Coffee is the linchpin of a happy life. The day begins and the night ends with the first coffee. This is the moment when the daily calendar begins anew. This is where existence is divided into past and future. This is where the aroma of ground coffee creates the pure present. Here is. Coffee.

Bremen coffee importer Ludwig Roselius suspected that caffeine had killed his father. So in 1903 he developed a process for decaffeinating coffee. I believe that my father brought forward his fatal heart attack with the help of caffeine. But I didn't know that 20 years ago. I was young, my father was alive. So I started drinking coffee as early as possible and by 17 I was routinely writing essays in my first apartment of my own with the help of ADD, cigarettes and espresso - late into the night. Despite congenital sleep disorders, I maintained an unhealthy level of coffee consumption for years. I noticed that my tolerance was steadily decreasing and at 25 I had to reduce the number of espressos I drank and bring the last one forward to lunchtime. Soon after, I drank the last one at 10 in the morning so that I could sleep at all. From there, it was reduced to a single espresso with breakfast.

Zero tolerance

Now it was suddenly only a small step to a crazy self-experiment: no more coffee at all. And one gray morning I did it. I wanted to find out if there was a natural sleep-wake rhythm. Would I possibly be more creative?
It felt like sacrilege. Somehow indecent and unpleasant. I was distraught and kept falling asleep uncontrollably throughout the morning. But it actually got better over time. Yes, it worked. I got on with it, reorganized myself and felt less inner turmoil. I only really regretted it when I had slept badly and there was nothing I could do to calm my nerves. So I bought green tea for those days. And learned to love it - a worthy drink for difficult mornings. It had an effect on my creative work, the transition from sleep to work was now calmer. Like a blossom, my brain opened up organically to the work process, without the bang that you need to gather yourself after.

Microdosing

But something was still missing: the smell and taste of coffee. I have always loved sniffing freshly ground coffee, a smell that is part of the core of my coffee-addicted family. And I longed for it again in cup form. And lo and behold, decaffeinated coffee also smells delicious! So I started drinking a cup of the finest coffee from time to time: organic, Italian, decaffeinated. When I was particularly tired, I would mix in a spoonful of normal coffee - and so began microdosing, experimenting with small doses of caffeine, much smaller than normal. An enjoyable ritual. I now drink a cup of coffee every morning, in higher or lower doses depending on my mood. It ranges from a tiny pinch of caffeine to about half the coffee powder. So I'm only a little addicted and adjust my caffeine intake daily to my actual needs, personalized coffee consumption so to speak, always with the good feeling of not killing myself. With the tiny dose, I wake myself up a little more rudely, but still relaxed enough to glide into the creative process without any problems.