Back on the Juice

I'm starting to believe that, yeah, caffeine is addictive.

Almost a year ago, I swore off my favourite hot beverage because I felt that the ill after-effects of drinking it weren't worth it. I had developed a racing heart rate and started feeling exhausted after as little as two cups.

So I went for many months in 2023 without touching coffee. DW, who is equally addicted to the stuff, continued to drink it at home and whenever we went for brunch, while I moved onto tea, something I used to drink at home, as a youngster, before I discovered the wonders of the roasted bean (I was about 13 when I had my first cup at a greasy spoon, just down the road from my high school).

Last September, when DW and I were visiting Toronto, we ducked into a coffee shop in Cabbagetown, delightfully called Jet Fuel. The aromas were intoxicating so I caved, ordering an espresso. I hoped that the small cup, which is generally lower in caffeine because of the preparation process, would have little effect on me.

I was right.

Where past cups of coffee would have my heart pounding against my chest in minutes, this espresso did nothing for my heart rate. I had no jittery reaction and didn't feel as though my day was done, that I needed to lie down.

Victory.

I still kept my consumption of coffee to a minimum but when I craved the flavour, I'd make myself a small espresso at home, would occasionally order one to finish a meal when we dined out.

When DW and I visited Costa Rica, a few weeks ago, I knew I'd be tempted to have a full cup of coffee. How can you not in a coffee-growing country? But I paced myself: I didn't have a cup every day and would limit myself to only one small cup at a time. I wrote about my experience here.

Naturally, DW and I wanted to bring some coffee beans home, and we bought as much as our carry-on luggage could fit (though, we gave half of it away as gifts to friends). And as much as I was interested in having the coffee in our house, I knew that my consumption would be at a minimum. Or so I thought.

In the past couple of weeks that we've been home, DW has started each morning by making a small pot of coffee from the production facility/restaurant that we visited in Santa Maria de Dota. And the smell was so tempting that on the second day that she made a pot, I asked her to make enough so that I could have a cup, as well.

I used my mug that I used to keep at the office, but now that I worked from home and wasn't drinking coffee, had gathered dust at the back of our cupboard. I expected that this cup would get my heart racing but even an hour after consuming it, I felt fine.

Not wanting to push my luck, I waited a couple of days before having another cup. And again, I was fine after drinking it.

I now have a cup almost every day. I'm wondering, is it the type of bean or the roast? Has whatever caused this reaction (which only developed a couple of years ago, only to peak last April) run its course?

Time will tell. When we've used up the current bag, we have another bag from another company in that region. I'll see when we start making coffee with it. And after that, we'll see what happens when we return to buying beans that are sold locally.

It was really hard to give up my favourite hot beverage and it's with caution that I return to drinking it. Perhaps the magic number of cups is just one per day, though that wasn't the case when I gave it up. As I said, time will tell.

In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy every sip.