I was asked last night by someone who does not drink coffee – what does coffee do for you in the morning? Despite the urge to say, “uhm everything”, it did make me think. But first, some context. Starting about a month ago I began to make some changes. No, we won’t call them changes but experiments. One of them was to start drinking non-caffeinated tea at night before bed. I’m trying to avoid reaching for a snack, desert, or nightcap in the evening. Turns out a hot cup of tea fills the belly and keeps me from foraging in the kitchen.

Next, I started reading about Dr Huberman’s morning routine. Of the things he suggests doing, one of them was to delay caffeine intake for 90-120 minutes upon waking to let the residual adenosine clear from your system. At that point his caffeine choice is a strong tea.

It got me thinking. I’ve lost the taste for coffee lately. It’s very acidic and not helped by the fact that I make crappy Keurig coffee because I’m too lazy to do the pour-over or French press thing. Although I’ve never in my life been a tea drinker, I was already drinking it at night so why not try it in the morning?

So a few weeks ago I substituted some old caffeinated tea I found in the pantry for my morning coffee. Shockingly, I didn’t die or lapse into convulsions. I won’t say I was in love with the taste, but it was certainly more mellow on my stomach than the coffee.

So here we are. I’m keeping up with the tea instead of coffee thing. I ordered some fancy loose leaf tea and a proper tea strainer thingy.

Let me be clear about how momentous a change this is. Way back in the day when I was a software developer, I drank an absolute frightening amount of coffee. As in, multiple full pots a day. In later years as an RN, the only way to survive 12-13 hour shifts was large amounts of caffeine. Nowadays I’m back to a normal 2-3 cups a day, but the ingrained habit is strong. It’s a big thing that I’m not drinking coffee.

Is it going to be a continuing habit? That brings me back to the original question I was asked – what does coffee do for me in the morning? I honestly didn’t have an answer. In reality I’m probably not getting a decent nights sleep and therefore I’m super groggy in the morning. It feels like coffee/caffeine is the only way to “wake up”. A logical person would conclude that the right answer is to work on getting a better nights sleep, rather than caffeinate to compensate. I’ve never been accused of being the sharpest crayon in the box.

The routine I’d like to work towards is two-fold. First, work on getting a better nights sleep. Second, continue to incorporate Dr. Hubermans ideas. Wake up, sunlight, two large glasses of water with salt, and delay the caffeine for 90 minutes. For extra bonus points, use that 90 minutes to get my workout in.

At that point, take my time and make a proper cup of tea or a decent cup of coffee. Probably alternate. Maybe 70/30 tea/coffee.

Once I’ve reached that level of superhuman performance, I shall be in a perfect state of zen.

So that’s more than you wanted to know about one of my 2024 resolutions. We’ll cover the conquest and take over of some foreign country and running a 100 mile ultramarathon in another post. How about you? Are you a coffee or tea drinker? Pour-over or French press? Best high caffeine morning tea? Inquiring minds want to know.