on quitting coffee

You read that title right. Yes friends, I’d like to announce that this is the third day in a row I’ve gone without coffee.

This is a huge deal. Anyone who has spent time with me knows that I cannot, cannot function in the morning without at least one cup of coffee. Around finals every year, the count inevitably reaches two or three cups a day. I’ve got to say it’s just a little bit scary when I take a step back and actually realize how dependent I am on a substance. In the end, what is the difference between caffeine and alcohol? Well, there are a lot of differences, but in principle the addiction is the same.

Besides the addiction problem, I started wondering how healthy at its basis a coffee habit can be. I did some research and it seems like people argue staunchly on either side of the debate without much conclusive evidence. I took what I could from my research — including claims that coffee often contains carcinogens and can lead to high blood pressure and heart attacks — but ultimately, I hate coffee breath and stained teeth. So several days ago I decided to try cutting the caffeine out of my system slowly.

So over the last three days I’ve replaced my morning cup o’joe with Yogi’s Raspberry Perfect Energy tea. (Disclaimer: I love Yogi teas. Their bedtime tea always puts me right to sleep.) The tea has about 3/4 the caffeine that a typical cup of coffee has, so I haven’t experienced any withdrawal, which is nice. I think that maybe over time I’ll decrease the steeping time for the tea bags and see where it goes.

I want to clarify that I don’t want to cut coffee out of my life completely. I really love coffee for its flavor and I would never want to quit camping out in coffee shops with my laptop. I would like to tweak my relationship with coffee though, so that I only drink it on special occasions or when I absolutely need it.

If anyone has ever experienced quitting coffee, I’d love some tips if you have any. Though I suspect it’ll just take time.