Fit Fare

That’s right: after 27 years, I’ve given up coffee.

We met back in 1980, when I was just about to go to university. I decided I would learn to like coffee, and that I would learn to like it black – on the grounds that students never have milk that hasn’t gone off. And I dare say there was an element of cool involved … after all, don’t you think that adding milk and sugar to take away the taste of the coffee is a bit, well, soft?

Coffee has stuck by me ever since – through the essay crisis, then through early mornings and late nights at the office, through those mornings when the children wake up before dawn and your sleep deficit is as big as the National Debt, and – now that I’m a home-based freelancer – through those awful blank-screen moments, when the only thing to do is to make a hot, strong, black coffee.

I’ve made endless cups of instant coffee, filter coffee, espresso and cafetiere coffee. I’ve bought machines that grind beans – and I’ve hand-ground them. Even in a pestle and mortar, when desperate. I’ve bought machines that spit steam and belch boiling water. I’ve bought beans from all over the world, and beans coated in chocolate and flavored with alcohol. I’ve drunk coffee in several different countries; in airports and in train stations; in tiny cafes, swanky restaurants and from a thermos on the beach.

As our relationship has matured, I’ve drunk more, stronger coffee. I’ve ordered double espressos, and I’ve taken to adding double the amount of granules to make a mug of instant coffee – and to going to the local wholesalers to get big cans of the stuff.

And now – my love-affair with coffee is off.

Whatever happened?

Well, not much – a five day bout of illness during which time I couldn’t face eating or drinking anything much. And since then I haven’t wanted a coffee. Sure, I’ve made some, several times – but I haven’t even managed to drink half a cup.

So, I sit here at my desk, having discarded my coffee-love of over a quarter of a century, with a cup of fennel tea.

Better for me? Maybe – fennel tea is supposed to be good for the digestion.

And we’ve all heard that caffeine isn’t too good for us: research suggests it can stiffen up the walls of your arteries, and may lead to a magnesium deficiency.

But the caffeine in coffee appears to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cirrhosis and gout - as well as improving your memory. And the antioxidants help prevent free radicals from causing cell damage.

Guess I’ll just have to get my caffeine from chocolate - lots and lots of chocolate.