Went off espresso this past week. Well, I had a single shot in a demitasse Friday morning, but it was solely for taste and nothing more. Other than that I have not had any espresso since last Friday.
Why is this significant? Well, since I haven’t been blogging that much, the online community is oblivious to my coffee consumption since starting work at a firm with an espresso machine. A good espresso machine. No copper tubing, but I doubt it was cheap. And it makes an amazing crema. Plus the machine will make double shots on command. I normally have six shots per day: two doubles in the morning and one in the afternoon. However, sometimes I’ll have more than that.
The problem? Well obviously it isn’t good for you to overindulge in anything. I was abusing the espresso. I purposely would pack it on if I started to feel the caffeine in order to get sort of a euphoric caffeine high, especially if I had to stay late working on something. I mean I like the taste, especially the almost bitter quality, which I’ve written about before, but mostly it just became a habit. The corollary (I picked this word specifically), is that for the past three to four months, I’ve felt sort of intermittent dull pain or pressure in my chest. Not all the time or I’d see a doctor, but it was starting to get noticeable enough that I couldn’t always write it off to stress of a new profession, the legal profession or indigestion.
Then, after much debate in the office regarding the benefits and detriments of espresso (Some doctors advocate coffee, like red wine, in moderation. However, it is a non-filtered coffee), I decided to just stop. Shockingly, I didn’t have any noticeable caffeine withdrawal other than having to go to bed earlier. Plus all week, I’ve felt great. Like I could go running. I almost think I work faster too (I had this theory a couple times during law school that drinking coffee accelerated my already overactive mind, distracting me from within with thoughts). So no more espresso other than the token shot.
I wonder the impact this will have on the office supply (I work in a fairly small office, so it would be like the second largest oil consumer in the world, suddenly no longer needing oil). The only real drawback is losing the camaraderie that drinking the espresso brought. It was sort of a shared interest I had with my bosses.
To make up for the loss of the habit, I tried tea. However, I’ll have to come up with a simple and less involved brewing method. The espresso was so simple and tea requires getting water, heating it, letting the tea steep, disposing of the bag, cleaning up drops from pulling the bag out. I imagine some sort of desktop single serve brewer, but so far, have not found one.
Time to get a shot….smoothie and then work.
-jd
