Coffee and caffeine

Continuing the theme of some recent posts.

winter on coffee

njms on coffee

I drank large amounts of coffee for many years, using various brewing methods. At some point, I realised two things. Firstly, that although I can enjoy the taste and experience of drinking a good cup of coffee, in reality I rarely savoured the cups I drank, and was drinking it almost exclusively for the pharmacological effects. Secondly, that my consumption of coffee was one of the main ways that I interacted with the globalised economy. Given the massive disparities in economic strength and their origins in colonialism, I find it hard to consider my causing workers in some of the poorest countries on the planet to pick and prepare beans for me as anything but exploitative, even with Fairtrade, and given this and the non-negligible ecological costs involved in roasting and transporting, it came to seem ridiculous that I was engaging this costly world-spanning apparatus just so I could consume my caffeine in a tasty liquid form.

So, around a decade ago, I switched to buying caffeine directly. This is readily and cheaply available for purchase on the internet. I understand that it is mostly produced as a by-product of decaffeination, though it could be synthesised. Apart from my original motivations sketched above, I quickly discovered further benefits. One is that I never run out and have to go to the shops, which used to happen regularly when I used coffee. Then there's the price, which I think is something like 1/100 of an equivalent amount of cheap coffee. Another key advantage is that no preparation is necessary. The ritual of coffee-making can be nice, but it really is nicer not to be forced to carry it out multiple times a day. Travel is also simplified by not needing to stop at cafés. But the biggest advantage for me is the ability to finely control my caffeine intake. One immediate effect was to significantly reduce my caffeine intake -- when previously I felt I needed some, I would brew a whole cup of coffee, containing ~100mg of caffeine. Now, I can nibble a pill and take as little as ~5mg. When all you want is to stave off withdrawal, a tiny amount like that is enough, and even when the aim is to gather focus, too much can easily be counterproductive. My typical daily dose these days is 200mg, less if I'm taking a day off and not doing any hobby-coding or similar. I'm still learning how to use it, and I still do occasionally mess up and take too much, or disturb my sleep by taking it too late in the day, but basically I find it works very well.

I still drink coffee sometimes, mostly in social situations, and I find that I enjoy it much more for its rarity.

I should also list the disadvantages. The first you might think of is the taste. I think I did find it unpleasantly bitter at first, but like coffee, it just takes some getting used to. It never became exactly pleasant, but it quickly became mundane and unobjectionable. Another downside is that you only get the caffeine, and not the other ingredients of coffee, some of which may be healthy. I don't know much about this. Another problem as mentioned above is that you might miss the ritual of preparing coffee, and you also miss the opportunity to drink a hot liquid, which can be useful in a cold climate. I occasionally brew tea for these reasons. One last problem is that people sometimes give you funny looks when you take a pill out of your pocket and munch on it... but that's survivable.

That's it. I'm not really trying to convince anyone, but I thought someone might find this interesting.