Baraka: Interesting. I managed to avoid caffeine until around the holidays (with a couple minor exceptions, like the time I was in the Mexican restaurant and they had bottled Coke with real sugar), but with the election so close (10 days from today) I've needed the caffeine to make up for staying up late. Until Feb 2, I'll be killing myself with fast food and caffeinated drinks, but afterward I can try to be healthy again.

I had an evil caffeine addiction at one point, to the extent i was getting violent and aggressive without a fix. Weaned myself off it over a couple of weeks and felt so much better.

I'm not totally caffeine free, it is useful for the pep, and i like lots of things with it in. However whenever i do find myself taking in a fair bit there is the urge to go find more, which can be a struggle.

I had a bad experience once. I was playing Magic the Gathering at a friend's place, and we thought it would be cool to have a couple of espressos each to ramp up our game. This, of course, was after 9 p.m. By the time I got home by 12 or so, I sat in the chair for a good 30 min. to an hour trying to fend of an anxiety attack from the caffeine...fatigue set in eventually. I don't remember how much coffee I had earlier that day. There's a good chance I had one or two cups at least. So... who knows how much caffeine I had in my system by midnight. The half life is 6 hours or so.

Hang in there, champ. You might see what I mean if you drop off on the caffeine suddenly and not be so stressed out from work as much. Your body is likely going to switch into cocoon mode. :thumbsup:

This is a big thing for me. I hate the thought of needing to have coffee before going to do something...sometimes to the point of not wanting to do it at all without it...sometimes being a moody brat if required to suffer without it. Who wants that? I don't.

* * * * *

In the meantime, I'm going to be experimenting with the documented content of L-theanine in sencha.

I love coffe, though not caffeine :). I gave it up once for a week, just to see if I could. It was a long week.

I drink a double shot of espresso in the morning, and have a utilitarian half calf - half decaf cup (maybe 10 oz) in the afternoon from the coffee machine at work.
But my first coffee in the morning is more than just about the caffeine; it's about the ritual of making it: grinding, tamping, brewing. I just love coffee, and if it naturally came uncaffeinated I would have many more shots a day :). Unofortunately decaf genereally doesn't taste as good, and has less variety.

I do notice when I don't have my coffee, so I would say I am slightly addicted. I probably get 150 mg of caffeine a day from caffeinated drinks (I don't drink soft drinks or tea or eat much chocolate, so I don't think I get a lot of caffeine otherwise). But I figure it's worth it for the ritual. I remember being a kid in Lebanon and always wanting to be old enough to have Turkish coffee after Sunday's lunch on my Grandma's balcony :). I started by dipping sugar cubes in the coffee, to drinking sweet coffee, though now I can't stand any sugar (or milk!) in it.

But then I guess my avatar might have already shown my preference :)

See, I love coffee too. This is the challenge for me. It's a delicious drink. I don't drink it just for the caffeine. I don't like bad coffee.

I keep telling myself that I could have just a single shot of espresso in the morning and would still be able to drink decaf green tea and be below my 100 mg threshold for daily caffeine intake. But the issue is stopping at one instead of having another or a cup of coffee later on. I know what you mean about the decaf. If I search around more, I'm might find something I like, but the decaf I've purchased hasn't been very good. I read that most decaf is made from a different bean. It's not the arabica bean you get with good coffee; it's often the inferior robusta bean.

If I can find a decaf arabica coffee that uses the water method for decaffeination, I might be fine....might..... I haven't tried decaf espresso though. Maybe I should consider half-decaf espresso at home, which would leave me with room to have one or two regular teas during the day. It's like Weight Watchers...but with caffeine instead of calories. As long as it adds up to under 100 mg., I'm fine.

I know what you mean about the ritual of making espresso. And then, of course, there's the ritual of drinking it. It is to be savoured. Ugh...I'm going to be buying espresso beans soon, aren't I?

Strength, Baraka, strength....

Oh I plan on it. It'll be necessary after barely sleeping and working ~40 hours in three days!

I hope I haven't tempted you too much with the espresso stuff Baraka :)

In the meantime, I decided to switch my utilitarian afternoon coffee (which I drink mostly because I want a break in the afternoon, not because I want crappy office coffee) from half-caf to full decaf. I don't sense any energy difference, so that's good...

I dunno....I think I'm tempted to pick up some decaf espresso. It'd be a waste not to use my espresso machine for anything.

There truly is something to be said for morning rituals. I have to start my day off with a coffee from the office espresso machine. I make and consume it in the same way each morning.

Weekends, I make it at home using my stove top espresso maker.

I'd like to know how that goes, i know somewhere that sells L-Theanine powder, but i don't want to fork out if it's bunk.

It will be a while before I can experiment. From what I've read, high-grade Japanese teas have the highest content, and even then, the content in a cup of tea is below the threshold used in studies...so the consumption through tea must be high.

I'm drinking both green tea and oolong at the moment, but I'm switching to sencha exclusively after I run out.

I drink one or two cups of organic coffee in the morning. That is the only caffeine I get. Been this way for years....

So how's the caffeine kick going, gentlemen? Just curious if you decided to keep it going.

Been through all levels of caffeine from none to probably something insane like 20 cups a day. I'm comfortable with my morning double espresso and an occasional evening American coffee (or a Jamaican coffee on the rare occasion!). When I work a 2nd or third shift, I usually an extra cup.

When I was heavily into caffeine, I wasn't able to fall asleep unless I had a cup before bed. :hmm:

Hah, I had little-to-none for a couple months, but I've been back to heavy caffeine consumption for awhile now. Maybe it's time to take another hiatus.

Still off of it, for about 4 years now - the only times I have a cup of regular coffee is for medicinal purposes if I'm feeling a bit backed up.

Has anyone noticed how time goes faster when drinking large amounts of coffee? Perhaps, if we cease the caffeine consumption again, time will slow down?

Same.

I have the usual on-again/off-again love/hate relationship with coffee and caffeine.

I want to switch to decaff espresso beans and drink mainly tea (both decaf black and regular sencha).

If I could keep my daily caffeine intake below 75 mg or so, then I'd be happy. (In most cases, that's the least that's in 1/2 cup of coffee.)

A lot of this is psychological tied into the physiological. You don't need caffeine to function---for the most part, you need caffeine to alleviate the withdrawal from it so that you can function normally.

If you can get over the "but I need it" trap, you can go far.

I made an effort to stop daily caffeine about ten years ago. I drink green tea and water nearly all day these days.

When I need to stay awake for a long drive I will drink a lot of Mountain Dew for a dose of caffeine. It works great when your body has not adapted to it over time.

I treat it like a drug similar to aspirin; I only use it when I need it.

Regular green tea does contain caffeine, you know, so I hope you meant decaf.

I've cut back a LOT in recent weeks. I drink herbal tea most days instead of Diet Pepsi. I have about 1-2 cups of coffee on a given morning, but that's about it. Sometimes I don't even have coffee at all (weird, I know). For me, that's a pretty considerable improvement.

I'll be honest--I didn't even really notice when I cut back. There were a few days a couple weeks ago when I had a cold where I drank herbal tea all day instead of coffee or Diet Pepsi, and I didn't really go through any kind of withdrawal. There weren't any headaches or anything. It was weird! I also don't feel like I feel any better consuming less, nor do I feel like I sleep better consuming less. I feel like I sleep about the same.

Yes, good point. Yes, it is a decaf. green tea (by Bigelow).

They say the caffeine in green tea doesn't have the same effect on you because of the counteraction of theanine. This is why you can drink green tea all day and not feel the same way if you were drinking coffee. Green tea has an odd sort of "calm stimulation" because of this. Think of it as the effect meditation/breathing or exercise has on you. It reduces your stress and can refresh you at the same time.

The other thing too is that green tea (sencha especially, by my own practice) can be double brewed. The second brewing will have many of the good compounds still but nearly none of the caffeine will be left. So if you double brew your green tea all day, you only get (about) half the overall caffeine. For example, 10 cups of double brewed green tea is like drinking 5 or 6 cups of single brewed green tea. At about 20 to 40 mg or so of caffeine per cup, we're talking about 100 to 200 mg vs. 200 to 400 mg in a day.

It's interesting to note how much different that is compared to coffee consumption. Most cups of coffee have over 100 mg of caffeine (and we're talking cups cups; many people drink grandes* and mugs of it). So this means that a couple of cups of coffee will blow past up to ten cups of green tea, depending on how you brew it. And this isn't even accounting for the counteraction of theanine I mentioned.

This is why I want to switch.


*According to the Starbucks website, the "Bold Pick of the Day" has 260 mg of caffeine in a tall and 330 mg of caffeine in a grande. So even if you fully single brewed your green tea and drank 10 cups of it, you'd still be fairly equal to a single coffee from Starbucks.

I don't drink coffee, so I'm always surprised when I see the amount of caffeine in most cups. Soda has its own issues (sugar, etc), but I think it's amazing that I've had two cans of Mountain Dew so far today - 110mg of caffeine - and that's still less than half what someone would have if they ordered a tall "Bold Pick of the Day" from Starbuck's.

I like coffee, I'm fine with my addiction.

I have switched to 50/50 decaf, however.

Every couple of months I'll give up caffeine. Just so my dependency goes down and I can enjoy it again. It's really not all that hard usually for me.

Funny this thread was revived. I'm on my second week sans caffeine now. I'm not addicted to coffee, but having 5-8 large cups of coffee at work wasn't good for my stress level or mood when I came home.

I usually take a couple of "white weeks" each year, but this is the first time I've suspected the caffeine to affect my mood.

It could be a coincident, but I feel much calmer during the evenings now and my "fuse" isn't that short. A welcome change as I was beginning to fell like "Angry dad" the moment I came home from work.

My goal is to go without caffeine until Christmas- It's (almost) impossible to stay away from coffee during all the visits, cakes and good food :)

i dont need coffee anymore but i remember the happy jittery days of finals that are once again looming. i would use redbull but the b12 give me massive headaches.

At home I usually prepare a few cups in the morning, drink them before noon. On rare occasions I forget, skipping one day usually gives me headache the next day.

At work I drink many cups during the evening. I drink not more than a liter per day. Is that a lot?

I'm now on another round of scaling back.

• Coffee: all stop. Though I may have an espresso in the morning on weekends.

• Tea: green mainly—double-brewed, so half of what I drink is virtually caffeine free. One oolong or Darjeeling here or there.

I've been drinking up to 3 or 4 cups of coffee per day lately, and it's been taking its toll on me. I figure my caffeine intake has been up past 400 or 500 mg/day. It's likely now around 100 mg/day, which is less than a cup of coffee.

My last full caffeine day was Sunday.

It feels like someone punched me in the forehead.

I've gone from two to four coke zeros and plenty of hot tea almost cold turkey to a cup of green tea in the morning and maybe one diet coke in the afternoon for two days, since arriving at my conference. It sucks major balls. I'm already sicker than I was before leaving, but the caffeine withdrawal really stinks, when added to the sinus headache and sore throat. It's the $2 price tag on the 20oz diet coke that is enforcing my withdrawal. We get a few sodas in the afternoon for free and all the tea we can drink, but I'm trying to do more herbal... I just pee like every hour or two :lol:

I am up to 5 cups of coffee per day, so If I cease caffeine consumption, I am going to take a 2 week vacation so I don't flip out and kill someone. So, I suppose a vacation should be in order, huh?

I find that even a 1 month absence from coffee does not free me from Caffeine's grasp. I'm a lost cause.

I've never been able to handle caffeine very well, but I've been craving it a lot lately. Working long hours definitely makes me feel like I need it more!

caffeinated kid
 

When I was around 11 years old, my parents both left for work in the morning and left me with around half a pot of coffee of which I usually drank a few cups. I didn't care about the caffeine, to me, it was a sweet drink that was somethin hot to drink on a cold morning. And of course I loaded it up with sugar and creamer.

But the habit didnt stick, I dont drink coffee now nor caffeinated sodas either, but I dont mind caffeine in my soda, its just that I cant stand carbonation in any soft drink. If you hand me a pepsi, I will shake it up until all carbonation is gone, then drink it. So since I never buy carbonated drinks, I avoid the caffeine by accident, because the sprorts drinks and juice drinks I buy, just dont happen to have caffeine.

I have never drunk coffee/tea but I found myself drinking more and more normal coke every day over a few months recently, ended up drinking a 1.5/2L a day...

Yea, that's great for the health and teeth.

Got real pissed off when I couldn't have some and had headaches, first time in my life I have been physically addicted to something and it sucked.

14 days now, just stopped it completely and drank water instead. It would become stupidly hot and leave me dieing for a nice cold glass of it.

Still wish for the fizzy feeling but don't miss the taste of coke.

Nope, won't join ya on this one. I have my coffee ritual...I get up an hour early just to drink coffee, get focused and plan my day. I drink two mugs of steaming hot 'half-caf' coffee. I haven't found that I need more over time to get the same effect - I've been drinking the exact same amount for years. It's really the warmth and the texture I enjoy more than anything.

If I do drink any coffee after breakfast, it's decaf though. And I don't drink pop with caffeine or tea. Too much caffeine will make me jittery. Only water the rest of the day, maybe a diet Sprite once or twice a week.

What's in the carbonated drinks, you don't like? We have recently bought a sodamachine and it's very handy. I like carbonated waters, it doesn't have to be coke or any other flavor, but if you add the flavor, it has less sugar than in sodas you buy from store.

I never drink energy drinks, but I can't quit coffee. I've tried drinking more decaf rooibus tea in the evenings. I don't put any sugar in tea or coffee anymore - it takes a while to get used to the taste without the sugar.

bubbles
 

carbonation - I just dont like to drink liquids that have little bubbles in them.

I just know someone, who didn't want to drink soda, because it makes him burp and he thought that if he burps he will puke. No matter how much pain he had in stomach, he refused to burp.

Well, I find fizzy drinks fine just for that reason: burping often helps in stomach problems.

Day 3: my withdrawal headache is gone, but I think my adrenal system is correcting itself. I feel sluggish, but I'm not really craving caffeine. I think I'm just floating through the day without the usual chemical reactions brought on by high caffeine intake: adrenaline, adenosine, cortisol, etc....

I've gone through this before. By the weekend, there's a good chance I'll have a sleep marathon to move beyond this stage.

I'm still many years off of caffeine. It is amazing how fast the grip returns, however. A couple of weeks ago I stopped into an office, had a cup of coffee. Had a glass of iced tea with lunch. The next morning, I had a lack-of-caffeine headache.