Not proud to admit but I average 8 cups of coffee a day, my tolerance is through the roof. I also pound coffee in the morning because I’m so groggy from my night time meds. Can’t be good for you! So I’m cutting back to six, then hopefully 4, then 2 strong cups. Weening seems like a good option.
Plus the price of coffee is outrageous, even the cheapo Folgers is $10 for the large.
Devon Price (author of Laziness Does Not Exist and *Unmasking Autism) with a long post about the decaf experience:
Disclaimer: this is a joke, but not really.
What made me cut down my coffee consumption was getting into specialty coffee and brewing my own. Specialty coffee is really tasty and interesting, makes most other coffee taste really bad, with the downside of it being really expensive, and requiring a bunch of work and time to get a cup of it: grinding the beans, setting up the brewer, paying attention to how the brew is going, serving, and sitting down to enjoy the cup will take me 20 minutes on average.
After getting an aeropress for Christmas, and finding a cheap antique moka pot at a flea market, every time I feel like having coffee I ask myself “do I really want to go through all that trouble, or would I rather just drink some water/eat some fruit”? The answer is usually the latter, except in the mornings.
I understand it might not be for you, and if you’re looking to save some money it might not be the way to go, but at least getting really nice coffee, from farmers who are being better paid than the ones the big commodity traders buy from, and spending time to make a cup of coffee helped me cut down and enjoy it more, surprisingly. It’s also one of the few pleasures I can afford for myself, so I try to make it as special as possible.
I use those big Folgers plastic canisters to store compost, before taking it to the pile. But like your aim here, “one or two is enough”
A friend of mine scaled back coffee and cigarettes in quick succession, with the aid of lots of chicory brew. I can definitely recommend this.
Having a morning replacement is nice, could have caffeine free teas, smoothies, flavored water, etc. Something that tricks your groggy self into thinking you had your coffee and has a better hydration profile.
Weaning is good. Trying to switch to teas to decrease overall consumption also helps and broadens your choices.
You can also try ersatz coffee, which is a 1 to 1 ratio of roasted chicory root and roasted dandelion root, or try swapping one or two cups with decaf to see how your body handles it. Sometimes it’s just the habit of drinking coffee instead of the addiction to caffeine that can trip you up so having alternatives to help you cut down can also help as well
