You know you drink too much coffee when you can sit through class, meetings, events etc. having drunk a double tall, a couple of espresso shots or a mug of paint thinner strength coffee and yet struggle to stay awake.
I have friends who tell me that if they drink a cup of coffee in the afternoon they’ll have a problem falling sleep later that evening… are you kidding me! When I drink really strong coffee, the most I can hope for in terms of staying away and alert is two hours tops and even that is pushing it.
So how is it that come to be that coffee or maybe more precisely caffeine does not really have to much of an effect on me? I think it comes from my younger days growing up in Kenya. I come from a tribe (and culture) where we drink tea ALL, and I mean ALL the time. And that includes an nice strong cup of English Breakfast tea right before my bedtime. I remember once when I was older and I spent a few days at my grandfather’s place, my grandmother would always have a pot of tea on the fire and regardless of the time of day or night, if I wanted tea, there it was. So I essentially grew up enjoying good English Breakfast tea.
I also laugh when I think of my boarding school days in Kakamega. I laugh because one thing that we students really prized was Nescafe Instant Coffee. As far as we were concerned, this was truly the nectar of the Gods… well that and the local moonshine. You get this can of crystallized coffee which you simply add water, maybe milk and voila! Au Lait! I now shudder when I think back and wonder what the hell I was drinking.
But it was to be a few years later when I added lattes to my list of daily beverages. This came in college when my buddy, Penny, who was a barista, decided to entice me with a free latte. This is truly the power of marketing via free samples. Fortunately or unfortunately, I have never looked back. I have been regularly drinking lattes ever since. I used to go for the double 16 oz latte but I find that was way too much milk so I settled on the good old 12oz or tall as we like to say here in Seattle.
With all coffee (and tea too) I drink, I now find that the good old double shot does not keep me awake if I am feeling sleepy, but I would not enjoy a triple shot because that is simply way too much coffee even for me … and my stomach. Ahh the joys of coffee
[...] public links >> lattes My Dear Coffee Addiction Saved by derHobbit on Fri 24-10-2008 Chai Tea Latte Saved by Kamdonion on Wed 22-10-2008 Lattes [...]