DEV Community

What are your coffee habits?

endan on January 15, 2018

As developers, we cannot deny that coffee is a big part of our culture. I've seen divided opinions such as people despising coffee and people who c...
Collapse
 
salahhamza profile image
Hamza

I don't drink coffee, but that doesn't mean I hate it or anything, it's just that whenever I drink coffee, it make my heart beat so fast and it actually kind of makes me a bit sleepy, + I am not a big fan of the taste, I would say I've enjoyed maybe two or three times.
And I can proudly say that I am a tea person.

Collapse
 
damcosset profile image
Damien Cosset

I did try to drink coffee on a regular basis, as an experiment. I didn't see any improvement on my focus or anything else, kinda made me feel bad at times, so I stopped. Only drink tea now.

Collapse
 
jjjjcccjjf profile image
endan

How about tea? What benefits have you got from it so far?

Collapse
 
damcosset profile image
Damien Cosset

If I need to wake up, it does the same job than the coffee. Otherwise, the taste is great and I poop just fine :D

Collapse
 
msoedov profile image
Alex Miasoiedov

The same here, tea is a better drinking habit and more refreshing.

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern

I never thought I'd drink as much coffee as I do these days, but I'm still pretty moderate by some of what I observe in the heavily-caffeinated city of New York that I live in.

I drink 2-3 cups a day from our machine. I don't think it's super strong stuff, so cups is a pretty bad measurement device for coffee. I occasionally take breaks which I think is healthy.

I've grown to really appreciate well-made coffee though. I mostly drink the basic stuff from the machine, but coffee is definitely a treat worth growing a palette for. Brewing and/or sipping on great coffee is quite the treat.

Collapse
 
kspeakman profile image
Kasey Speakman • Edited

I always hated coffee. It tricks you with its great smell but then tastes so terrible. But years ago, my wife was gifted a Keurig. I'd have coffee once in a while, but mostly made tea. It introduced me to some decent blends and I stumbled upon some good creamer. Fast-forward. Now I drink at least half a pot of drip coffee every day, sometimes black. Anyway, yeah I really like coffee... day or night... hot, cold, espresso, all of it.

Collapse
 
ardennl profile image
Arden de Raaij

Preach! It took me so long to like coffee as well, but once it's got you..

Collapse
 
jfrankcarr profile image
Frank Carr

I'm going to have to get me a coffee cup that has the Programmer's Mantra...

It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shakes, the shakes become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.

I usually have 4 to 6 cups a day. I usually have a dark roast, black.

Collapse
 
jjjjcccjjf profile image
endan

I imagine you chanting this before every first sip... 😂

Collapse
 
keeleyhammond profile image
Keeley Hammond 🌻

I get pretty jittery if I drink coffee, but recently switched to breakfast tea with some cream and sugar, and I absolutely love it. A good black tea gives me the caffeine kick I need without the jitters, and the taste/ritual of making it is very soothing.

Now my morning routine is basically: Make a small pot of tea, check emails and PRs, read new Slack messages, post status for standup and then settle into work for the day.

Collapse
 
jjjjcccjjf profile image
endan • Edited

Wow, that's crazy! Then I guess you are active on doing open source, correct? How can you balance work and open source? Maybe this is another question worth for a post. 😁

And what particular brand of black tea do you recommend? I'm going to look for black tea leaves today in the supermarket!

Collapse
 
jennynnguyen114 profile image
Jenny Nguyen • Edited

I used to drink a lot of coffee flavoured milk (latte) and energy drinks from early 2012 to early 2017. Now I'm drinking caffeinated tea and sport supplement drinks that contain caffeine. I only drink coffee if I'm really desperate for that instant Energy+25 and I'm not planning to workout that day.

Collapse
 
jjjjcccjjf profile image
endan

What made you do the change from coffee/energy drinks into tea?

Do you have certain brands to recommend?

And what's with coffee and workout together?

Collapse
 
jennynnguyen114 profile image
Jenny Nguyen

Coffee usually gives me, uh, a laxative effect. Tea doesn't. Energy drinks were giving me the shakes too, which I didn't like so I dropped it. My medicine for asthma relief can already give me the shakes but that's something I cannot quit on as the benefits outshine the side-effects.

I'm currently trying out this tea called Instant Herbal Beverage by Herbalife, which is keeping me awake and focused quite nicely. But before that, I was drinking English Breakfast or Green Tea from Lipton or Dilmah (I'm in Australia.) For fruity flavours, I go with the Twinings brand.

There have been studies that caffeine enhances workouts. I can do an extra repetition or two with caffeine in my system than without it. sportsdietitians.com.au/factsheets...

Collapse
 
sepiida profile image
sepiida

I jumped off the coffee train about a year ago. My habit got so bad I was drinking a large cold brew every morning just to get back to baseline.

I've been drinking yerba mate and tea since then. I still get my daily dose of caffeine, but my consumption doesn't seem to increase from week to week like it used to. Also I feel better overall and my skin looks much more healthy.

I can highly recommend making the switch to tea and mate for anyone else struggling to control their daily coffee intake :)

Collapse
 
dmfay profile image
Dian Fay

I used to drink a lot of coffee years ago but then my caffeine tolerance somehow cratered and even one cup would have a good chance of giving me the shakes and making me freak out. It's gradually recovered but I still mostly drink puerh tea these days.

I like the flavors of east African coffee most, especially Ethiopia, but as long as it's not charred to hell and back and not watery I'm not picky.

Collapse
 
jrecas profile image
JReca

One just when I arrive at the office, and a second one after lunch. Second is optional, first is a given. But mainly I drink them because I enjoy it. I graduated from college without drinking coffee nor energy drinks.

Collapse
 
ardennl profile image
Arden de Raaij

I kinda fell off the wagon. I used to drink a lot of coffee until I decided not to. After that I only drunk coffee in the weekends, and made it like a fancy cappuccino or something. Then I traveled for a while and the coffee was soooo good I had to try it everywhere, and now I'm in Portugal and the coffee is too good and strong not to drink it. I only have one cup a day but I want to go back to just one or two cups in the weekend.

Collapse
 
speedstream profile image
Aaron Santos

3 days in the morning, orange juice with my breakfast. Daily, around 10.30-11am 1 cup of coffee. After dinner (5pm), 1 more to fight against "mal del puerco" (Mexican idiom reffered to laziness after a meal). Unfortunately, in the officee we only have soluble coffee.
During weekends, I preffer my grain coffee, only one cup as soon as I wake up (9-10am). If I will stay awake long hours in the night, I usually drink with milk and cold in the night. Depending how long I would stay, two or three cups.
Tea? Rarely, not big fan, only when I'm sick. Dark gasified drinks? Sometimes.
During my college years, I create a dependency to coffee (more than 8 cups a day) and, as a consecuence, I developed a big tolerance to caffeine and one full-year without coffee to recover my normal levels. Big misake, considering I love to enjoy a great cup of coffee.

Collapse
 
meanin profile image
Paweł Ruciński

I used to drink only yerba mate. Unfortunately, from time to time, I come back to coffee again. It is caused mainly by my laziness when yerba is going to end and I am not quick enough to order next part :D

Collapse
 
jacoby profile image
Dave Jacoby • Edited

It took a LONG time for me to start really drinking coffee. Before that, I was a Diet Coke drinker.

I decided one month to go cold turkey. First two days, I failed to stop, because habit. If you regularly order a beverage at McD's and go back, you ask for that beverage before you think "No, cold turkey this month!"

Third day, I remembered and I stopped. I was a good boy.

Fourth day, my coworker looked at me and said "If you have the flu, you should just go home". That's what physical addiction and withdrawal are like.

Since then, I've decided on these rules:

  • coffee and tea and water, no Diet Coke
  • no caffeine after noon, or on days where I'm not coding
  • try to keep it under two cups/day
  • track this mess

Tracking this mess

I would point out that dropping Diet Coke is the only behavior change I can point to that caused me to drop ~100lbs.

You can see how I do with that. I'm not always 100% on that, but I try to keep consistent. Caffeine is a useful performance-enhancing drug, and has been called the Greatest Addiction Ever, but I don't think it can bear the weight that we put on it.

Collapse
 
jacoby profile image
Dave Jacoby
  • Yes, "cup" is an inconsistent measure, if you sometimes go by your office "NSA" cup and sometimes by a Starbucks venti cup or whatever. My NSA cup
  • I do allow myself cola if the situation requires it. But it rarely does.
  • My FitBit now does sleep quality. I can pull six months of data. I should compare.
Collapse
 
aurelkurtula profile image
aurel kurtula

In 2017 I drank a lot, 3 cups, max four. I don't know if it helped or not, I just liked it.

I also started intermittent fasting, so I didn't want to drink milky teas - green teas and the like are terrible.

However, along with eliminating sugar I also started to drink one coffee a day. I still end up drinking two most of the time. Now I drink coffee because water is ... boring.

I want to eliminate it not because is bad for you - I have done extensive research and found mixed reactions, but because I heard that if you get used to not drinking coffee, the energy you get after coffee is simply because you are used to it.

In other words, if you never drank coffee, you would not need coffee to feel more energised. Hence, my goal will be to give up coffee if and when I find a good enough substitute - something that has no sugar, artificial or otherwise and has no extra calories of any kind.

WARNING: my "extensive research" was google, and most likely it told me what I wanted to read

Collapse
 
mmosholder profile image
Malinda M

I start my day by making my iced vanilla americano at home. I basically only like americanos, so I have devoted time and resources to getting the proper equipment for the right price to dial in the flavor and save me money at home. I pop that in my to go cup, fill up a water cup, and commute in to work. I drink the water in the car so I feel like a responsible adult, and save the coffee for work. I rarely drink another americano during the day because I'm SUPER paranoid about getting addicted to caffeine, but I will sometimes snap a yerba mate drink from a nearby store. So yeah, one and only one americano per day. Usually.

Collapse
 
vgrovestine profile image
Vincent Grovestine

My daily routine consists of 2-3 k-cups at the office, plus a mug of freshly ground, Aeropress-brewed joe at home. (Pro tip: Aeropress makes superior coffee.) About this time last year, I tried to get off coffee and switched to yerba mate tea; similar caffeine level.

Collapse
 
ky1e_s profile image
Kyle Stephens • Edited

I used to believe that coffee was de-hydrating until we had a nutritionist come in to the office and tell us this wasn't the case so I felt less guilty about drinking so much coffee after that.

That said, I think it's good to reflect on why one drinks it. If you are drinking it for pleasure, great. If you're drinking 4 - 5 cups of coffee per day just to function, you should probably take a look at why you are drinking it - general energy levels, sleeping patterns, exercise, etc.

I do love a regular latte. I feel bad about how much waste is created with disposable coffee cups though and I've yet to do anything to address my own personal habits on this, sadly :(

Collapse
 
lexlohr profile image
Alex Lohr

I freely admit to be a bit of a coffee snob. In the morning, I have 1-2 cups of freshly ground 100% Arabica espresso before cycling the ~10 miles to work. Afterwards, another 0-4 cups of the espresso from the automatic (which is not as good as the one I have at home, but still ok), depending on how difficult the work is and how focused I need to be. When I travel, I carry an Aeropress if unsure about the coffee situation.

Collapse
 
codemouse92 profile image
Jason C. McDonald • Edited

I am blessed with an immunity to coffee levels of caffeine. It isn't a tolerance, mind you, as I can go for weeks on end without any caffeine without it affecting me in any way, and then I can return to my regular coffee habits at any time with no difference. (I checked with my doc, caffeine just doesn't do much to me at normal levels.)

In fact, caffeine does little more to me than push my circadian rhythm in whatever direction it's already going. Drinking it in the morning helps wake me up a little, and drinking it before bed just puts me to sleep a bit faster. It's freaky.

Aaaaaaaaaand, as such, I've been known to clear through a pot of coffee a day by myself most days. (I just have to drink lots of water besides to avoid becoming dehydrated.)

In the end, I just love the taste.

P.S. Mind you, a double shot Americano will still make me buzz like a massage chair, so I steer clear of that.

Collapse
 
viki53 profile image
Corentin H. ⚡ • Edited

I once spent a month drinking 6 to 7 (French) mugs a day during my first real internship, ended up losing weight.
Then I kept drinking a bit less (2 to 4 small cups a day) for about a year when I was an apprentice.

Then I lost the habit all together and started sports and drinking some tea. Never felt better: no yellow teeth, no weight loss, no heart racing (though I don't really feel much of an effect anymore when I drink some occasionnally).

I discovered Aloe vera water recently, which seems to do a fairly decent job at keeping me hydrated, so I don't feel like I need any stimulant to make it through the day.
And now most of the people I work with look at me funny, but at least they have something to talk about during breaks other than work!

So… that's my coffee routine for you ;)

Collapse
 
lnstrngr profile image
Mike Headley

‪I drink a couple mugs of mild-to-medium strength coffee in the morning, but I cut it off after eleven or noon so it’s out of my system by bedtime. I have learned that late afternoon coffee is not a good idea for me, but the caffeine does give me a little jumpstart to the morning.

Collapse
 
blouzada profile image
Bruno Louzada

Black no sugar please, i live in Brazil, here everything is with sugar, sugar EVERYWHERE, some people tell me that coffee without sugar is for crazy people.

Collapse
 
amircp profile image
أمي • Edited

I drink coffee everyday at the morning beginning i just can’t live without it. I need it to focus and to code.. a day without it its an improductive day for me.

Collapse
 
patriciomolina profile image
Pato Molina

One espresso in the morning, then mate (en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_(beve...) until lunch time. Sometimes I’d drink another espresso after lunch, and then more mate. After 7 PM I usually don’t drink caffeinated beverages.

Collapse
 
whozzawuzza profile image
'''⌐(ಠ۾ಠ)¬'''

110% pro-coffee

Collapse
 
loopdeez profile image
Loopdeez

Americano on the train in and a double espresso after lunch 🤩 Caffiene gets the noggin ROCKIN

Collapse
 
yoavrheims profile image
Yoav

3 spoons of Turkish coffee in a big mug with very hot water 7-8 times a day.

Collapse
 
hus_hmd profile image
Hussein Al Hammad

I drink one cup a day. I try to avoid drinking coffee on weekends even if I'm working.

Collapse
 
chrisvasqm profile image
Christian Vasquez

I also consider myself as a casual coffee drinker, I see it more as a candy than a necessity.

Collapse
 
alinp25 profile image
Alin Pisica

At least 2-3 coffee cups a day, preferably to be made by myself, not from the coffee machine. No sugar, no milk. Everything that makes it sweet, it's ruining it.

Collapse
 
scottishross profile image
Ross Henderson

Two decently strong coffees a day. One when I get to the office, another around 2/3pm. Anymore and I'm just crashing all the time. If I'm exceptionally tired I may have a tea or two as well.