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totally agree with grandma : nothing wrong with a second, decaf brew. my grandma, in the old times, used the burned crust from the home made bread for the morning coffee. peasants could not afford real coffee. it was similar to chicory coffee, not too bad.

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If you drink coffee for the hit, then it's pointless.

I'll occasionally brew a cup of decaf or half-caf if I'm looking for a small perk in the evening but don't want to risk being up too late. Possibly an addiction thing (pavlov's bitter brew?) or possibly just the nature of the bitter flavor.

Never underestimate the placebo effect

The placebo effect works because the user thinks it's genuine, no?

This can only be a patial explanation of the effect since it is known to occur even when the patient is informed that the substance is inactive.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo#Mechanisms

Maybe there is something akin to belief in the belief, i.e. "I'm not religious but will pray for god or whomever in dire situations". The mind is a weird thing and truth is, we don't have a good understanting of what's going on with the placebo effect.

More like pavlovian conditioning; the body gets the pre-caffeine signal (the taste of coffee) and gets to work.

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