I love coffee.\u00a0 I love the taste of it, the aroma, the way it enhances the enjoyment of various foods.\u00a0 A cup of coffee with ham and eggs and a pumpernickel bagel is splendid.\u00a0 A pastrami or corned beef or roast beef sandwich with coffee is incredible.\u00a0 And what could be better than coffee with cake, pastry or pie ala mode?\u00a0 Nothing!<\/p>\n
It is a wonderful part of life.\u00a0 At the same time coffee is very hard on my digestive system.\u00a0 It gnaws at my guts. \u00a0It is not benign.<\/p>\n
So, what\u2019s a fellow to do?<\/p>\n
For years I searched for the magic bullet.\u00a0 Milder blends, better blends cold brewed.\u00a0 Milk, cream, fat free cream, oat milk and on and on and on.<\/p>\n
And several times I\u2019ve given it up.\u00a0 And that is an amazing thing.\u00a0 I remember going cold turkey in my thirties and experiencing symptoms that were more reminiscent of heroin withdrawal.\u00a0 I had the shakes and broke into a cold sweat and had blinding headaches.\u00a0 Truly absurd problems getting rid of something as innocuous as the morning cup of joe.<\/p>\n
And equally interestingly, even after getting past the physical symptoms, I eventually drifted back into the habit.\u00a0 After all, I love the stuff.<\/p>\n
A couple of months ago I decided to do something I considered smart.\u00a0 I switched from coffee to tea.\u00a0 And I was able to do it relatively painlessly.\u00a0 The caffeine in tea apparently was sufficient to offset at least partly the craving my body has for coffee.\u00a0 Maybe there were some mild feelings of discomfort for a day or two but really nothing to think about.\u00a0 So, there you go.\u00a0 Mission accomplished.<\/p>\n
But I didn\u2019t reckon with one thing.\u00a0 Tea is the most boring drink in the world.\u00a0 There\u2019s no there, there.\u00a0 So, I tried to jazz it up.\u00a0 I tried Thai tea and chai tea.\u00a0 I added sugar and honey and lemon.\u00a0 Nothing.\u00a0 Insipid.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In desperation, I asked Camera girl to start me on cocoa.\u00a0 We tried 100% cocoa.\u00a0 Not so good.\u00a0 Then we tried some versions with varying amounts of sugar.\u00a0 Too sweet.\u00a0 Finally, we hit upon a low concentration that isn\u2019t too sweet but still has enough taste to qualify as a beverage.\u00a0 And so, we thought we had arrived at a workable solution.\u00a0 But something happened.<\/p>\n
Camera Girl and I were out for the day for an out of state family party.\u00a0 I had breakfast with my now customary thin cup of chocolate.\u00a0 No problem.\u00a0 When we arrived, it was early afternoon and I wasn\u2019t starving.\u00a0 So, I sat down and was talking to some people.<\/p>\n
And it was the strangest thing.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t think.\u00a0 I was stumbling over words and thoughts like Joe Biden without a teleprompter.\u00a0 It was the damnedest thing.\u00a0 And then I realized, I was completely out of caffeine.\u00a0 Now granted I was also low on food at that point.\u00a0 So maybe I needed blood sugar or something.\u00a0 But I was so groggy that I am convinced that I now need a certain specific amount of caffeine in my body just to keep my IQ in triple digits.<\/p>\n
I asked my host if he had any coffee or tea around.\u00a0 All he had at that moment was Red Bull.\u00a0 Well, it was like some miracle drug.\u00a0 Within moments I was back to normal.\u00a0 Later on, I had a large cup of coffee at dessert with my large piece of cake.\u00a0 Of course, I couldn\u2019t get to sleep until 3 a.m. but what can you do.<\/p>\n
So now I\u2019m once again in a quandary.\u00a0 Do I endure the \u201censtupiding\u201d whenever I\u2019m low on caffeine or do I cave into the lure of coffee?\u00a0 I stand on the edge of the cliff.\u00a0 May I find wisdom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I love coffee.\u00a0 I love the taste of it, the aroma, the way it enhances the enjoyment of various foods.\u00a0 A cup of coffee with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,818,1263],"tags":[4173,4172],"class_list":["post-24722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-ocf","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","tag-caffeine","tag-coffee"],"yoast_head":"\n