85% of US residents consume caffeine every day, meaning we probably have physical withdrawal symptoms if we don’t continue consuming it daily.
The specific delivery mechanism the US uses is coffee. Our society is structured so that you can access coffee almost anywhere. It’s the only mind-altering substance you can reliably get even in prison, in hospitals, and on airplanes.
But coffee isn’t a very convenient way of dosing yourself. It’s often too hot or too cold; it spills. You often need to go out of your way and stand in line to buy a serving. People will swallow a disgusting, badly-made brew because they need the caffeine.
If you’re dependent, carry a reliable supply
I suggest carrying caffeine tablets and using them
- When there won’t be tasty coffee/tea available
- When driving, leaving the house in a hurry, traveling, hiking, etc.
- When you want to know how much caffeine you’re getting, rather than an unknown amount of whatever is in the cup
Then have a coffee or tea when you’re actually going to enjoy it.
Better yet, keep a little pill holder in your bag, with cough drops and anything else you occasionally want one or two tablets of.
Or consider not being dependent
I’m currently in the daily caffeine camp. Some pros of regular caffeine use:
- Improved alertness and cognition
- Might help with depression (although I wouldn’t be surprised if this is “busy people drink more caffeine, and being busy is anticorrelated with depression”)
But maybe you don’t want to be dependent, because of the cons:
- Can worsen anxiety
- Vicious cycle of consuming caffeine late in the day, worse sleep, worse fatigue the next day
- Physical dependence: headache and generally feeling worse if you don’t consume it (lasting 2-9 days)
- Various physical symptoms like twitchiness and stomach irritation
- Monetary and time cost of making/buying caffeinated drinks
YMMV but thankfully, even though my coffee consumption was up to 5 (bad cafeteria) cups a day in my working years (plus I smoked while drinking them!), I didn’t have any trouble scaling down on the weekends or after I retired. These days, I enjoy a cup or two of well-made home-made coffee daily, starting with freshly-ground beans. If I have to forego coffee, no problem, and I’d rather have no coffee at all than bad coffee. So perhaps I’m lucky. Best of all, haven’t smoked for 25 years, which has accrued far more benefits than quitting coffee would, I think.
Along with what Craig said, there seems to be a lot of individual variation in how caffeine impacts people. For instance, if I have a cup of coffee after 1 PM, I know I’m not going to sleep well that night, even if I go to bed at 10 PM. There are others—though probably only a small minority—who can down a cup only a couple of hours before bedtime and sleep well.
Interesting that you mention it, because it was common in white-tablecloth restaurants decades ago to offer coffee after dinner, and I often chose it, caffeinated. Or espresso. And slept OK that night.
You can also get flavored caffeine powder packets. I keep some in my day bag and mix them into my water bottle when I need caffeine.
For the caffeine sensitive, or for when it’s later in the day and you want to micro-dose, I’m a fan of caffeine mints, which come in smaller doses than the pills I’ve seen. I use this brand, which has 12mg / about half a green tea per mint: https://www.amazon.com/Simply-Natural-Peppermint-Freshening-Artificial/dp/B087XVCW36