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The Rise of Coffee
- ruffrey 7y agoArticle is from 2008
- starpilot 7y agoI'm so glad I'm not dependent.
- foota 7y agoIt's pretty easy to break through the physiological symptoms of caffeine withdrawal, but more difficult to stick to not drinking it, I find.
- sin7 7y agoThe headaches are pretty bad.
- jborichevskiy 7y agoCan confirm. Went from drinking 2-3 cups a day to no coffee about a week ago and the headaches were very bad for a solid two days. As in, lay on the bed feeling like an unproductive potato bad. That was the worst of it though. By day 4 everything felt back to normal. Hoping to keep this up for at least a month or two.
- lvturner 7y agoI went from seven cups+ a day to zero caffeine - I was most surprised that I didn't suffer any sort of physical withdrawal - I was anticipating immense suffering.
- meej 7y agoI used a product called Wean Caffeine to successfully avoid the headaches. It steps you down by 10mg every three days. For anyone wanting to quit, I highly recommend. https://www.weancaffeine.com/ https://www.weancaffeine.com/
- mrfusion 7y agoWow I had this exact idea for a product a few months ago. I’m glad someone is already doing it.
- mrfusion 7y agoIt’s a shame they start at 100mg. I think I’d need to start at 200-300mg. I guess I’d have to buy three packs and then use regular caffeine pills to fill in. Gets a little pricey though. Such an awesome idea though.
- foota 7y agoYeah, I've gone through them. Often times it starts on a Saturday afternoon since I don't drink coffee as frequently on weekends.
- asdff 7y agoHaving been addicted to caffeine and nicotine I found the migranes were equivalent, only with nicotine it would be every 30 minutes after injesting rather than 5 hours. In both cases they were gone after about a week or two, but I could see how it would be difficult for people who have an easy time smoking (low vs high sin taxes, happen to be at places where you can smoke all the time like your own car and home vs. a restrictive apartment and public transit, whether or not your friends also smoke all the time). My addiction was only for about 2-3 years, too, not half a lifetime like with some people.
- foota 7y agoGod that sounds like hell.
- Cyph0n 7y agoI find that the unique taste is what keeps me hooked, and not the caffeine. When Ramadan comes around, it only takes me a few days to get used to not having a morning coffee.
- ip26 7y agoThere's good parts & bad parts. I can get ornery without it, but I really like having something I look forward to so much.
- suprfsat 7y agoGiven practice you could probably get ornery with it too.
- beatgammit 7y agoHaving never gotten into the habit, I just don't see the point. I understand that some people feel like they need it to function properly, but isn't that easily solved by getting more sleep? Instead of staying up late doing things, I just go to bed and do those things in the morning. I find I don't waste as much time and I'm excited to wake up. Rolling out of bed is much easier when video games or a good book is waiting for me. I guess coffee could fill that, but I guess it's not as interesting to me as a hobby.
- ip26 7y agoThere is no more point than there is to alcohol, tea, or sweets. It's mostly just for enjoyment- perhaps together with a good book. Caffeine can also be employed strategically for exceptional circumstances, but that's a less common application.
- idnefju 7y agoThe next on the list for me is discarding refined sugar products.
- asdff 7y agoAny basic budget advice says to cut starbucks out of your life and make your $5 latte at home, but why stop there? Caffeine pills work out to $0.05/cup-equivalent, aren't going to make you take bathroom trips, aren't going to give you bad breath, and aren't going to stain your teeth. I usually keep a few in my pocket in case I get randomly drowsy in a meeting or if I'm driving far. I haven't looked back, and I used to pull my own espresso and roast my beans.
- sergiotapia 7y agoI drink coffee for the taste, not the buzz!
- sjg007 7y agoSo decaf then?
- tobias2014 7y agoAbsolutely! But it's not easy to find good whole bean decaf coffee.
- zepto 7y agoHow do they not make you take bathroom trips? Caffeine is a diuretic.
- TheSpiceIsLife 7y agoThis probably affects people differently. I know people who can have coffee and fall asleep immediately afterwards, and have little to none urinary symptoms at all; and other people who’ll not sleep and / or need to pee frequently.
- eyegor 7y agoPersonally, I find tea to be a much stronger diuretic. Even herbal tea (zero caffeine). Coffee used to cause diuretic symptoms, until I reached the point where I drank it every day. I drink tea most days now, but the diuretic effects never subsided. /rant. Bodies are weird.
- Merrill 7y agoCoffee (and tea) have some antimicrobial action. They made it safer to drink the water, and did not have the disadvantages of the other alternative, alcoholic drinks.
- sjg007 7y agoThat’s because you have to boil the water.
- Merrill 7y agoVarious compounds, including caffeine, that are present in coffee beans have antimicrobial properties. Additional Maillard reaction products that have antimicrobial properties are created by roasting. Coffee is also pretty acidic - IIRC, dorm cafeteria coffee turned chem lab blue litmus paper a pretty red.
- peterwwillis 7y agoThey do have some antimicrobial effects, but the "made it safe to drink water because nobody in the world could find clean drinking water until the 19th century" idea is a myth. Mainly people drank different things for different purposes. Water was clarifying, ale, whisky and tea were fortifying (beer was basically a source of calories), wine got you closer to the gods, coffee basically got you high / was an energy drink. Tea was the most popular socially-stimulating drink until coffee supplanted it (and in Muslim nations you couldn't drink alcohol)
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoExcept it's not a myth. For centuries mead, ale or small (low alcohol) beer were the standard drinks throughout the day, occasionally cider from crab and wild apples for the poorest. Wine for those with a little more means. Tea and coffee were for the wealthy until the 19th century, and something to add the drug of choice, sugar, to. Something for the great and the good in the tea rooms and coffee houses of London, until they arrived in huge quantities bringing prices down to commodity level. Awareness of microbes, boiling for sterility, and water treatment was a long time coming. Water was clean if far enough upstream, or you had a pristine well. In towns and cities, forget it. :)
- peterwwillis 7y agoOn my desktop, approx. 1/5th of the screen is taken up by a giant top banner for American Scientist, and two paragraphs don't fit on the page. Why do people design websites like this?
- keyle 7y agoSometimes the designer was paid too much and indulged in make my logo bigger cream. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgcX0y1Nzhs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgcX0y1Nzhs /s
- LargoLasskhyfv 7y agoLooks good to me. https://imgur.com/a/zVSSdMa https://imgur.com/a/zVSSdMa
- deepakb358 7y agoThe huge variety of unique flavors in coffee from different origins is quite amazing and even now just beginning to be explored. You can now create specific flavors in real time by roasting, grinding and brewing every cup robotically with advanced algorithms at www.sevacoffee.com
- oITAZt 7y agoThat machine is very interesting! If you own one of them, would you mind sharing how roast chamber works? I've thought a bit about how that could be done in a fully-automated fashion, but I'm curious to see what solution they came up with.
- Stratoscope 7y agoRoasting immediately before brewing is not a great idea. I've been roasting my own beans for 20 years, and one of the first things I learned is that hardly any beans are at their best right after roasting. Freshly roasted is OK, but the beans are outgassing for some time after that. 2-3 days rest after roasting improves the flavor of just about any coffee, especially the fruity dry process Ethiopians I like. Feel free to email me (address in profile) if you'd like to talk about home roasting - always happy to kick it around with anyone interested. Also visit https://www.sweetmarias.com/ https://www.sweetmarias.com/ for lots of information about green coffee and roasting, grinding, and brewing equipment. (I am not affiliated with them at all, just a long time customer.)