Decaf Coffee

Drinking decaf coffee is an occasionally necessary evil. Perhaps dinner ended late, and you know that if you enjoy an after-dinner cup, you won't be able to get to sleep when you need to. Or perhaps your doctor has suggested cutting down on caffeine to see whether it affects a health issue you might have. The problem for real coffee lovers is that decaf coffee just doesn't quite taste as good as your regular cup. How can you cut back on caffeine without losing the satisfaction?

The first suggestion I'd offer is to move up a step or two when buying decaf coffee. If you usually drink a medium-roast coffee that sells for an average price, buy a pound of decaf in a darker roast, pay a little more for a superior bean, and/or brew it a little stronger. It might make all the difference.

You might also try creating your own blend. Experiment with different kinds of decaf coffee and perhaps add a few beans of an intensely flavored regular coffee just to give it a little zip. Moving up to specialty coffees in and of itself will help you cut down on your caffeine intake. The lower-priced supermarket coffees are usually made with robusto rather than arabica beans, and robusto beans have almost twice the caffeine.

More Decaf Coffee vs. Less Regular Coffee

Another approach to lowering your caffeine intake is simply to drink less coffee. This is especially true if, like me, you constantly slurp less-than-stellar coffee at work. Instead of four cups of poor coffee or decaf coffee, have just one or two cups of really good coffee, carefully brewed and appreciatively savored. It's like having one piece of really excellent chocolate instead of a whole cheap candy bar: less, in this situation, is definitely more.