I have tried numerous times to quit coffee because of the caffeine, but don’t tend to last longer than a month. Usually it’s just a few days. Intentions count for something, right? Since it seems the majority of America consists of caffeine addicts, including coffee drinkers like me, the usual response to my trying to quit is “WHY???”
Because, deep down, and somewhat on the surface of who I am, I don’t WANT to be addicted to anything, even caffeine.
It doesn’t help that there are articles promoting the benefits of coffee nearly as often as there are articles saying it’s bad for us. I believe the ones who say that it’s bad for us, but I like the ones that say it’s good.
Before you say, “just drink decaf!” read up on how they decaffeinate the coffee beans.
“In the direct method, the coffee beans are first steamed for 30 minutes and then repeatedly rinsed with either dichloromethane or ethyl acetate for about 10 hours. The solvent is then drained away and the beans steamed for an additional 10 hours to remove residual solvent.”- Wikipedia
No thanks!
I am looking for a Middle Way approach. I have tried various strategies, and none have worked for sure, but right now I’m thinking of alternating coffee and tea days. Perhaps the tea will be a tisane, naturally decaf. I got hooked on drinking a specific small business brand of teas called Joy’s Teaspoon a year or so ago and loaded up on a LOT of tea, all of it delicious. It kind of ruined most store brands for me, honestly. I’m running low on Almond Cookie, and that needs to be remedied.
I’m not going to commit to anything at the moment, but who knows, perhaps that will help me eventually give coffee the boot. Or at the very least, let coffee hang around the fringes of my existence, a once-in-a-while indulgence.
One reply on “Coffee transfusions”
I like your idea of slowly tapering coffee vs. just dropping it cold turkey. Who likes cold turkey?