Probably OT, Thinking of Quitting Caffeine

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 9:31 am

Jon C. wrote:Also, NOT drinking coffee is supposed to help sharpen the mind and I forgot what else... Better have a cup...

Efficiency in the workplace would drop by about 30% if employees didn't have their coffee fix. Then, they might have to start going to bed earlier to make up for it (and get some real sleep!).

Irish Coffee: devout Democrat, coffee and wine drinker has sharp mind, dies at 110, Sequim, WA

More precisely: How did Eva Fridell get to be 110 and still able to chortle at a subtle joke? Without losing her thick hair? With so little change in her heart that this year's EKG looked like a photocopy of one taken 20 years ago?

Fridell, who lives in Sequim, never dieted. She never gulped handfuls of antioxidants. Perhaps there's a clue in a sparkly bottle of Crown Royal whiskey, sent by admirers who learned of her fondness for happy hour. "That's good stuff!" she says with a twinkle.

And she didn't mind a bawdy limerick thrown her way, especially on her favorite special day, St. Patrick's Day. She always put on her green suit and had an Irish coffee to celebrate, said her family. "She liked her little happy hour."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/165 ... ell23.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... g13m0.html

elizabeth · Post by **elizabeth** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 11:15 am

My gosh, this is a long OT thread, but I just can't help myself: I cut way way back on coffee-drinking and feel much better for it. As a woman entering her 50's, it did me a lot of good: fewer nasty "mood swings", better sleep, happier gastro-intestinal system. Ok, I still like chocolate too much, and I do drink tea (hard to find good tea in the USA). But tea doesn't mess me up the way coffee did. Sometimes I go to Chinatown in boston and stock up. Anyone visiting me from the UK only has to bring a box of supermarket tea to make me happy (Sainsbury's in the red box). Once in a while I have a cup of coffee if I'm sure it will be GOOD coffee (eg: not the stuff at work or from Dunkin') and I don't worry about it. Just regard it as a special treat.

Here's to ya,

Elizabeth

Jon C. · Post by **Jon C.** » Sun Mar 28, 2004 12:34 am

Lorenzo,
You are so right about the wheels of industry slowing down without coffee, but it would be nice to get a good nights sleep!

Just when I thought about quiting, someone just gave me a nice Italian Estro Profi expresso machine, that grinds and loads the shots for you!
Now I have to try this one out...

Jon

Monster · Post by **Monster** » Sun Mar 28, 2004 10:04 am

My Postum experiment has just gone down badly, 1st day, headache but endurable, 2nd day terrible lack of energy, 3rd day, coudn't stand it went back to coffee. I will try quitting again, but this time will ease into it with some half-caff coffee, (coffee with half the amount of caffeine) when I get down to 1 cup of that per day I'm thinking I should be able to stop altogether.

Hats off to those who are able to quit!

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » Sun Mar 28, 2004 2:28 pm

Jon C. wrote:Lorenzo,
You are so right about the wheels of industry slowing down without coffee, but it would be nice to get a good nights sleep!
Just when I thought about quiting, someone just gave me a nice Italian Estro Profi expresso machine, that grinds and loads the shots for you!
Now I have to try this one out... Jon

You can find a review of this machine at http://www.coffeegeek.com/reviews/consu ... glashoppah (even though it's listed under Starbuck's Barista). Looks like a very decent machine.

An important point is that with this kind of machine, you really need to use freshly roasted coffee to get the best results. As the review says, "You can spend zillions on a fancy machine and if your beans are 6-week old Starbucks French Roast your coffee will suck."

It's worth pointing out, by the way, that (real) espresso tends to have much less caffeine than drip coffee.

You might also find some useful info on my espresso page at http://www.coastalfog.net/espresso/espresso_main.html

Steven · Post by **Steven** » Mon Mar 29, 2004 9:08 am

elizabeth wrote:I do drink tea (hard to find good tea in the USA).

Elizabeth--
I don't drink tea myself (or coffee either, although I sure do love Coca-Cola!). My wife, however, loves tea, and also complained about the difficulty of getting good tea until she discovered Upton Tea Imports. Go to their website or get their catalog. More tea than you could drink in a lifetime!

Steven

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Mon Mar 29, 2004 10:20 am

I am pretty sure tea has more caffeine than most coffee but it's somehow timed release. I have been off caffeine for almost a year btw. I miss tea more because I still drink good de-caf coffee and de-caf tea is gutless. As for good tea, the best bet is too find a middle Eastern shop where you can often find good strong tea in bulk for a low cost. And the shops usually have high turnover so its fresh. I used to go to Iranian places around here for good, robust cheap tea.

If yer high-strung, caffeine is just bad for you. And many many musicians are high strung.

The few times I have slipped, consciously or not, it's back to the old thing of getting too voluble, saying things in haste that I regret later.

I sincerely believe that chronic caffeine use puts you out of touch with your own natural energy cycles by substituting them with a drug high that then wears off. And the problem is, you have a parallel thing going on with carbohydrates. Zip up, then crash and burn - the donut syndrome. Because of your bodily function of turning foods to sugar, the only way to be sensitive to what is going on with your energy levels (and to accurately gauge hunger instead of confusing it with dehydration or your drug wearing off) is to get off of stimulants. That's why Atkins makes you quit caffeine and drink lots of water.

It has really helped me sleep better and have more STEADY energy throughout the day. In my caffeine lifestyle, I had a huge dip every afternoon at 5. So of course I had to have a pint glass of brewed tea ...

I do miss the sense of inspiration. Used to write songs and stuff in the throes of coffee highs. But, I rarely finished anything before the effect wore off. I think I am more productive now.

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » Mon Mar 29, 2004 4:14 pm

The Weekenders wrote:I am pretty sure tea has more caffeine than most coffee but it's somehow timed release.

Having been on home-brewed cappuccinos for about three years, a large cup of tea-bag tea can give me the jitters, even though I'm careful about just letting the bag sit in th hot water for a few minutes, then whisking it out to the trash. Drip coffee on an empty stomach isn't a good idea, either. On the other hand, a couple of cups of properly brewed espresso doesn't bother me at all.

My brother-in-law, in Taiwan, has a different problem with tea. He has, for reasons that I don't understand, decided that the proper way to brew tea is to let it soak for a bit, pour it out, add more hot water, then do it again. In other words, he first washes all the flavor out of it and gets the tannic acid nice and strong before he drinks it. The last time I was there, I avoided telling him that I thought that he was insane. He's so proud of it, but it tastes terrible. Anyhow, he now has severe digestive problems, which I'm convinced are caused by the tannic acid. He drinks lots of that tea, too--pot after pot when he's home.

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Mon Mar 29, 2004 4:54 pm

Geez, Mike, you are so polite. Insane, indeed!... I like the Brit formula of five minutes, but since they started cutting tea too fine, you get too much dust for your wait sometimes. I heard there is ONE brand left somewhere that still has the tea in larger leaf pieces.

When I lived in India, the patriarch of the family, a former Indian Civil Servant, used to keep his watch nearby counting the minutes before we could pour and drink.