day. Pointless really. But I love the taste of tea!

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Pretty sure the way the caffeine absorbs into your body is a bit different based on delivery method. Coffee is like a spike and green tea is like a smooth curve. But yeah monks used to use green tea as a way to meditate for longer periods without losing focus.

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Interesting. I have never felt a caffeine spike from green tea. Maybe that’s why I assumed it had less caffeine (than it really does).

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I used to drink 3 to 4 cups (25dl per cup) when i was working. I was drinking that much since age of 15 - 20 maybe. Can’t even remember anymore.
Today i have only one in the morning, i still love the taste and ritual that comes with it (:poop:), but on the other hand i got hooked up to one can per day of redbull, again because of taste and buzz (only original one with sugar).
Haven’t tried yet completely without it though.
Kinda like my little addictions

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And with green tea it also depends on the variety. There are options with less caffeine (such as Kukicha). Damn, now I miss the green tea which I was drinking until switching over to coffee at the beginning of this year. But I really can’t do both – and enjoy the more immediate kick of the coffee in the morning.

Edit: Then again, three to five steeps of a nice Sencha or Tamaryokucha within a short period also did provide a good boost. Hmmmm :smiley:

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I have this addiction for many years and still struggling with it. Coffee must only be a recreational drink after hours, a dessert. It’s quite bad stimulator, even if it’s more or less safe.
I’m currently trying to switch to black tea, or maybe green. Like, you know, substitute therapy…

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I drank a lot of caffeinated soda as a kid, but started drinking coffee fairly late in life, in my early '20s.

I’ve always been a coffee snob, leaning towards good espresso.

A while back, I read about a study that found that regular coffee drinkers experience a spike of alertness in less than a minute after tasting coffee. But it takes about 30 minutes for caffeine to cross the blood-brain barrier. It seems likely that coffee drinkers develop a pavlovian response to the flavor.

It is also likely that coffee drinking can make a pavlovian link between the strong taste of coffee and whatever emotional state you are in when you usually drink it. Such as high stress.

Since stress makes me alert, I don’t usually drink coffee in stressful situations, usually relaxing situations instead. Perhaps that’s why I have a very comfortable and relaxed relationship with coffee (and various true teas).

Regarding Green Tea, fresh tea leaves have L-Theanine in addition to caffine. L-Theanine has a very mild calming effect that doesn’t usually make you drowsy. Fresher green teas grown in shade tend to have more L-Theanine.

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