Anyone get into caffeine (coffee/tea) as an adult?

I got into tea as a young adult, although it wasn't for the caffeine (I don't really notice any improvement in alertness or concentration). It was just a good way of encouraging myself to keep hydrated throughout the day since it had more flavour than water. On top of that:

• In a world where pretty much everything feels like it's getting more expensive, it's still very cheap.

• You can be as lazy or as fancy as you like when preparing it, and it doesn't require any sophisticated equipment so you can prepare it practically anywhere (great during camping). It still tastes good even if all you do is add boiling water or cold brew it in the fridge.

• It's endless customisable with a broad range of blends, tea leaf varieties and added flavours (and of course you can add your own ingredients like milk, honey, jam and so on). There's also the option of herbal teas without caffeine if you want to drink in the evening.

• It has practically no calories and assuming you aren't drinking ridiculous amounts, no real health downsides.

• It's socially acceptable to drink practically anywhere (maybe not at the pub?)

I'm also a coffee drinker (and I do feel the caffeine boost in this case), but the higher preparation hurdle, cost and risk of getting the jitters if I take too much mean that I usually just make cold brew concentrate instead of getting a cup when I feel like it.

I got into coffee when I was about 25 and it helped me a lot being able to get caffeine high instead of using other drugs to feel less sober at the time.

Something that trips me up from time to time, if I drink coffee to help me focus on something I need to just start doing the thing soon as I start drinking the coffee cause if the caffeine kicks in and I’m still dicking around on my phone, now I’m super motivated to keep dicking around on my phone.

I don't think you have much to worry about. Caffeine is a fairly heavily studied drug. The main detrimental effects is on sleep; if it's not disrupting your sleep, then barring reaching the very high level required for caffeine toxicity, you're pretty much fine.

There's some weak correlative studies showing that coffee drinking is correlated with positive health metrics. I wouldn't take that as necessarily a reason to do coffee, but that is to say we've seen far from negative results in correlative or double blind studies.

On the other hand, green tea actually does have statistically significant results in studies showing health improvements, mainly as an antioxidant.

A nice bonus from brewed coffee (as in, coffee you brew yourself) is that it contains a significant amount of soluble fiber, which famously people don't get enough of. No calories, and caffeine is an appetite suppressant also helps with the usual maladies of obesity, although probably not a ton.

here's a good thread for tea! ---- I am a minimalist coffee snob but very limited in my tea. I either brew in a small pot or a gaiwan (which I paid too much for) -- almost exclusively hojicha, lapsang, or genmaicha.

If you want to get into caffeine but don't really care about getting into a new hobby, 200mg caffeine with 250mg theanine gives all of the pep of caffeine without a crash or jitters (typically.)

It's a trope, but the best thing to do to wake up in the morning or mid day is to simply splash cold water on your face like in the movies. Its so good and I think it beats out caffeine, phenylethylamine, whatever...

I started drinking coffee around age 27. I went full on - drinking triple and quadruple shots to get through doing highly laborious work. I didn’t like coffee which is why I drank it black and as shots. It did the job. However at some point, like most stimulants I’ve done in my life, I ended up drinking it from wake to sleep. In my forties, I started needing a tooth guard when I went to bed because I was clenching my jaw so tightly it was painful. That’s when I slowed down on the coffee and stopped drinking it after 1pm. That did the job. I still drank highly caffeinated coffee, I just stopped drinking it all day. That worked for the jaw clench. Now I drink three very weak coffees every day, two in the morning, and another around noon, and then drink decaf until around 7. I like the taste of coffee now, and I think I drink it for that more than for it having much effect on me.

In the early days of coffee, it very much helped me have energy and stay on task. I will occasionally use it for that today, but at some point I was drinking so much of it, I can’t tell you what it was doing for me. When I stopped drinking coffee after 1pm, I don’t remember it having any noticeable difference on my energy levels.

I got into coffee as a hobbyist starting during the pandemic. I got recommended a James Hoffman video about how to make lattes at home and I was basically hooked. I now own a disgustingly expensive coffee grinder.

I actually drink much less coffee than I did then, because now I'm on prescription stimulants for my ADHD. I'm solidly a 0-1 coffee a day person now, and I definitely wasn't before.

I'll drink tea, but I'm not into it really. I enjoy a homemade chai latte when I want to have less caffeine than a coffee or am in the mood for that particular flavor. I keep looseleaf fruit tea around for if I'm in the mood for a warm, non-caffeinated drink because of illness or it being late at night. Fresh lemongrass tea is also the bomb when you're sick, but I usually get that at a Vietnamese restaurant since there's a ton of those around me rn. There's nothing like a bowl of spicy pho and a glass of lemongrass tea to clear your sinuses.

I started drinking coffee/caffeinated teas in my early 20s. It was a necessary evil to pull the hours and long focus necessary to get my work done, and it tended to wreck my sleep habits as a result (plus it ramped up my paranoia/anxiety). The dependence is still kicking around, and I lean on the drug too often as a crutch.

If I had a time machine, I still wouldn't have avoided it -- the choice was slamming back four or five cups of black coffee a day, or pass out at the desk (since the pay was worth it) -- but if there were any way around growing this dependency, I would've taken it. There's also a small, nagging voice in my mind that I've done some amount of irreparable damage to my brain with the amount of caffeine I mainlined into it on the regular.

Another fun tidbit: over time, tea and coffee are likely to darken your teeth (not black but not pearly white), and generally people search for ways to diminish the effect -- not prevent it altogether.

Final note: for anyone who drinks caffeine on a daily basis, it's dubious whether they're getting a boost from their morning coffee, or are just returning to baseline after experiencing an overnight withdrawal. Quoting Wikipedia (and hopefully their sources back up this claim ...):

In habitual users, however, tolerance develops rapidly; the perceived attention and alertness boost after overnight abstinence primarily reverses mild withdrawal deficits (fatigue, reduced concentration) rather than elevating performance above a true non-dependent baseline, consistent with the withdrawal-reversal hypothesis.

Oh. Hah. I just re-read your comment and noticed this phrase:

could share what benefits, if any, they gained

Apologies, I'm a little sleep deprived, and missed that on my first pass. I suppose, please mark this comment as noise if it's not what you're looking for 😅

I started drinking tea after not being a coffee or tea all my life. The tea drinking started in my mid twenties. I'm in my mid 30s now.

It was a super cold day and I just got back from a run, I was at my mom's for the holidays at the time and she offered me a cup of tea. I said no but ma made the cup anyway. So naturally I tried it and loved it.

Now I drink two cups a day just on the weekends. I love it and don't feel like I need it to get through my day. I have ADHD so the caffeine does help me focus and if I need to some serious focusing I will have a cup if needed. Nothing fancy, loose leaf black tea from Harney and Sons or some cheap Yorkshire Gold. On the odd day or two when I have some during my work week I do feel super locked in. Not in a bad way, but just my mind can focus. Kinda nice.

I started in my late 20s after my S/O introduced me to cold brew coffee. When I was young I didn’t need anything. I just raw dogged the world. I like coffee a lot now though because it gives me something to look forward to in the morning. I’m a big soda head and cold brew scratches that itch but with a lot less chemicals.

I started drinking tea in my 20s and switched to coffee in my 30s.

To be honest I don't feel like there's a long term benefit to consuming caffeine. Yes I feel a bit more awake when I do, but since it's regular my baseline has dropped a bit. Sometimes I have periods without taking any caffeine, it does reset it a little.

The real reason for me is that I like the taste and the ritual (making it, then sitting down with a warm cup).

It's wasn't hard to get into tea, it's trivial and cheap to get good quality ones. Buy some loose tea from a specialized shop, try different ones, you'll probably find some you like. It tastes better than supermarket tea bags.

For coffee, I started drinking Nespresso with lots of milk (because my partner did and I tried). Then started to like it better with less milk (but still about 2/3). Then I found out about third-wave/specialty coffee (basically higher quality beans, roasted much less dark so you can still taste the fruit, not just bitterness) and filter coffee (instead of espresso which is the standard in Europe). I bought a few (slightly expensive) equipment, and found out that coffee can actually taste amazing by itself (black, nothing added). It was absolutely worth it and I'd keep drinking decaf this way if for some reason I didn't want any caffeine anymore.

I mean I also have been drinking tea since a kid, but I have some useful input here.

Tea has a slower release of caffeine than coffee. If you drink coffee (unless it's a teeny shot) you'll feel the buzz right away. Tea you might not even realize the caffeine has hit you until you do a comparison to baseline (like trying to go to sleep).

I used to drink a stupid amount of tea, like 8 cups a day, and I did not realize how wired I was until I cut down. I'm down to one cup of tea in the morning and... 7 decaf lol but like if I drink a normal cup of tea before bed time there's no sleeping for like 4 hours.

I think it does also hit you in a different way as you get older, you'll hear so many people say they had to cut down because they can't drink as much coffee any more, so I dunno what's going on there to be honest.

Drink coffee? I practically live on industrial levels of the stuff...

I have a really crappy past call centre job and easy access to vending machine coffee (which sucked, the mocha was the only even remotely palatable thing there) to thank for that.

Not me (I started tea at 13) but my father, who avoided caffeine his whole life. He started having a little coffee here and there several years ago (late 50s) and said that it has helped alertness, memory retention, and general cognitive function (such as troubleshooting/analytical skills) more than he anticipated. He says it’s like his secret weapon because he’s been keeping up with everyone else his whole life without it, and now as he slows down with age he can use caffeine to still keep up.

Started coffee in my late 20s. At one point, I was drinking soda in the morning to get my caffeine, but that probably started in my early 20s and stopped a couple years in.

The caffeine helps me feel more awake and alert. Possibly helps with focus too. Oh, and coffee is both an appetite suppressant and can stimulate bowel movements, both of which are a positive for me. If I go without it for a few days, I get a headache.

I don't have much more to say in a personal light because I don't think there's any more to it - caffeine does what it says on the label. (Energy drink levels of caffeine on the other hand... that's something I won't partake in.)

I started drinking coffee more regularly once I started working full time after college. I mainly got into it since I was living with my parents and they'd just make an extra cup for me in the morning to drink. I never previously had a need for it and I don't really have much of a need for it now as well. I've personally never actually felt much of the effects of caffeine when I do have it, even if I have 2-3 cups in a day. I haven't drank coffee regularly in the morning in about a year now but when I was doing so for a few years, it did give my morning routine more structure. I'd wake up, brush my teeth, and then slowly sip a mug of coffee as I caught up on work notifications.

...i didn't get into caffeine until nearly fourty years of age, when i started drinking a giant glass of iced tea (and chomping the ice) to stave off the afternoon doldrums, which was honestly transformative to my productivity at work; these days i'm nursing a glass of iced tea throughout the day and think nothing of it...

...maybe a decade later i stumbled upon yerba mate drinks; it took me awhile to find something reasonably natural + unsweet, but most days now i go through one or two cans depending upon how desperately i need a boost of energon to power through my obligations...that's where things get dicey: i try to avoid yeba mate on the weekends if i can, as there have definitely been a few occasions where desperate situations required unhealthly doses to make it through two-or-three-day obligations without sleep, which leaves me stupid-exhausted and takes a good two or three useless days of recovery afterward just to restore baseline functionality...

I’ve gone on and off of tea for most of my adult life. A trip to Argentina got me VERY into yerba mate for years, drinking it traditional style. Yerba mate is a different plant which is much higher in caffeine than tea. I’m pretty shy and was doing contract work, my mate setup was a fantastic conversation starter back then.

I go through phases where I will stop caffeine intake entirely because I just don’t want it. This sometimes lasts several months.

The times my intake has been the highest were when I had health issues that would leave me constantly exhausted - I didn’t know what was wrong at the time. It kept me awake and gave me the ability to think.

As a younger adult that worked unpleasantly long hours and had a child that did not sleep during the middle of the night (not a baby, disability related) I got into consuming large amounts of caffeine to "get going". I have never been a huge coffee fan like my wife, but I ran the gamut of tons of tea, soda, high powered energy drinks, "water joe" (highly caffeinated bottled water). I actually started to get worried about the affects of all the sugar and other stuff from most of that (with the exception of the "water joe"), so I switched to caffeine pills. After about a decade, and a period of actual nonsleeping babies, and switching jobs, I was finally able to dial that back to a very sane level of caffeine which is either a single nice cup of strong tea (or a half a caffeine pill if pressed for time) in the morning.

If you are not already in the habit or really "need" it, I would not recommend starting it. Once your body gets used to caffeine, you will get intense headaches and flu-like symptoms if you go without it for a couple of days. That's the literal withdraw as it is quite addictive.

Not me personally, but my MiL started drinking coffee at ~56, just a few years before she retired. To paraphrase her, there were a lot of morning drives that would have been easier with caffeine.

In my experience, as somebody who's gone through periods of lots of coffee or zero caffeine - once you get adjusted to it for the first time, the effects are kind of negligible even after long periods of abstinence.

I’ve always enjoyed some tea, even as a kid.
I find drinking a warm beverage, even if it is just hot water(i.e. very weak flavor mint or tea) to be soothing or comforting.

I’ve always avoided plan/black coffee unless it is mixed with milk and sugar, I find black and instant coffee very distasteful, I sometimes stomach it just because it’s there or because it’s part of a combo in a Dunkin Donuts.

I did drink Mocha and Cappuccino as a teenager but I think they were more on rarer occasions.

I’ve started recently however to enjoy drip coffee. It doesn’t taste like a rush of bitter unpleasantness like black coffee, and has more flavor aside from the bitterness.

I’d say I still prefer tea but I have more coffee because I find decent enough coffee more easily available than tea. That and at home I find drip feeding coffee also comforting/meditative at times.

I find that caffeine has no effect on me in terms of alertness, but apparently even if it doesn’t affect you that way, it does affect your quality of sleep even if you can sleep after drinking an energy drink or coffee even after an hour or two.

I started drinking coffee at age 31. The first few cups felt like it could take on the world, then the effect quickly faded away and now it's more a habit then anything else.

I started drinking coffee regularly after graduating from university. I would occasionally drink some coffee, but that was for days when I was exhausted or studying for a big exam. It helped that my office had free coffee, and I'd usually grab a cup with my coworker after we clocked in.

When I started drinking it regularly I decided that I would drink my coffee black. I enjoy having a nice latte or special coffee as an occasional treat, but I had recently shed ~45 lbs/~20 kg and I didn't want to get in the habit of adding an extra ~100-300+ calories to my diet each day.

I still usually drink 1-2 cups a day in the morning and will take the occasional 1-2 week tolerance break if I ever find myself wanting more than 2 cups in a day.

I got into coffee in my 40s. I never liked the stuff or really understood why people kept drinking it. But while trying to find a coffee-related birthday gift for my coffee-loving wife, this Tom Scott video with James Hoffmann came out and it started something for me that has become quite a wonderful journey. Me ultimately turning into a coffee lover was probably the best birthday gift that my wife has ever received.

I don't drink coffee for any of the alleged benefits or alertness or any of that. I just like the taste (of some beans and some methods), the ritual and the communality.

As for the effects, I don't really notice any difference in alertness or any of that. Still, I have noticed that I sleep worse if I have coffee later in the day (unless decaf), so I avoid that. And, totally anecdotally, coffee seems to have helped with some migraine episodes that I get occasionally.

Edit: Perhaps worth adding that I have always had plenty of green and oolong tea, and the occasional caffeinated soft drink like Coke or Pepsi, so I did not go into coffee without any background with caffeine.

I think you’re meant to get into caffeine as an adult, as it can stunt your growth as a child if you take too much of it.

I don’t buy this idea that getting off caffeine has any benefit to it. Unless you’re drinking like 6 redbulls a day you’ll be fine health wise and caffeine is really one of the best and greatest stimulants you can take with very little drawbacks. When people quit caffeine they just go though headaches for no reason.

I started drinking coffee for the first time when I was a senior in high school. Didn’t do it very often and would only drink it black, because I was calorie conscious at the time. Started drinking it much more in college, Starbucks was on campus and I drank so much fraps. And then when I had to do all nighters is when I started drinking energy drinks. And would drink two to three of them throughout the night because I wouldn’t fall asleep until 12 hours later.

Now I’m a little more deliberate about my caffeine intake. A cup of coffee in the morning with Splenda and milk, and then an energy drink like Celsius, Alani, or Ghost. And I feel pretty good on that. Even through my evening workouts.