I was in the break room kitchen the other day when one of my coworkers saw my decaf coffee and made the comment “There’s a time and place for decaf; in the TRASH and NEVER!”

An apology was offered shortly with the standard question,  “So why do you drink decaf? What’s the point?” It’s a good question really.  I offered her the basic reasons such as my acid reflux or heart palpitations. Afterwards I decided to compile my list of reasons to drink decaf to help out my fellow decaf lovers when asked this question!

What’s the point of drinking decaf? People drink decaf for varied reasons including avoiding caffeine for health reasons, avoiding jitters, to not disturb sleep, or fear of complications with medications. Decaf offers a great alternative to those who enjoy the robust and unique taste of coffee without wanting caffeine.

Listed here are 42 reasons to drink decaf coffee!  Full disclosure this is meant to be a fun list and thought provoking. I’m not a doctor but maybe I’ll play one on TV someday!  Nothing here is medical advice and most is research based (though intentionally uncited) that like any good research only serves to confuse the matter more!  If you want to skip right to drinking some great decaf read my article on the 20 must try decafs here!

42 Reasons to Drink Decaf!

1. It has about 97% less caffeine than regular.  Pretty obvious but not all of us can tolerate the effects of caffeine on our bodies.   From personal experience, if I drink too much caffeine early in the day by the time dinner comes I’m feeling anxious, shaky and like I need to take deep breaths.  Many people have shared similar experiences. Interestingly caffeine takes about 5 hours to be removed from your system. The last cup of coffee you have may be a good indicator when you can expect the jitters or that feeling of anxiousness.  I try to not drink caffeine after around 10 am anymore because I found my anxiety peaked right when I got home from work. That’s hard when you have little kids wanting attention and to play!
2. Caffeine screws up your sleep!  Most people drink coffee to stay awake.  As I mentioned caffeine takes about 5 hours to get out of your system.  Binging on that coffee late at night to meet that deadline is probably destroying your entire nights sleep.  I find it hard to fall asleep and stay asleep when I have had coffee late at night. So unless the boss gave you the ultimatum to have your TPS report on his desk in the morning or your fired, skip the late night coffee.
3. Heart palpitations and rapid heart rate are the reason my wife and mother in law no longer drink regular coffee.  My wife felt like she was having a heart attack one day after having too much coffee. That never makes having a cup of coffee enjoyable!  This is surprisingly common side effect that some people knowingly accept.  
4. Acid reflux is aggravated by caffeinated coffee. Having acid reflux is what drove me to decaf, after discovering it was caffeinated coffee causing it. I found some interesting research that backs up my findings and found an interesting point, caffeine added to water did not increase acid reflux. There seems to be some other mechanism at work that makes caffeine in coffee aggregating to acid reflux. I am guessing it’s probably the PH of the coffee that is the driving mechanism as most coffee is between 4-5 on the PH scale.
5. Caffeine has no flavor and does not contribute to the coffees deliciousness! Yup you read that right. Bombshell I know. This one is one of my best responses for people giving me a hard time over decaf. Most of the time after seeing my decaf coffee bag people say “You don’t really like coffee do you?!” Well that’s a stupid idea if you ask me! I have found decaf drinkers to be the most passionate coffee lovers out there because they treat it like a fine wine instead of cheap beer. They drink it for the love of coffee, not the caffeine high!
6. People still like the robust eye opening flavors of coffee even without caffeine. This is totally personnel preference but I find a hot cup of decaf still wakes me in the morning. I find the bold flavor and warmth to really be stimulating. It helps right away, so it’s not the small amount of caffeine either.
7. Most people don’t notice if you switch out the regular coffee anyway. This is another personnel favorite I love telling people. “Oh I switched the coffee out for decaf two months ago you didn’t notice?!” Okay I didn’t really but it’s fun to see the look on their face 🙂 I do however only serve decaf at parties and no one has ever been able to tell. Usually the people who tell me they can tell, also buy the cheapest sale coffee and mention its pretty good. Seriously mass produced supermarket brand coffee is pretty good? And they laugh at my organic, micro roasted Indian Monsoon decaf coffee.
8. There’s nothing like the warmth of a hot beverage on a cold day. Who drinks iced tea in the snow? Enough said!
9. It makes some people paranoid. I haven’t found this to be true for myself but more than one person has said this on Reddit. They might have other issues going on and medications they didn’t mention.
10. You don’t need caffeine for any reason. Seriously, absolutely no reason, unless you work a life or death job. There is no nutritional requirement for caffeine and it really just becomes another legal drug to get addicted too.
11. You have high blood pressure and can’t handle caffeine jacking it up more. Fortunately I don’t have high blood pressure but if you did you might really want to avoid caffeine completely. What’s the big deal about high blood pressure? The American Heart Association lists heart attack, stroke, vision loss or even sexual dysfunction as symptoms of high blood pressure. Those are almost as bad as a crappy cup of decaf!!
12. Caffeine can feel like a hangover. Yup we have all been there. The caffeine hangover from drinking way too much the day before. The dehydration I get from regular coffee gives me massive headaches.
13. Its relaxing to enjoy a cup at night before bed. I love drinking decaf at 11 pm and not worrying about going to sleep. I’m sure there’s some study that probably says it’s bad for my sleep but it doesn’t seem to affect me. I have written many articles on this website at 11 pm at night while drinking my decaf. If you are curious to know more read my article on “Will Decaf Keep you Awake at Night?” to get some great first hand experience!
14. Coffee has the antioxidants not the caffeine. The health benefits are present in decaf as well! There are many studies out there directly and indirectly on the health effects of regular versus decaf. I won’t dive into them here but I have not really found any of these studies particularly earth shattering. Most focus on indirect studies or some fractional statistical significance. While accurate and true it doesn’t really mean much when you conflate a real person’s diet and lifestyle with a clinical trial. Long story short I have never read of a study that conclusively proved one being healthier than the other.
15. Caffeine may cause kidney stones! But then again maybe not. Confusing and contradictory research. One study claimed a 10% reduction in kidney stones for both caffeinated and decaf drinkers! Another study claimed a correlation between caffeine and kidney stones. One thing for sure caffeine can dehydrate you and that can lead to kidney stones!
16. Caffeine has been linked to causing diarrhea. Some people blame coffee in general for causing diarrhea but I’m not sure there is much science to this claim in general. I did find an interesting article on Scientific American that claims a typical 16 oz coffee has almost as much fiber as a whole apple!
17. Some research has shown it can lead to more bone fractures and decreased bone mineral density.
18. Pregnant women should avoid caffeine for their babies health. Caffeine does cross into the baby and affects them. This article references possible birth defects and other health issues with having too much caffeine during pregnancy.
19. If your kids drink some they don’t go bouncing off the walls. This is a nice bonus now that my kids are getting older and want a sip of my coffee. I don’t have to worry about them getting too much caffeine and running more wild or not going to bed at night.
20. Just to annoy baristas and coffee snobs everywhere! Seriously this makes people mad for no real reason. Some baristas give you look and act like you did something wrong.
21. Because you want to be different! Who wants to drink regular like everyone else?
22. It’s always made fresh since most places don’t keep a pot on hand. This is one of the best reasons to drink decaf. Think about it fresh coffee, made for you everywhere you go!
23. Some brands hide crappy coffee behind extreme caffeine marketing. You know who I mean! They probably buy the caffeine extract from the decaf coffee processors! That said Robusta beans have more caffeine then Arabica and often are used in these coffees despite there inferior taste.
24. That said caffeine does not make a coffee bolder or stronger! As I mentioned it has no flavor, so all this marketing about extreme caffeine really adds up to no flavor. Strong bold coffee comes from using more coffee or brewing dark roast!
25. Just because it has caffeine doesn’t mean its good coffee. I can’t count the number of times people assume they drink better coffee then me because its caffeinated. Again most telling me they got it on sale and how they feel bad I drink that terrible decaf.
26. People that know how to roast decaf generally are working to produce an above average coffee at a similar price as most decent regular coffees. I don’t know of any small roaster that sets out to make crappy decaf and most try to roast it to perfection regardless of what type of bean it is.
27. In most cafes the cost is the same for decaf as regular.  The myth that it costs more is not really true in practice.  Its somewhat true if you buy roasted beans but I have never seen a cafe that charged more for decaf.
28. You are probably hiding bad habits with caffeine like not sleeping enough, or putting off critical tasks to the last minute. Go to bed too late after that Game of Thrones marathon?  Not study for that big test until the night before? Sounds familiar? Yeah you’re probably covering up other bad habits with coffee. Go to bed early, or study the week leading up to that big test.  Drink decaf while your doing it and laugh at those suckers drinking 100 oz of regular coffee at 11:45!  
29. There’s no calories in decaf like other drinks like hot chocolate.  This isn’t so much an argument against regular but it is still true.  Decaf black coffee has very few calories in it compared to other drinks like a hot chocolate or energy drinks.  Caffeine aside it’s nice to have a low calorie drink that tastes great!
30. Coffee ice cream is still awesome without caffeine!  This is a great one to make on a hot summer day to enjoy caffeine free!
31. Decaf drinkers are true coffee lovers, who enjoy the nuanced flavors of a good cup.  We don’t hide behind the crutch of caffeine to get us through our days. We really love the flavor and enjoyment of sampling tasty coffees.  Case in point next time a regular coffee drinker puts down your decaf, ask them what they favorite origin is. Then promptly ask what flavor they enjoy most in coffee.  99% change they can’t name one flavor other than chocolate, roasty or nuts. You can casually mention you find the bright acidity refreshing combined with the stone fruit flavors and peach aromas mixed with lavender!  
32. It makes you a better consumer because it forces you to know the products inside and out. It’s so easy to not pay attention to what you are buying when there’s hundreds of choices available.  Sure you get more options and you can be more picky but most people pick what sounds good and move one. With decaf you have less choices so differences stand out much more. I never would have learned so much about the coffee I was buying if I hadn’t started drinking decaf.  It forced me to look more at what I was buying and exposed me to different aspects like bird friendly or water processed. Maybe all artisan roasters are excited to tell you about their coffee but it seems decaf gets much more attention.  
33. You can support local and small roasters more because you can’t get good stuff anywhere. This might be the most critical reason to drink decaf other then personnel health.  You can get decent caffeinated coffee just about anywhere. Decaf is a lot hard. The people that roast great decaf deserve to be rewarded and are probably great roasters of all coffee.  IF you find a great decaf reward the local or small producer and buy it even if its more expensive.  
34. Caffeine is considered by the FDA to be a food additive and drug and recommend a max of 400mg per day.  That’s 2-3 cups of regular or 100 cups of decaf 🙂 Just in case the FDA decides to start regulating caffeine, you might want to consider drinking more decaf!  But seriously it just goes to show how much caffeine people are unknowingly drinking and thinking is normal.  
35. Most people forget one cup is not whatever bucket you put it in.  A cup is defined as 8 oz which means most people literally probably drink 10-20 cups per day!  You might really be drinking 2000-4000 mg of caffeine per day!  
36. You don’t want your boss to think your a drug addict because you run out of meetings with shaky hands for the coffee pot!  We have all been there, no judgement!
37. Some medications are reduced in effectiveness by caffeine and some medications block the absorption of caffeine keeping it in your system longer!  Just imagine if you are taking multiple medications how complex that interaction could get!
38. You get irritable if you are having a caffeine withdrawals!  No one wants to around the cranky puss who didn’t have their am coffee fix.  
39. You can have muscle aches with caffeine withdrawal.  It is even so prominent that the DSM has now listed caffeine withdrawal as a disorder! 
40. Over consumption of caffeine can cause pregnancy issues like miscarriage. 
41.  Regular coffee can interfere with the bodies calcium absorption.  
42. Decaf will help you slowly detox and wean yourself from regular coffee which as you read has lots of benefits!!  

Conclusion

Hopefully after reading this list you are ready for the next time someone frowns at your decaf. Remember caffeine has no flavor, no nutritional value, and they won’t tell the difference anyway! 

If you enjoyed this article head over to my resources page to find great coffees and gear to brew the best decaf ever!