When I was growing up, coffee was considered to be an adult beverage. All of my adult relatives drank coffee, but I don’t remember it ever being offered to children. The first time I remember drinking coffee was when I was 12 or 13 years old. I was hunting with my father and he had a thermos of coffee. When we stopped to eat our sandwiches for lunch it was cold and he offered me his coffee cup. the cup was the steel lid of his thermos and the coffee was very hot. It burned as I attempted to drink it and it didn’t taste very good. But I was very pleased to be invited into the community of adults with the offer, so I didn’t complain. I didn’t, however, begin to drink coffee on a regular basis for several years.

When I went to college, I had to change quite a few of my habits. Prior to my college years I was primarily a recreational reader. In college I had large amounts of reading that had to be accomplished. I found myself getting sleepy when trying to complete my reading. Since I had been accustomed to reading myself to sleep at night, I decided to stop that practice. I told myself that I could only read when sitting at a desk. When I found myself still occasionally getting sleepy while reading, I decided it was time to replace the hot chocolate that I was used to drinking with my breakfast. Switching to coffee worked for me. Before long, I was drinking coffee with all of my meals and even had a small percolator in my dorm room. I told myself and others that the caffeine didn’t have any effect on me. I had no problems going to sleep at night. I’d crawl into bed and sleep soundly until time to get up in the morning. My college work study job was opening the library each morning, so I rose early. Generally I was the first one in my dormitory to rise. There was a coffee pot at the library and I made brewing a fresh pot part of the routine of unlocking the building and getting it ready for the day.

After college and graduate school we moved to North Dakota. We noticed right away that it was simply assumed that we drank coffee. When worship was finished everyone went to the fellowship hall and had coffee. When we visited church members in their homes they served us coffee. People didn’t ask us if we wanted coffee, they simply served it. We adopted the same practice. When people came to our house, we poured cups of coffee and sat down to talk.

As the years went by I became a bit of a coffee snob. I purchased a coffee grinder and began to purchase beans from specialty coffee shops. While we still lived in North Dakota, I was buying my coffee when I made a trip to a larger town. We didn’t do much shopping out of town, but I preferred the freshness of the whole beans I could get in bigger towns. I also noticed that I was brewing my coffee much stronger than was typical in our town. Folks drank a lot of coffee, but it wasn’t very strong. I got compliments on the coffee I served to others and I thought it was in part because I was brewing a stronger cup than they could get at the cafe.

Later, when we lived in Idaho, I purchased my first espresso machine. I went to a Starbucks store for the first time in Portland, Oregon and began to develop at taste for specialty coffee shops. I also allowed myself to pay much more for a cup of coffee than was typical in most places. Since I lived over 400 miles from the specialty shops, such coffee was a rare treat and didn’t have an impact on our family budget. Before we moved from Idaho, there were more specialty coffee shops, including a few in Boise, where we lived. The move back to the Dakotas meant that I didn’t find many coffee shops that were to my liking. Over our years in South Dakota there were more and more coffee shops opening as the trend swept the nation.

I began to notice signs of caffeine addiction. When I didn’t have my coffee, I began to develop headaches. At one point I decided to stop drinking coffee, except for an occasional cup of decaf. The first couple of weeks were rough. I missed the coffee, but after a few days the headaches lessened and I noticed that my heart rate slowed. Then one day my doctor detected an abnormal hearth rhythm. An ECG was ordered and the premature contractions were diagnosed. I wore a continuous monitor for a few weeks. Among the recommendations of the doctor was to cut back on caffeine. I decided to quit drinking coffee. I still enjoyed the process of making espresso drinks, so I switched to decaffeinated coffee.

After a scare with an irregular heart rhythm, my wife also stopped drinking coffee. We switched to tea and when we moved to Washington the espresso machine remained boxed for three years. There are many flavorful herbal teas that have no caffeine and we avoid black, green, and white teas that have caffeine in them. I still enjoy a cup of decaf from time to time.

Then I read an article about how decaffeinated coffee is made. Since coffee beans come from an naturally caffeinated plant, the process of removing the caffeine can involve a lot of processing. The most typical process involves chemical solvents, primarily with methylene chloride. Methylene chloride doesn’t seem to be a very safe ingredient, however. It is the chemical in paint strippers and paint removers and is also used in degreasing metal. A small amount of the substance, 10 parts per million, is still allowed on coffee beans.

I am careful to purchase beans that are decaffeinated using the Swiss Water method. That method doesn’t use any chemicals. The green beans are soaked in water for several hours allowing the caffeine to naturally separate from the beans.

It is simpler to select herbal teas. Peppermint tea has only one ingredient: peppermint leaves. It is easy to grow at home and inexpensive to buy in packages.

I still have a cup of decaf from time to time, but much less often than before. And that expensive espresso machine makes good steamed milk for tea lattes.