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Comment by terhechte | Hacker News Reader

I quit Coffee/Caffeine around twice a year for the amount of around 3 - 5 weeks for some sort of cleaning of the system. It is always awful, I get bad headaches, I feel tired, I can't concentrate, I basically loose 1-2 days of productivity. However, after that, I start slowly, only with one espresso per day, and then gradually move back up until I hit the 5 cups a day again, and that's when I quit cold turkey again.

I do agree that my body feels great when I'm not drinking coffee, however I like the taste of it so much, that I always have to fall back to it. Still going cold turkey twice a year feels good.

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> I like the taste of it so much, that I always have to fall back to it

I find decaf actually helps with this. I like both the taste and the ritual of coffee, but don't like the jitters it gives me if I have more than one or two cups a day. So I typically switch to decaf after the first cup, and still enjoy the rest.

Unfortunately this was easier to do before I moved from California to Denmark. Here it's easier to find nonalcoholic beer (every supermarket carries it) than decaf coffee (fewer than half do), and it seems to be regarded with a degree of cultural suspicion.

I'm also having decaf every couple of days out of the same reason. For what it's worth, the Nespresso from Nestle has really good decaf espressos. They taste very close to a normal espresso. Half the time I'm using my Nespresso only for decaf (my normal coffee is usually handpicked local-roasted that I prepare in a french press). Nespresso also has three different decaf variants.

Where do you get ones that you like? Do you check expiration or something like it so as to get fresher ones? I've only ever found them awful. We have a machine at work that I avoid, but I'd experiment if I had hope.

Yep, i am drinking mostly Nespresso decaf for the same reason, they almost taste like the real deal and let me avoid too much caffeine.

Try getting www.hasbean.co.uk to ship you their decaf.

I think they ship to Europe, and their decaf coffee is the best I've found anywhere in the world. (I'm a serious coffee snob, as the PID-controlled kettle currently reaching 92C in my kitchen will attest.)

Did you try Illy coffee? It's believed to be among the best coffees in the world. The best, if you ask me.

Yes, I'm familiar with Illy. It's one of the better mass-market coffee brands, but it can't compete with a fresh roast from a speciality roaster. The freshness alone makes a huge difference.

Having said that, if you like the coffee that it produces, that's all that matters!

Thanks! They do indeed seem to ship to the continent. Found this blog post about one of their decafs: http://www.hasblog.co.uk/imparting-taste-and-decaf-process

I've been drinking the decaf they talk about in that article today, and it's absolutely ace - it's pretty good for a coffee, and stunning for a decaf. Give it a go!

Agree. Decaf allows you to get the taste without the caffeine. Although I read a study said that the taste of beer alone can release a bunch of dopamine because of the memory of what's about to come next (alcohol). I think the same thing happens with taste of coffee and caffeine because when I started drinking decaf I noticed my appreciation of the taste of coffee went down a little.

It's interesting to consider what the enjoyment would be like if I only drank decaf. I typically drink decaf after caffeinated coffee; for example, if I'm at a coffee shop working for some hours, I'll have a caffeinated coffee or two to start, then switch to decaf. If I drank only decaf, it's quite possible the experience could change. For me its main use is to allow me to keep up a habit of sipping periodically on coffee for hours, which I enjoy, without getting really jittery from 5-6 cups of coffee, which I don't.

Fun fact: decaf actually has some caffeine in it [1], and is probably the factor in how it helps the transition from a caffeine fueled lifestyle to general normalcy.

[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17132260

I start slowly, only with one espresso per day, and then gradually move back up until I hit the 5 cups a day again

Sometimes it's not the substance itself, but the amount; have you tried differing amounts, or limiting to only certain times of day? What you describe sounds like a roller coaster to me (albeit not as severe as some I've seen).

EDIT: My personal story: used to drink tons of coffee in hight school; had heart palpitations, quit; used to drink tons of Dr. Pepper through college; decided to quit due to sugar and phosphoric acid; used to drink tons of tea late in college and after; stopped when I stopped working from home. Nowadays, it's one cup (perhaps 16 floz at most) of coffee and one cup of tea per day, always before noon - it has to be fresh ground coffee and good loose tea, though. Has health benefits and doesn't make me jittery, can quit or take a hiatus any time I want, or double down on a slow day. Moderation, with the occasional variation.

Yeah, I should really try that, to force myself to just one or two cups a day and fill up the rest with decaf or tea. I switched over to chai with soy milk for some time, but somehow that didn't last. I also tried some substitutes like more soy milk, but nothing in that area really felt as satisfactory as a good old cup of joe.

Multivitamins and Piracetam for you, my friend. No headaches, only a bit of dullness/tiredness.

Headaches is a common side effect with racetams unless you get a decent amount of choline; most people who supplement with piracetam etc. tends to supplement choline in some form such as alpha-gpc as well to avoid it.

I know the effects vary considerably, in my case it just happened to help me get rid of any headaches - travel, stress, caffeine withdrawal, lack of sleep, everything that used to give me a headache now doesn't (except for a hammer to the head :-). It's pretty weird, and it didn't make me any smarter, but I like the effects. I take 2.4 grams a day - any more is a waste, any less is not enough.

Try decaf.

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