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I haven't quit caffeine... because I'm working on quitting sugar.

So I drink coffee, black.

Coffee has become a really different experience without anything added (sugar or creamer).

All of a sudden the roast really matters (I like medium). and the brand really matters.

As for caffeine, this is how I do it: 1 "normal" coffee in the morning, then decaf from then on.

The normal coffee usually tastes better than decaf. (and a bad decaf tastes like bottled cancer - I swear I'm drinking turpentine)

I treat decaf like it's benign but my friends remind me - "decaf does not mean caffeine free".

That said, I think quitting sugar is harder than quitting caffeine.

> That said, I think quitting sugar is harder than quitting caffeine.

It is, your intestinal bacteria take that sugar and secrete opioid receptor chemicals - i may be off, but between wheat, sugar, and i think corn your gut bacteria basically control your life.

This is why people crave cake and sweets when they go on a low carb / low calorie diet, it's not because they're hungry, it's because they're changing the other half of their brain chemistry through the destruction of their gut bacteria.

It's not a bad thing to destroy the gut bacteria you don't really want to have so much of.

Been on keto for the last 3 months. Can confirm. However once I got over the carb cravings I have a markedly lower appetite. I eat 1-2 meals per day now where on no restrictions I was hungry every 4 hours like clockwork

Gotta fast now and then to keep them in line.

Alton Brown suggested adding a tiny pinch of salt to coffee instead of sugar. I like it, it takes the edge off the bitterness without an explicit "salty" flavor.

I’ve used baking soda in tiny doses (a flake) before too. It or salt helps especially with decaf coffees.

Good luck and stay strong, sugar is highly addictive...

You’re right. Quitting caffeine is easy. I did it at least twenty times in 2020 alone.

Serious question: why do you start back up? What do you miss about it? I had a 5-6/day habit towards the end, and all I really look back on is (1) having it be impossible to get moving in the morning, (2) insomnia, and (3) headaches.

> (2) insomnia

Unfortunately for me, this is a feature.

Even when I go a week to a month without caffeine, I tend to stay up late, but not late enough to get things done.

However, if I drink something caffeinated, then I can turn that into staying up late enough to work while it's quiet, and I become much more productive.

There are other reasons as well, however they are more specific to my personal scenario, and not really generally applicable. If you're curious, I'd be happy to talk about them in some other way, but not in a public forum. (My email is in my bio if anyone's interested.)

Not OP, but I quit for months in 2020.

What happened for me was winter. I was waking up at 7, running every day in the morning, working on a project before work. Then winter hit and seasonal depression makes it hard.

So now I'm waking up earlier, and doing more work, but I'm using coffee again....

How much coffee were you drinking? I have 1-2 cups a day (for many years) and always felt fine.

I drink 2-3 carafes a day and I feel fine. More when I'm taking amphetamine.

The body is too effective at regulating anything that feels good.

Lets talk again about that in 10 years will you.

Been doing it for 15 years.

We'll see if the trick is to eat healthy and exercise instead of doing neither and then acting like it's the coffee that's going to kill you.

Are you sure all of these issues are directly resulted by caffeine intake? Two years ago I had to quit caffeine for some time (medical issues) and it turned out that my sleep problems where (are) mostly related to the lack of physical activity and stress. Of course if several of those 5-6 cups were late at the day, then yeah, that might impact your quality of sleep, but regular morning cup of coffee shouldn't cause such issues considering caffeine half life is ~5 hours.

My comment was meant as a play on the old Mark Twain† bit about quitting smoking. I also now realize I misread your comment as saying quitting was "easy" when you said it's "easily one of the best quality of life decisions".

In reality I have quit caffeine and gone back to it. I didn't see the same benefits as you. After a few days of adjusting, I felt about the same as before. The only difference was I didn't get to enjoy a morning coffee anymore.

† It probably wasn't really by Mark Twain.

Don't forget the other effects of caffeine. It raises blood pressure. Hypertension is called the silent killer with good reason. I've quit caffeine 3 times now. This last time was at my doctors recommendation (slightly elevated BP).

It really helped along with not drinking all the gunk in soda. Since then, I've cut salt intake, sugar binging, and set aside 30 minutes most days to get the heart rate up. I'm no "health nut" but after breaking my sedentary habits, I do feel better than I have in a long time.

I quite several times over the years, one time as long as 6 months. I go back, ultimately, because I love the flavor.

That said, I would never work as early as 9am if I didn't have to. Caffeine allows me to jumpstart my brain for programming. I need coffee in particular: tea sustains but doesn't jumpstart.

Exercise first thing in the morning can act as a substitute for coffee in getting my brain jumpstarted. While I find it easy to exercise at 6:30-7am in the Summer and Fall, Winter and Spring in southern New England suck. At 6:30am, it's often dark, 10-20F, windy, and damp. It's an area made for depressions. I can't see ever giving up coffee while I live here.

It's important to point out that about every decade you're going to have to adapt your diet and exercise to meet changes in your body. I'm 53 now. When I don't exercise at least 5x/week I start to have sleeping issues. Alcohol affects me more, especially my sleep. Carb bombing happens with a portion of half the amount I could eat 10 years ago. Back to coffee, I have 2 espressos in the morning and, occasionally, one after lunch but never after 2pm. Breaking any of those coffee "rules" causes me hypertension, sleep loss, and/or a sour stomach.

Sorry for the tome. Hopefully some of it is useful.

IIRC academic studies have shown that people don’t ”love the flavor”; rather, they misattribute to flavor the craving they have for the neuropsychological effects of their preferred substances.

I tried black coffee for short durations and hated it. So, I'm willing to say my experience follows the conclusion of the study.

However, people have wide variations in what they taste (and smell) as pleasurable. Without reading the study, I have a hard time being as binary as "nobody likes the taste of coffee".

That’s nothing, I quit caffeine at least three times a day :-p

> † Not health! My alcohol and nicotine affinities will attest to how little health has to do with any of this! I literally just mean life is more pleasant without the caffeine.

That's intriguing, could you expand on that? What about life is different, nevermind more pleasant, with or without caffeine?

For me I felt more rested and alert upon opening my eyes in the morning, since that was no longer the peak withdrawal time. And not riding a rollercoaster of cortisol all day made it easier to choose my own mind state, e.g. meditation or reflection vs. action and anxiety.

> For me, 95% of the trick was just finding a good decaf.

Is there such thing as a good decaf though? All the ones I have ever tried had an horrible chemical-like taste.

Have you tried a swiss water decaf from a serious third+ wave coffee place? Are you grinding? I hear decaf described as "weak" or "brothy", but not as "chemical" or "solvent-y". I pollute coffee with some cream (but no sugar) and I don't know that I could triangle-test-detect a good decaf.

+1 to Swiss water decaf.

I use Campos (in Australia) decaf, though I blend that with their regular blend.

1kg of decaf to 500g of their regular blend, giving me a 1/3 strength that I grind and use in either an aeropress or v60.

I moved to this, as near the start of the lockdown / wfh here I was drinking 4-5 regular aeropresses in a day with the caffeine impacting my sleep.

This new mix is much better - I have my ritual and nice coffee, and i can go off it for days without hitting the withdrawal.

This. If you’re in the US, Blue Bottle is easy to get in the mail if not in most cities. Vertigo is another brand making my current favorite, it’s more complex than 80% of even caffeinated 3+ wave coffees. Those are if you drink black / medium roast. If you use cream, any Starbucks or Philz decaf is pretty good these days too.

I’ve been enjoying folgers decaf made with an aeropress.

look for coffee that's been decaffeinated via the Swiss water method - it typically ends up tasting like normal coffee without quite the bite.

Just started my coffee quitting journey 2 weeks back! Partly for health reasons, but also because I noticed that I am quite dependent on it.

Right now, I’m limiting caffeine intake to a cup each of decaf and low caffeine tea per day.

It hasn’t been too hard to be honest, but maybe the withdrawal symptoms haven’t fully kicked in yet. We’ll see.

My guess is you're going to be fine and that you're through whatever withdrawal you're going to deal with. I go through stretches where I have some decaf every day, and I never even have to think about stopping; there is zero withdrawal from it.

> For dependent users --- which I think is most users? --- a big part of the "benefit" of caffeine is just the cessation of withdrawal symptoms.

This is quite the claim and I do not agree at all. I do not get withdrawal symptoms from caffeine. And I sleep better than basically anyone I know.

When did you last go for 2 weeks without any coffee or cigarettes?

I started with going from coffee to black tea, which is supposedly about half the caffeine... now I just skip tea sometimes. maybe i’ll stop it completely

Green tea would be a good next step - a bit less caffeine (although I'm sure this could vary between brands) but still satisfies the need for a nice warm drink. I've been having green tea for many months now (after quitting coffee) and I'm not even sure it's worth stopping - I don't get any of the anxiety that I'd get with coffee, for example.

Green tea can totally have more caffeine than coffee, especially if you re-brew like many people do. But the theanine in tea takes the anxious edge off.

I quit all caffeine this year myself but I do miss the rich taste of coffee. Which brand did you go with for your decaf?

My brother roasts professionally and I just get his mailed to me, but I really like Intelligentsia's decaf.

I may give it a shot. Cheers!