For Fun - Lets Talk Coffee

How do you like your coffee? How much do you drink? Favorite recipes or products?

I personally drink instant decaf all day, about 84oz-112oz per day. I usually add some truvia and a splash of fairlife whole milk. Sometimes I experiment with sugar free chocolate syrup and SF salted caramel torani. I also love it with caramel premier protein.

Before surgery I loved black coffee - drip or americano - and I would never have considered drinking decaf or instant. About a month ago I decided to experiment with decaf for a few days to see if my intense afternoon fatigue was coffee related and it clearly was! I haven't had even a caffeinated tea since.

I was always told that coffee was an acquired taste which, to me, means "it tastes really horrible, but if you drink it a lot you'll get used to it!" So I never bothered.

That said, I own a coffee pot since my parents gave me one for Christmas one year so they could have coffee when they visited me :D And today I brewed coffee since it's a component in the slow cooker shredded BBQ beef I'm making for dinner tonight!

As far as caffeine goes, I stopped using caffeine in my 20s because I knew that I had formed a tolerance to it. I use it very, very rarely now and only when I "need" it. It had stopped working for me before, but now, since I use it so infrequently, it works when I need it to.

I like it light and sweet. Like grown up hot chocolate. My favorite is powdered sugar free french vanilla Coffeemate. Totally unnatural and delicious. I just have one cup in the morning. I had to give up caffeinated due to heart palpitations after surgery. Who knows if it's related, but I used to drink a ton of caffeinated beverages all day long (diet Coke, iced tea, coffee) and post surgery, just one and my heart goes crazy.

I usually start the morning with 12 oz of black coffee and then in the afternoon I have an iced coffee black. We have a Dunkin Donuts at work so I get the iced coffee from there. I get the morning coffee either from the cafeteria or a local coffee shop. I love americanos and sometimes get a decaf americano if I go to a coffee shot in the evening.

I stopped coffee before surgery and didn't have it for several months. I am fortunate that I haven't had any problems with it after surgery.

4 caffeinated in the morning (8 ounces each), plus an optional decaf in late afternoon. I use my keurig and prefer French Vanilla or Pumpkins Spice flavor, but will drink pretty much anything. I use 1 Splenda and a little SF coffeemate liquid (French vanilla or pumpkin spice), but use half and half if out. Luckily I have no ill effects from it, though I obviously am careful about caffeine in the afternoon because of a several year bout with insomnia in the past.

I miss how much I loved coffee before surgery. Sometimes I go to a restaurant and the coffee tastes wonderful to me. At home, it's all pretty much "meh" to me, despite different coffee makers, water, and coffee brands. Mostly it's due to how my taste buds changed for beverages post-surgery...I was one of the unlucky ones that had a major change (although not for food, thank goodness). It's taken a year, but I have found a few flavored coffees that taste pretty good to me that I use regularly, my number one being Cameron's Vanilla Hazelnut from Walmart. I will always drink coffee, it has been one of my lifelong pleasures, and I'm light and sweet...well not as sweet as before cuz I'm hyper-sensitive to sweet beverages post-surgery, but I still use H&H and xylitol in my coffee. (I have a sneaking suspicion that if I was willing to go back to sugar for my coffee, I might like it a lot better.)

I usually limit it to one 16oz cup a day, per my plans guidelines, to keep the caffeine from bothering my tummy. Occasionally I'll have a cup in the evening, but it's a rare thing when I have more than one a day.

I dream about the day my taste buds return, at least for coffee, and I can once again experience that amazing "Aaaaahhhh" feeling when I take a sip. Maybe one day...*sighs

ETA:

I love my coffee. Could not live without it. I make a couple of cups of strong coffee with plenty of half and half each morning. I have done this since a month after surgery with doctor's approval (ok I didn't tell him about the cream) but tracked it. I remember waking up the morning after my surgery in the hospital and smelling coffee and it smelled so good! I didn't have any of course but absolutely nothing else appealed to me. It is indeed nectar of the gods. My surgeon says its an appetite suppressant. I am drinking it now! Diane S

:D

I used to HATE coffee. Now I love it. I have my amazing keurig and I have 2-3 cups a day and split a vanilla protein shake between the three with a splash of SF Peppermint Mocha drink syrup. I cannot drink it without wither the shake as a sweetener, or Sweet 'n' Low to make it taste a bit better. I guess I really started coffee once I got to work and school after losing so much weight.

Before surgery I drank coffee like I ate dessert - occasionally and really over sweetened. Now I love it and can drink it black if need be, but I prefer it a bit milky. Sweetened I really only care for as part of iced coffee.