On Cutting Caffeine


Jul 07, 2020

I don't think June was an easy month for anybody.

Really, 2020 hasn't been an easy year for anybody, but it really does feel like each month is worst than the last. Aside from world events, my own personal bubbles had a few major blow-ups as well. I guess it really shouldn't be surprising then that, on a self-assessment, I realized I was drinking around a quart of caffeinated beverages between coffee and tea.

A quart of caffeine seemed like a solid way to cause my heart to explode, so at the start of the month I figured I needed to cut back, hard. I bought myself an adorable, ultra-plain white mug and made it my Caffeine Mug. I have one mug full of drink a day, and that's it (there's a good question about gongfu, and I figure just a single session counts even if it's more liquid). This was maybe a sharper drop in intake than I was prepared for, because hoo-ee have I been feeling it for the last week.

Had I known how crap I would feel, I'd probably take my chances with the caffeine quart life. I've been sleeping a LOT, along with some serious foggy-head. I'm luckily feeling better now so I figure I'm past the worst of it, but my own anxiety about my health made me continually wonder what was just withdrawal and what was me catching a more serious problem.

I ordered a couple pounds of staple daily drinkers before this, a bulk order of bancha and kukicha, because I was in a green tea sort of mood apparently. I can never tell if the effects tea have on my mind are simply placebo or if there's something to them, but switching to them in the mornings have been a bit more comforting than the current trend of CTC strong black tea.

I'll probably up my intake again soon enough, but with my current stock I don't think I'll need any more daily drinkers for a while.

But there's always room for samples.