I kicked caffeine out of my house and home a couple of weeks back. It simply got too much for me in the end. I'd become addicted to increasingly stronger and stronger coffee (espresso's especially).
It started a few years back with the 'junior coffee' that is Nescafe Mellow Birds (which my mum still drinks and loves to this day...) - an exceptionally mild high, akin to a warm twix bar and a run downstairs to answer a cold call. From here I progressed onto the larger granules (Mellow Birds appear to be mere dust gatherings from a coffee factory to me) then onto, what I considered sophisticated at the time, Douwe Egberts. An exaggerated heaped teaspoon of this stuff (dark blend) then I'd feel like Zippy at a Klaxons gig. I then veered my Java'd up liberal brain palette towards the Fair Trade numbers (like café direct). My daily cup of highs felt oh so pleased with themselves now.
Of course during these times I'd also insert the odd cup of tea into the mix. Strong with a rumour of milk squirted into it's dark canyon and I'd be happy. Vegan Electro person Moby has a nice range of tea's you can grab from one or two cafés in Manchester which I'd often sip whilst an AAC file was downsharing into my ears.
Not so long ago, some Italian friends of ours gave us a Bialetti stove top coffee machine as a gift.
This is where the addiction took on a more pronounced edge. The ceremony itself got my visceral synapses flicking like a rained on, half hearted neon sign on the outskirts of a city. A normal morning would see me orally receiving 4 shots of the stuff, often with a dash of the cow juice, occasionally with a small gift of hazelnut syrup (I became friends with that stuff when I stayed in San Francisco in the US states of American USA).
However, during the past couple of months I noticed that my ticker was seemingly independent of any form of rhythm during one or two periods in the day. It was though it had been aurally studying free form jazz via the Braindance movement...mashed up drill and bass narrated by Christopher Walken. I think at this stage it was time to knock this trip on the head...so I gave up caffeine.
The first week or so felt like I'd been left out on top of a Ferris wheel during mid winter in Glasgow (I know this because I once was left out on top of a Ferris wheel mid winder in Glasgow...). I'd have aches, shivers a general unwell being permeating my limbs and various sacks. But, eventually I began to feel better than ever – the palpitations have somewhat subsided and I'm no longer wearing the junior smack head costume so noticeable in my full on caffeine addiction.
I'm looking around for herbal coffee's (which allow you the coffee making ceremonys via the stove top Bialetti et al) but they're hard to come by at the moment. I'll take a trip this week to somewhere like Chorlton...I'm sure I'll find such beverage there.
In the meantime I've discovered Rooibos (speaked proper it leaves your mouth as 'Roy-Bos' which translates as 'Red Bush') - a naturally caffeine free tea from South Africa. It is actually rather nice (you have to experiment with a couple of brands mind) and since I've been 'using' this tea I've had some pretty vivid dreams (some quite frankly, are a few shades darker than blue). It's beneficial properties must be snaking their way into my mind bits.
Fantastic.
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