[krylon]

I stopped drinking coffee regularly about half a year ago. Before, I drank about a liter of fairly strong coffee per day, now I drink one to two liters of green tea.

Early withdrawal was unpleasant, mainly fatigue and headaches (then again, I've seen alcoholics detox, caffeine is withdrawal is a walk in the park in comparison), but that lasted only a couple of days.

My biggest surprise was that the "booster" effect of coffee in the early morning might have been a pure placebo effect - I am still quite groggy when I get up in the morning (then again, I get up 05:40 on workdays), but that clears up by the time I leave for work, plus I do not get the early afternon crash anymore.

On the other hand, the vegetative effects of coffee were substantial in retrospect, I now sweat a lot less, and my blood pressure has gone down.

I still do drink coffee on occasion, mainly on weekends, but a) it is not as strong, b) I drink less.

Also, green tea is an awesome substitute in terms of taste. The coffee I used to drink tasted like sewage in comparison.

[Sulfolobus]

2L of green tea can have as much caffeine as 1L of coffee, although exact amounts can vary massively depending on various brewing methods for each and the exact coffee or tea.

[maaaats]

> My biggest surprise was that the "booster" effect of coffee in the early morning might have been a pure placebo effect

It's not necessarily placebo, but the fact that your body has adjusted to caffeine, so you need it in the morning to reach "normal" levels.

[jacalata]

But he is saying that he experiences the same ramp-up in the mornings without caffeine, so what he thought was the experience of going from uncaffeinated to normal appears to have been unrelated to the caffeine and was actually the experience of going from just-woken-up to awake.

[maxerickson]

I find that I have little in the way of cravings/grogginess/crashing if I stick to about 30 floz (~0.9 liters, strong drip) in the morning. Even just bump that 40 floz and I notice a lot more unwanted effects.