Atelier Doré

I can relate to that~
during my university days I worked as a barista in a local coffee shop and got used to have at least 4-6 big mugs of (good) coffee every day. Afterwards it took me quite a while to tone it down again. I had to since my stomach became upset in combination with an unhealthy amount of stress.
I still love and insist to have a mug of good black coffee in the morning and a cup in the afternoon, plus green tea in between and herb tea before bed. But I also insist to use these moments to drink in a calm manner – enjoying the taste, allowing myself to take a short break. My stomach was thankful for less coffee but even more for the conscious breaks
I think everybody needs to find his/her own level before stressing out over not to be stressed ;)

At first, headache, then (after about 12-15 days) elation. Things taste better :)

I’m a serious coffee lover.
I tried to transfer to decafe and it lasted for about a year.
Then someone who knows a lot about coffee explained me that the less time the coffee grounds are in contact with the water the less caffeine there will be in your drink.
(I guess the same goes for tea.)
It all comes down to preparation.

So espresso is actually not loaded with caffeine.
I think you should just enjoy your coffee!

Just listen to your inner voice – sometimes I feel that I’ve had too much coffee and I still take more. And then I understand that I don’t enjoy that cup and I just took it out of habit.

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Oui! Je ne bois plus de caffeine. J’ai arrête quand j’etais enceinte et je n’ai pas repris apres. Par contre j’aime le gout du café, alors je bois un (ou deux) decaf latte le matin et un après le dejeuner. Le reste de la journee c’est tisane. Parfois a midi je bois du the vert dans les restaurants asiatiques. Les deux 1ers mois ont ete suivis de maux de tete. Maintenant mon corps est habitué. Et il est devenu sensible a la caffeine, ce qui me parrait plus normal. Je suis beaucoup moins stressee et je n’ai plus de palpitations accelerees, ce que j’avais parfois a l’epoque ou je buvais beaucoup de café. Et le deca du matin me reveille toujours autant!

Garance, désolée de répondre à côté mais… Ca y est tu t’es mise au café filtre américain jus de chaussettes ?! Mais ?! Et ton côté français, tu as abandonné l’espresso ?

Vivement le café! Et le verre hebdo de vin por favor ????

hello, je viens de faire un bilan complet et le médecin m’a conseillé de ne boire qu’un café le matin (à la place de 5 ou 6 par jour)… et du thé dans la journée ou des tisanes… ça fait 1 mois que j’applique cela, je me sens en pleine forme et ma peau a changé!

I naturally stopped consuming caffeine when I graduated from university. Lucky for me, I start work at a decent time – 9:30am. Even when I sleep 6 hours or less, I don’t usually use caffeine. I’ve been off it for so long that I have really low tolerance for it. It makes me feel even more tired despite making me feel more alert (but in a crazy kind of way).

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I rarely drink coffee.
To me it is clear that caffeine gives us a false sense of alertness, to the point where we don’t know when we actually need to rest.
How can that be healthy?
I’d rather rely on 7 hours sleep, a brisk power walk, a chat with a friend for the energy!

Une ou deux tasses de café le matin, une petite théière de thé à siroter dans l’après-midi, et beaucoup d’eau (je n’aime pas le vin).
Je bois du café et du thé principalement pour le goût, parce qu’ils ne me réveillent pas du tout – et ne m’empêchent pas du tout de dormir non plus.
Vu les quantités, aucune raison de changer de si bonnes habitudes :-)
Belle soirée

Je consomme 5 a 6 tasses de thé par jour plus un espresso apres le dejeuner et fume une cigarette voire 2 ou 3 quand bon me semble. Faire fi de ce qui est « sensément mauvais » est très bon pour le moral. Manger de tout, en raisonnable quantité, se faire plaisir et cesser de croire que le « dairy free, fat free, sugar free, gluten free, caffeine free etc etc bla bla bla bla » est bon pour la santé .

I get you so well! I can drink, I don’t know, up to 7 cups of black tea a day if I’m staying in working on my laptop? Not to mention I’m starting to get why everybody loves coffee… The least I can do right now is balance it all out with enough still water intake!

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I love my coffee and drink about 2 at most during the day otherwise I feel too wired.

My boyfriend on the other hand, has the same habit as you and is always quite stressed. He once cut out all caffeine and only drank herbal teas for about 2 weeks and immediately noticed that he was sleeping better and feeling calmer. Didn’t last though and is now back to his usual habit.

Wait a minute. As reported in the press, many studies are demonstrating that coffee is not only NOT bad for people, but also, after comparing the health of people who drink coffee and those who do not, appears to provide health benefits.

For many years after I started drinking coffee–my grandmother introduced me to it in the 6th grade and I never looked back–there had been a steady drumbeat of press stories about studies suggesting bad consequences of caffeine. I simply refused to believe these studies, and now current medical research is doing a better job assessing the impact of caffeine and has basically debunked the earlier studies.

Unless one’s particular metabolism has negative reactions–insomnia, jitters–there is every reason to drink coffee, which, like wine, is one of nature’s gifts to man.

I would say it’s not too much coffee until it keeps you up at night when you want to sleep or if you feel jittery in a bad way. Moderation in all things really is the best way.

I am writing here for the first time because I was finishing my second cup at breakfast as I was reading this post. Pretty coffee cups!

Garance,
That does seem a bit much. I adore the yogi teas too, the digestive one is excellent.
I started drinking better coffee, something a bit more special and I can do one or two mugs and I’m good. On occasion I can add a treat like a latte or cafe au la but that’s about it, my chai tea lattes were more calories then my lunch- so they are gone!
When I did my first cleanse I cut out coffee for a week, it wasn’t awful but I missed the warmth from that morning cup. I think making adjustments it’s best, you seem to be balancing more and more out in your life just do the same with your coffee and tea. Add more water.
In the end of the day you need to be enjoying it all right..

I actually don’t drink caffeine. I prefer natural remedies and Berroca or just a good night’s sleep! x

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Manon je suis comme toi, accro au thé (depuis un séjour en Angleterre aussi !), j’essaie de réduire et je bois aussi de l’eau chaude avec une rondelle de citron, sauf que siroter ça toute la journée…attaque l’émail des dents ! comme quoi….

Could we please know where those beautiful gold coffee cups can be found???

Do everything in moderation and you will be fine- but only make the changes for yourself and not anyone else. You seem a little lost and stressed lately. Take care of yourself.

J’ai aussi réduit le café (parce que ça me fait mal à l’estomac), j’ai remplacé par du thé matcha, matin et / ou après-midi et je suis une nouvelle fan de ce thé ! Il apporte beaucoup d’énergie sans les palpitations et est plein de bonnes choses.
Ceci dit, une tasse de café par jour, ou deux max, c’est plein d’anti oxydants aussi, quand on le supporte bien il n’y pas de raison de s’en priver je pense.

yes, I wonder about coffee health benefits vs consequences. sometimes I tried to go on a coffee diet (although I love it) and swap with green tea.

if you’re accustomed to several cups of caffeine a day, I think it would be difficult, well, if you reduce that suddenly, you would get withdrawal headaches. also I think the body can sometimes acclimate to a certain amount of caffeine you’re used to and it’s not strong enough as before and so you feel like you want more and more. so for some people I think if you drink a little less from time to time, it would make the caffeine more effective again. but I’m not an MD, it is kind of my personal experience, reading (on the brain), and intuition.

lately I’m into sparkling water (ideally mineral water for some health benefits but citrus flavored will do). also I sometimes consume these sugar free vanilla mints addictively. I feel like cold mineral water just wakes up my mind and feels fresh. I also feel like mint flavors do something similar psychologically. maybe it is just my emotional association but they are kind of a substitute for coffee. (sugar-free is probably not that great over the long haul but it will do for now)

lastly, I’m getting back to chickory coffee lately. I read it’s supposed to be a little healthy for your gut (not sure if my brand has significant chickory) but I’m very interested in the health of my gut microbiome (bacteria) lately b/c it affects things like your weight and psychological state.

From my experience… When life is stressful, don’t take away the comforts of coffee or a coffee break. But you should do what you want, I’ve tried cutting it out, without much to say about it really. So I’ve kept drinking it, maybe try this and see how you feel so you don’t feel the guilt for having coffee, wine, or the odd cigarette. I have 3 espressos a day, wine when i either need to unwind or celebrate a few times a week or month, and a few cigarettes a year. No biggie.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. Enjoy your success, you deserve it, you work very hard and its amazing. I love your blog.

Alors, ca ne va pas t’aider mais te permettra sans doute de relativiser.
Je bois au moins 3 fois plus de cafés que toi chaque jour, du petit déjeuner jusque tard dans la soirée (le dernier vers 23h en général).
Je ne pense pas que ça me stresse ou que ça m’empêche de dormir.
Par contre, je suis DEpEnDANTE !
C’est à dire que je ne peux PAs boire moins de 3-4 cafés dans une journée, sinon j’ai des migraines terribles (=signe de dépendance).
Quand je suis malade, je dois prévoir un minimum de cafés pour ne pas aggraver mon état.
En vacances, je repère les spots où on sert de vrais cafés…
À oui, j’oubliais, je ne bois que : des doubles expressos.
Les cafés américains (=allongés ) me rendent malades.
Donc je n’ai pas de conseil, mais j’espère que ça t’aide de savoir qu’il y a pire que toi !!
Bises

Non, moi je ne peux pas vivre sans café, je sais ainsi que c’est une drogue; la seule fois dans ma vie où je n’ai pas pu en boire, c’est quand j’étais enceinte de ma fille, tout d’un coup ça me dégoûtait, enfin seulement les 3 premiers mois, hein, ma fille avait bien compris qu’il ne fallait pas que ça dure cette histoire! En revanche, j’ai totalement arrêté le thé, du jour au lendemain alors que j’en buvais 2 par jour, quand j’ai su que j’étais très anémiée, car le thé noir empêche de fixer le fer… Et ça ne me manque pas, pas du tout, c’est étonnant car j’en buvais tous les jours depuis des années! Mais le café, ça j’aurai du mal à m’en passer, c’est sûr! Bises toutes les café-lovers!! ;)

That does not sound like a lot to me. Read into that whatever you would like about my own coffee intake. Plus, « they » say coffee is good for you. So, science.

I used to drink 6-7 big cups of coffee every day. Then, as part of New Year’s resolutions I ate only raw food for a week and drank water only :-) After seven days, I realised I don’t need so much coffee and I now drink only one cup in the morning and very rarely one espresso after lunch. Try it, your skin will appreciate it!

Hi Garance, I hope going through a really stressful time doesn’t mean you are feeling overworked… I am going through such a thing right now and recognize your urge to try to tackle every single thing that might have gotten you out of balance, or stressed out (or to try every single thing that might get you back in balance, like meditation). I’ve read somewhere that if we are under continuous stress, we focus on completing our to do lists, reaching our deadlines (creating shortime order in the chaos), but on a cognitive level are not able to reflect and listen to our needs (which sucks – if only our body would have a loud voice all the time, but I guess then we would not get to high levels at all, which would be a pitty too… ). Anyhow, take it easy, you have been building for such a long time, that taking some time to just harvest and reset should be ok, don’t you think? We won’t walk away. I promise ;-)

I had to stop coffee due to severe stomach aches and, well, it was tough, but I feel in much better shape since I stop.
I miss the taste/ smell of it, though, but my body says thank you to the green tea diet I’ve been on since.

Hey Garance, I switched from drinking a couple of cups of coffee to drinking black tea – even though it also consists of stimualting substances, I feel much better with it. Most of the days I don’t get the afternoon-tiredness as I feel like black tea does not affect the body that « volatile » (from super hyper to snoozy tired) and I often got quite jittery from too much coffee. Another plus: nowadays, drinking a real good cup of coffee (I got much more choosy) is so much more of a treat as it is not about fighting the tiredness.

Let us know how it is going for you, if you are making any changes.

Medical studies have demonstrated that caffeine is good for your brain, your blood ….etc So feel free to drink coffee, you should try espresso without sugar of course, better taste and less caffeine than in those big mugs. Another point is that tea is worst than coffee and not so good for your health unless you get some green or herbal ones.
So strong coffees in the morning, one after lunch of course then water and herb tea ! We all need to get rid of those « préjugés »…..

Hi Garance! I too drink a lot of coffee (I justify this because it’s almost always black Greek/Turkish coffee so it’s totally fine ;-) ) and apparently there is a study that shows you are genetically predisposed to your coffee/caffeine tolerance. (http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/v20/n5/full/mp2014107a.html)
Some people can drink three+ cups/servings no problem, some people can’t have any and some are in between that. If it doesn’t make you jittery/queasy then you’re probably fine!

-AK