I wrote briefly before about my headache problems. I have to take an MRI soon, the neurologist was a bit worried about my past problem with the pancreas and the fact that the cause of that was never found. On the other hand, I started to think about which could possibly cause my headaches that wasn’t caused by a vascular (or worse) problem.
One thing I start to ponder on is caffeine. I used to drink a lot of Coca-Cola. Too much. Way too much for a sane person. I tried more than once to give up on it, with no results, until I was forced in the hospital. The result is that I’m no more addicted to Coca-Cola, even though I have to avoid it at all costs, as I know I’d probably just fall for it again.
Since I came out of the hospital, I was able to take at least a bit of caffeine through Chinotto but I don’t like its taste too much so I can’t exceed on it. I avoided coffee because I didn’t like the one that my mother brewed in her moka (a typical Italian coffee); I like Espresso, but I don’t usually go around in Bar to take one.
Last week I decided to finally buy myself an Espresso machine; my mother does not like it and she gave the one we used to have to my sister. I decided for one that could also grind the coffee grains on the fly, as they do taste better. Unfortunately, the grinder broke already after not even a full week! I now have to take the machine to be repaired, quite annoying!
On the other hand, this half week with three coffee cups a days felt way better, I was able to write code much faster, I was able to cleanup my room, I was able to go through stuff in our garage so that it could be emptied. What a life again!
After yesterday’s breakage of the machine, I started feeling down again, caffeine withdrawal without a doubt. It’s a shame. I sincerely hoped to have passed this phase, but it might just be that my body is way too used to caffeine to give up on it.
Luckily, it seems like I don’t dislike so much all the Moka-brewed coffee, just the flavour my mother uses. I tried using the coffee I bought for the Espresso in the Moka, and it tastes quite better. I still prefer Espresso so as soon as my machine will be repaired I’ll use that again, but at least I have something to drink until that is done.
Monday (please remember I’m writing this on Saturday night!) I’ll have to see my doctor, I’ll probably ask him if it’s fine for me to continue taking caffeine on the long run. Sincerely, I much prefer my own self on caffeine than not. I’m quite a shitty coder without caffeine, it takes too long for me to write even relatively simple code.
At least this I remember the doctors in the hospital telling me I could continue drinking, explicitly. I had to reduce the milk, especially avoiding the 3% milk, but I can still have coffee. Which is good. Barley’s “coffee” I just can’t stand. I tried it in the hospital and it tasted foul, even the doctors agreed on that (which is why I remember they telling me I could have coffee!).
Anyway, if I can get my caffeine intake through coffee now, you might have found your old Flameeyes back! 🙂
I don’t particularly like coffee, but I’ve found a couple caffeinated (hmm, spellchecker doesn’t like that, but takes decaffeinated, WTF?) drinks I do like.Back in college I “did the Dew”, Mountain Dew. I still like it at times, but not all the time as it’s too syrupy sweet.I’m not a regular tea drinker, but I found if I get the single-serving sealed-envelope green tea, I like that. It has to be single-serving-sealed, however, not the bulk stuff and it must be sealed, or the flavor disappears. The stuff’s supposed to be quite good for you too, and has a reasonable amount of caffeine. For variety and if I don’t want a full dose of caffeine, I’ll mix in herbal teas (also single serving sealed), mint especially. The plain green tea, however, is quite good and quite effective — no sugar needed as long as the tea is FRESH sealed.If I’ve been up 24+ hours and am dragging, but need to stay up and alert for work, I’ve found a couple brews that can really wire a person. One involves milk so I won’t detail it here, but the other…It’s Dr. Pepper (which works very well as a mixer for this sort of thing) and coffee (preferably instant, you’ll see why in a moment) based, but there’s a trick — don’t brew the coffee!Get a LARGE cup (quart/litre and a half is good, two litre would be better), fill with ice, put the coffee crystals (or grounds) DIRECTLY on the ice. Do NOT brew the coffee as that ruins it!Pour the Dr. Pepper over the ice and coffee, dissolving the crystals as you fill the cup. It’ll FOAM up to several times the volume of the liquid, thus the LARGE cup, but something about the carbonation seems to activate the caffeine. (This actually makes sense as one of the “natural” decaffeinating methods involves carbonated water. It /does/ leach out the caffeine, but we drink it instead of getting rid of it.)You can let it set a bit and put more soda in if you want, as due to the foaming you really don’t get much liquid otherwise. I usually take a sip and then do that. You’re probably not as caffeine sensitive as I am (I didn’t even drink caffeinated soda growing up), but I actually get a caffeine headache if I drink too much too fast. It’s definitely strong enough!It tastes surprisingly good, try it. If you use grounds, you can refill with more ice and Dr Pepper and get another dose off the same grounds. I actually use probably half a single coffee’s worth or less — the carbonated water foaming action is really effective at releasing the caffeine. You may need more, but don’t overdo it, as it really IS effective at releasing the caffeine, and it’s therefore easy to overdo.I could easily get addicted to it if I let myself, but I try to reserve it for those 24-hour-plus stretches, or have a barely-any-coffee version to wake up with if I just can’t seem to get going.Duncan
I’ve had trouble with two things regarding caffeine-from-coffee.One is that I have a sensitive stomach which in turn means that drinking too much coffee (or drinking coffee on an empty stomach) usually ends in digestive trouble.The other is that I like both coffee and tea for their taste – but I don’t always want to be wired up on caffeine.Those two points are the reason why I’ve switched from “mostly coffee and occasionally tea” to the other way around.Not only is tea better for the stomach, it’s also quite nice for your teeth (lots of fluoride in the tea) – if you don’t use too much sugar, of course. What’s also better about tea that it’s easier to vary the caffeine intake by varying the time the tea is infused. There’s an urban legend that tea infused for more than three minutes actually makes you sleep – that’s wrong. What actually happens is that tea infused for a long time contains more bitter constituents which in turn bind (and thus deactivate) the caffeine. Of course it takes a bit of practice to know the right combinations of lea leaves and infusion time (otherwise you either get just hot water or bitter brine).Bottom line: tea suits me better because it can be adapted more easily.Oh, and I avoid milk, too, because I’m slightly lactose intolerant.
I’ve been drinking coffee long enough (My parents gave me a mug with my age on it when I turned 5) that it doesn’t really have any major up or down effect on me anymore. A couple of shots of espresso will keep me awake if I have them too late, but I don’t do that generally.However, I do keep drinking coffee and tea because they are warm (esp. during winter) and relaxing.
Mmm…. you clearly never qualified as heavy coffee drinker. I’ve had your intake of 3 cups of coffee before 8 o’clock in the morning to be honest. Without good coffee I’m not worth much.Bying a good machine that grinds your coffee is definitely worth it, although it takes time to find the beans with exactly the right taste. Some kinds are horrible, while others taste great.ps) My coffee-machine: http://www1.dealtime.co.uk/…I typically use it for either normal coffee or cappuchino, to make sure I drink enough during the day.
I hope your espresso machine will come back quickly! Mine should be back today after 3 weeks in repair: a small rock I did not see in the coffee beans jammed the grinder badly 🙁
You may try to use Mate or Guarana, they both taste better than coffe and usually are more effective.(guarana + water + lemon or orange juice)
I think I know that problems… I used to have 23 mugs of (strong++) coffee a day which was quite much too much.So I am following that discussion here with interest 🙂