One more cup of coffee?
I loooooooove coffee.
I love the smell of the beans. I love the warm cup in my hands. I love the excuse to have half-and-half. I love the nutty chatty buzz it gives me.
But besides 2 random cups of coffee in the past 2 months, I have been coffee-free since late June. I had my last cup right before I was hit with the flu, and haven’t gone back. But I think my brain wants me to go back on it… I can smell a fresh pot of delicious coffee brewing in the kitchen. But I haven’t made any coffee, and it is not the work of coffee elves. It’s just my mind playing tricks on me. But I won’t give in. I have too many reasons not to go back to coffee, and not enough reasons to cave.
1. Coffee makes me sweat. As an unfortunately sweaty person (even my NOSE sweats), I don’t need more sweat in my life.
2. I am lactose intolerant, and half-and-half claims my daily limit of milk. Maybe I could have ice cream every once in a while if I didn’t spend all my lactose points on half-and-half.
3. The amount of half-and-half I need to use to make a cup of coffee that I like is just ridiculous. I don’t count calories (but probably should), but this is an obvious place to reduce calorie intake.
4. I get so dependent on caffeine after having one or two cups of coffee per day that I experience terrible caffeine-withdrawal headaches if I don’t have it.
5. When I get used to having one cup of coffee a day, I start increasing to two cups per day… then three cups… then I’m drinking a whole pot. And if you have ever seen me after drinking a whole pot of coffee… you know it is not a good thing!
There are more reasons (cost of good coffee beans, weekly purchases of half-and-half, physical wear and tear of daily coffee drinking), but I think these five should be enough to stop me from having another cup.
Instead, I have been drinking green tea. My favorite green tea is Good Earth brand green tea with lemongrass. It has none of that bitter green tea taste. It isn’t as delicious as a good cup of coffee with yummy half-and-half, and it doesn’t fill the house with the wonderful coffee aroma, but it has less caffeine, so I can have three cups and still be less juiced than having one cup of coffee.
But as the weather turns colder… I’m still tempted to make a pot of coffee. Maybe I will experiment with some other teas to see if there is one that feels like a more satisfying replacement of coffee.
Are you a coffee drinker, a tea drinker, both or neither?
Laura said,
November 3, 2009 @ 4:32 pm
Oh I am a coffee drinker … sometimes I get into ruts where I just fantasize about how awesome it would be to drink a whole pot or a whole large cup of regular coffee and not half and half like I normally do. I even like decaf at night — it’s more the … heat, the smell, the hot to drink that I like though I do appreciate the caffeine buzz. I think that’s what I am really addicted to. I want to have ENERGY! To do things and feel creative and alive … but you know with a wee nursing baby she limits me. While I want to be awake, I want her to sleep.
[reply to this comment]
laurushka reply on November 5, 2009:
I’ve tried decaf, but it doesn’t taste as good and it is the BUZZ that I want. I think I limited my caffeine pretty seriously when Lilia was a baby– in fact I think I didn’t get back on coffee then till she was 15 months! How is that possible? Because I really really need the caffeine now– even if it’s just green tea caffeine.
thedailydish said,
November 4, 2009 @ 10:41 pm
Hey – LOVE the new look! I dabbled in tea most of my life, never started drinking coffee till we moved to Portland and I was baking professionally. I needed HELP staying awake – coffee met that need. Now we are a match made in heaven. I know it’s bad – especially w/ all the wine I drink – but for now at least, I am hooked.
[reply to this comment]
laurushka reply on November 5, 2009:
I don’t love the new look! I want to do one of those other set-ups with a picture (like yours), but I have to figure out how to put my picture in it, and I haven’t spent the time.
You do not seem like the kind of person who ever needs caffeine. You are naturally percolated! Are you still baking?
Genevieve said,
November 5, 2009 @ 2:20 pm
I love coffee. Love it, love it, love it. I fantasize about opening a little coffee place that roasts the coffee beens like my little coffee shop in college did. The smell of coffee smoke billowing out into the street was enough to justify that 8am class. Luckily I don’t get the horrid coffee headaches and I do limit myself to two cups max and they must be consumed before 2pm. I’ll have tea in the afternoon if I want a hot drink.
[reply to this comment]
laurushka reply on November 5, 2009:
If you opened a coffee shop and I lived near you, I would go back on coffee in a second!
I have been considering just brewing coffee to get the smell in the house. I wonder if I could go back on it with your limitations. Yummmmm coffee
Genevieve reply on November 7, 2009:
It’s hard some days. Like right now I would love to curl up with a cup. One thing that helped me with my limitations is that I don’t own a coffee pot. I use a small french press that only makes two small mugs worth of coffee. So, if I want that second cup it’s a real pain.