What always brings me back to coffee is that I find myself in a generally mild depressive state when I'm not drinking it. Coffee makes me feel happy.
I like my coffee black and full of flavor. Working in the oilfield, I discovered Community Coffee's New Orleans blend of coffee with chicory. Chicory was used as a coffee substitute back in the day though it has no caffeine. It does have flavor. You can buy that from Community Coffee company and give it a taste.
If you live in the US and want to try something domestic that you may be able to grow yourself then go to your garden supply and buy a yaupon holly. Don't get the dwarf yaupon unless you want to landscape. Get the standard yaupon bush/tree.
It is the only plant native to North America that produces caffeine. It is dead simple to dry the leaves and make a caffeinated tea. It is also evergreen so you can have fresh tea leaves year round though after this year's hard freeze, the trees I have are setting new leaves since the old ones were frozen and dead.
There also vendors selling yaupon tea leaves online if you wanted to try before you buy.
I sometimes trade my cuppa Joe for a cuppa Joe-Bob (the natural name for a coffee substitute that grows in the southern US along the Gulf Coast.)
They also have controlled release mechanisms and are available in therapeutic doses.
It is not the same thing as buying however much you want of a significantly stronger stimulant and taking and instant hit.
And to anyone not prescribed those medications that are obtaining them for recreational usage, you make an already difficult life of ADHDers much worse, as some are denied an effective, life-changing treatment because of this.
Because it's certainly far easier to get in pure form on the black market compared to other amphetamines.
However, tea leaves are safe for consumption, so you could eat them instead (for example as a salad).
Another possibility is that coffee enforces some level of ritual and regularity into my mornings. Since I have a physical dependency on it, I'll go out of my way each morning to get caffeine and usually induce some tangential benefit, whether that be by brewing some coffee (benefit - I usually make breakfast while waiting on it to brew), by going to a coffee shop (benefit - I go for a walk), or by taking preworkout (benefit - I get a workout in).
So I guess if I was able to be super consistent about some alternative positive morning ritual (like a physical warm up) maybe it would fix the problem of feeling more depressed when not drinking it.
I've considered experimenting more with matcha and yerba mate.
The happy medium for me, and YMMV, but I find now that half-caf is quite satisfying and less sleep-disruptive.
Following the irreparable failure of my poorly designed and manufactured drip coffee machine, I tried the French press and kettle I'd bought for a camping trip years back and, after that trip fell through, never found occasion to use. The coffee was much better, with a creamy taste and mouthfeel that I'd never experienced before in the beverage, so I didn't bother replacing the drip machine. About a month later, I had my first gallstone.
Since then, I've been using a paper filter - the same cheap recycled ones I used in the drip machine - along with the mesh and plate filters that come with the press. It cost me the creaminess that came with the oils which a paper filter removes, but that first gallstone has also so far been my last, so it's a trade I'm happy to make. Kidney stones are much worse, as I have also had the misfortune to learn, but that doesn't make gallstones pleasant.
That said, even with the paper filter, the coffee's still quite a bit better. Between that, my newfound mistrust of drip machine engineering, and the pleasant physicality that assembling, using, and cleaning the press provides in my morning routine, I expect to stick with it indefinitely.
(You can see the difference between filtered and unfiltered coffee. Unfiltered, it has a deep golden sheen caused by light reflecting from tiny droplets of oil emulsified throughout the liquid. Quite lovely to look at, and very pleasant to drink - until one or another of your organs packs up under the load. Given how easy it would seem for oils already so dispersed to enter the bloodstream, I suppose I'm lucky it was just my gallbladder complaining, and not my heart...)
This is super subjective, but I think what "sold" me on the Aeropress was how no-fuss the teardown is compared to anything else I've tried or researched. Everything gets compressed into a dry little puck and it only takes a moment to "pop" into the compost bin. It's nice not to have to worry about the extra work anymore.
My gf drinks french press but it's too weak for me.