Have you tried decaf? You can get decaf beans that are not far off caffeinated beans in terms of taste these days.
However, I know that there are other compounds in coffee that can cause issues, not just the caffeine. I actually gave up coffee for about 15 years because I would react badly, even to decaf. I recently started drinking coffee again, and my issues seem to have gone away. No idea what the problem was.
Indeed: I spent a while drinking decaff before giving it up completely.
I donāt know, but suspect that my problem may not be caused by caffeine, as I can drink lots of tea, which also contains it, albeit in lesser amount.
Unlike alcohol, for which I have no appetite whatsoever, I never smell coffee without my mouth watering. But, along with alcohol and tobacco, having shed it so long ago, there seems no point in bringing it back into my life.
I am very happy with my Indian masala chai!
For each there is a scale of difficulty in giving up things. For me:
Alcohol: Easiest. In fact I didnāt give it up, it just faded out.
Smoking: Much harder, so many failures.
Coffee: A bit tough, it took time.
Sugar: God forbid that I should ever have to give it up!
For my vices, itās going like this:
Alcohol: Easyish. Iāve cut down a lot since my younger years, and Iām enjoying non-alcoholic beer a lot these days. But Iām not sure I want to totally give it up. I live in wine country, and itās nice to indulge a bit in the summer. I rarely have more than a couple of drinks these days.
Smoking: Easy. I just decided to give up one day, and I did. It was more of a social thing during late teens / university days. For whatever reason, nicotine never really held me in its grip. Canāt stand it these days.
Coffee: Easy to give it up when I was having problems metabolizing it, but Iām enjoying it again now. I donāt think Iām addicted to caffeine. I can enjoy decaf just as much, and Iām in it mainly for the flavour.
Sugar: I donāt have a weakness for sugar per se, but I do have a weakness for pastries, doughnuts, things like thatā¦ and chocolate! I think 80% dark chocolate is vastly superior to milk chocolate, although I do enjoy chocolate in all its forms. But I could easily give up ice cream and I rarely drink pop/soda.
Buying photography gear: Not easy. Have temporarily given up due to financial constraints, but the cravings are real and severeā¦
The farmers, who produce these fine coffee varieties, most certainly can not afford a cup in West London.
(For now.)
I think they can afford it, just may not want to, as it would amount to a few daysā income (how many depends on the region). It would certainly be a luxury.
That said, I would not pay that much for an espresso either (and I am a coffee addict, typically 4 espressos / day).
āGiving up smoking is easy: Iāve done it lots of timesā
This was true for me, and the difference, when I actually did it, was having a real decision, a real intention, along with a complete refusal to let myself off the hook. There were symptoms, largely alleviated by patches, but it was the decision that carried me through. They used to call a decision like that an oath. I would say, to anyone facing this, that that is how strong your decision has to be.
I am getting withdrawal symptoms! But whilst more is always fun, there is actually nothing affordable/liftable that Iād actually use regularly. At this time.
Quitting smoking was very difficult for me. The year I turned 21, I made two concerted efforts to quit, and I failed both times. Then, on New Year morning, I had a terrible hangover and my mouth tasted really bad from all the smoking I had done New Year Eve. I made a New Year resolution to quit, and I quit cold-turkey and succeeded. Still, on rare occasions, I will have an urge to smoke or use oral tobacco. But I can resist.
Sugar has been even harder to give up. I still have not succeeded at that, and Iām well more than 70, now.
I have never tried to give up alcohol, but at my age my stomach does not want to take it, so I drink very little.
Where I live, an āespressoā is almost always a double shot. Is that the same for you, so youāre having 8 shots a day? Or is it 4 single shots?
Yes, absolutely! I know itās easier said than done, but I think a lot of people who fail at quitting have not actually reached that point where they really want to quit. Iāve been there with some vices where you kind of want to quit because you know itās not good for you, but you love it so much that you donāt want to quit. You have to really really want to quit and, as you say, not let yourself off the hook. It became a challenge to myself to see how resolute I could be, and I rose to the challenge quite easily as it turned out.
That mouth taste in the morning was one of the motivations for me too. I always hated it, and I would often need to wait until later in the day before I could face the thought of smoking again. One day in my mid-twenties I started to think how ridiculous it all was: expensive, terrible for your health, foul smelling, antisocial (for non-smokers), inconvenientā¦
Single shots (about 8g coffee beans), with about 70ml of water.
Yes. I made it even more of an in-my-face challenge by carrying an open pack of cigarettes at all times. I knew that if I didnāt have any, and broke down and bought some, I would smoke them. Also, everyone (almost) smoked back then. When my friends had bummed all of my pack, I would immediately buy another pack, open it, keep it with me, and not smoke any of them.
Well thatās impressive.
I used to have smoking dreams for a long time after I gave up. There was one I still laugh at: I was telling, in the dream, a friend that I had given up: āWhatās that, then?ā She demanded, pointing to the smoking cigarette in my hand. I stubbed it out with a feeling of embarrassment!
I was chatting to a stranger on a train about addiction. Turned out that he was an ex-alcoholic of the most serious kind: he drank when he woke up and continued until he went to sleep. He told me his story. Got to the admit you have a problem stage, and started to research what to do about it. Got fed up with the choices and thought, āWhy donāt I just stop?ā And he hadnāt drunk since. I still think he won a much harder battle than mine, but we sincerely congratulated each other on overcoming our addictions.