Bye Bye Coffee

Mostly, not entirely. I gave up coffee and felt great; then, I gave in and didn't feel so great.

I still pick up a few espressos each week; I've got some great baristas in the neighborhood and it's hard to pass up.

I've decided to give up brewing at home, though, mainly for health reasons. It's hard to brew a quality cup at anything less than 10 oz, but that's more than I want to drink. Typically, I'd brew 10 oz and throw 4 oz away, which struck me as a little silly. Scales! Grinder! Pouring kettle! For 6 oz. of coffee. It was a lot of fuss.

Another thing that persistently bothered me about coffee is the perverse incentive structure for home brewers.

Coffee is typically sold in 12 oz. bag, which for me equals around 20 cups of coffee. Coffee's at its liveliest for a 4-5 day window. If I drink a cup a day--a small one at that--what do I do with the remaining 14-15 cups of coffee?

I find it amusing when people say that coffee at home is cheaper. Sure, if you don't mind stale coffee.

So there was that annoyance--paying for something that I didn't fully use.

But really this is more of a health issue for me. Spending 10 minutes with a great cup of coffee vs. feeling weird the rest of the day. Easy bargain.

My invigorating drink of choice nowadays is matcha. It's preground green-tea--home-grinders are sold but they're not high quality apparently--so I don't spring for the superlative stuff for reasons that are easily imaginable. I get this mid-grade stuff straight from a Japanese farm and when done properly (not hard) it yields a milky vegetal cup. Like a really nice creamy asparagus soup. Not complex, but enormously satisfying. 

And I feel great the rest of the day.