1. Coffee, yes or no? If not, any other caffeine-laden drink to help get through the day?

2. How many cups usually?

3. What brand?

4. How do you take it?

Me: I started drinking coffee regularly about a year ago for that extra boost during work, but also because I discovered I liked mostly black coffee with meals.

I usually do a 16oz cup at breakfast and a 12oz with lunch. If I have a meeting or something early on, I'll sub in a 20oz at breakfast (I'm definitely not a morning person) and skip the one at lunch. During game sessions on the weekend, it's the perfect excuse to duck out to Royal Farms and get some fresh air.

We have Wawa coffee at work and it's preferable to the other type (Starbucks). But Royal Farms is the hands-down winner for me right now and both Seattle's Best (Subway) and (shockingly) McDonalds are quite tasty as well.

I do two sugars, just to add a bit of flavor. Growing up, my mom always used a lot of cream and I never cared for coffee that had that much milk in it. I started liking it black.

No.

If I'm very tired and have to stay up late, I will grab a cup of coffee with milk and sugar. But that is the exception. The general rule is no. I do however love my green tea!

STC Coffee Thread v3.0, perhaps -- after v1.0 and v2.0.

Recall my own personal goal from a little over a year ago in this thread.  It was slow in the going, but I'm happy to report that I've now halted my caffeine intake to a very reasonable rate.  Soda is now relegated to a once-in-a-blue-moon treat, while coffee, once again, as a dinner-out beverage with dessert or at a social gathering.  Those few times I do drink, it's usually a bold blend like Sumatra or Italian Roast.  I used to love their Gingerbread Latte, but Starbucks' Guatemalan Casi Cielo has become my number one choice now.

With the weather getting colder, I fear it may be easier to dip back into my at-home java addiction again.  (There are days when tea doesn't cut it.)  It also doesn't help that I got this fancy new French press for my birthday this year, which I've been dying to try out.  That, and I've got bags of leftover Malaysian White Coffee to use up from when I was addicted to it a few years back.

No major changes for me since Coffee Thread 1.0.  If I'm feeling drowsy at work I'll have a single cup of a Japanese brand called Maxim (no there aren't any sexy girls on the packaging, unfortunately).  Like to have a latte or caramel macchiato at the cafe if I can squeeze in a trip early in the evening.  Any later and the stuff keeps me up at night.

For anyone in Japan I recommend the coffee at Soup Stock Tokyo (not to mention the soup).  Mister Donuts has good coffee too and free refills.

Most coffees smell and taste like something I'd put in my car, so when I do drink it, it either has to be very mild, or heavily diluted with cream. I've cut down on my sugar intake immensely, so none of that stuff for me, either.

i cant ever see how anyone justifies paying several dollars for someone else to make you a cup of coffee.. in just 2 of those, you could buy yourself an entire 33-39oz canister of ground coffee that will last at least a month (of brewing a "12-cup" pot every morning)

get yourself one of those gallon-size pails of ice cream for $6, put a scoop in the bottom of a 24oz mug, and pour the coffee slowly over it...

This. It's so much cheaper to get your own coffee. I prefer to buy bags of fair-trade, organic coffee at Whole Foods (which are only about $2-3 dollars more than the same size bags you'd get at Dunkin Donuts or wherever) and only drink them on the weekends. There's something special about having a nice, warm cup of coffee on a lazy and chilly Sunday morning. I take it with a little cream and a little sugar.

During the week, though, I stick to hydrating and getting enough sleep so that I don't need caffeine or coffee to keep me going.

I just got one of those bottled Frappuccinos to carry me on a 3.5 hour road trip without breakfast. It was vile. I'm a tea man. Hot, cold, black, green, white, whatever.

Here's a question that hasn't come up in the previous threads.  Are there any particular health effects of coffee that encourage or discourage you from drinking it?

Personally it's the documented health benefits of coffee that have me inclined to drink it as much as the taste itself (like it but don't love it) or any short-term effects.  Particularly the preventive effects against Alzheimer's disease and cancer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_coffee

That and the Japanese tendency to do studying and work in a public cafe seems to have rubbed off on me a bit.

Is 3-5 cups a day really considered Moderate??  That seems like a lot to me.
Isn't "moderate consumption" generally 1-2 drinks a day when it comes to other liquids like wine/alcohol? 
Why would coffee get a higher dose and still be moderate?

It wards off dementia too?  Maybe I should begin increasing my consumption again.  I may need it.

It mentions long-term benefits like that, but the people I know who drink 3-5 cups a day have short-term downfalls such as feeling that they can't even function for a single day without their joe, so the trade off is having a daily addiction which you can't ever go without?  How healthy is that?

Although I'd certainly like to ward of dementia and Alzheimer's also, as both sides of my family tree have had them, but I'm skeptical of this solution for some reason.

yes, on my non-amphetamine days, one pot.
and in the old days before heading to the hospital for work, a little baileys helped too.

and medically, caffeine is a proven memory enhancer (unless you are a spider) so it increases global functioning, and to some sources, has antioxidant properties too.

so i am an advocate.
though,   i dont really think it helps much with the metabolic claims nor should people with anxiety or heart conditions take it.

i generally don't go for coffee unless it's been sweetened horribly to get rid of the bitter taste.  We have a fancy coffee machine at work, so I'll generally go for the cafe mocha or mochachino options.  Timmy Ho's I prefer the French Vanilla Cappucino.  Starbucks - off season times I'll usually go for the lattes - chai tea, white chocolate - the Oct-Dec months are pretty bad - I'll always spring for a Pumpkin Spice Latte, and the Egg Nog lattes.

Guess I'm not really a coffee drinker... =p

i used to drink 3-4 cups a day 5-7 years ago. but then i noticed my stomach didn't like that and i had to stop. the withdrawal symptoms were very annoying. until then, i didn't know what a real headache felt like. now i'm down to just one a day. i drink more tea these days like darjeeling, earl gray and others.

can't say i miss heavy coffee consumerism.

That's the one thing that makes me hesitant to indulge too heavily in coffee, is getting dependent on it.  My dad would have the same problem where he would get headaches if he didn't have his morning Joe, and I'd rather not get to that point.

Pellasos did you go cold turkey then or dwindle down your intake gradually?

i went the cold turkey way, down to zero for several weeks before i started drinking coffee again. i fell back to 2-3 cups a day again several times actually, so i'm pretty familiar going cold turkey by now. yea, i feel like an addict now

thank god that was my biggest addiction.

We have to document our changing habits! ^_~

Been drinking coffee a lot more ever since we got a single-serving brewer and I got swayed by a certain game (thanks a lot, "Last Window"). I actually like the taste, but I also don't want to get addicted to the caffeine, so I'm trying to keep it to 1 cup every couple of days. (If I want to get a caffeine jolt, I usually drink tea or, in the worst case, soda.)

I normally get the flavored Hawaiian Isles Kona coffees, but alas, with all their tasty-sounding names -- chocolate brownie? vanilla macadamia? cookies and creme?! -- I can't taste a darn thing aside from "bitter." I swear coffee is like tea: smells great, no taste. OK, yeah, let me clarify that: I like the taste with sugar and cream in it. I've been trying to go more black lately though, so I've cut it down to a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of creamer.

I like my coffee like I like my women. Cold, bitter and overpriced.

I usually average 2-3 cups a day, though I do skip a day or two every now and then.  I hit up Dunkin Donuts several times a week for a medium black hot, though lately I've been addicted to their pumpkin flavor.  Over the summer I'm all over their iced coffee (also black) and iced tea (unsweetened).  I've tried to enjoy cream and sugar but I just can't acquire the taste.  Any beverage that has an overly sweet taste is gross to me.  Plus I just love the raw and sometimes bitter flavor of black coffee and unsweetened tea.

http://twitter.com/#!/the_miker/status/2082999571062784

i add just enough milk or ice cream to get it down to a moderate temp.
I love the warm wave that overcomes you when you chug a big mug of fresh coffee,, it's like you can literally feel your capillaries dilating...

Your coffee is young, dumb and speaks no English?

That reminds me, Starbucks in America (the Southeast, at least) is NASTY.  The couple times I've tried my favorites from Japan (cinnamon apple cider, caramel macchiato) they were sweetened to the point of being disgusting.

There was one week, back in college, that I tried different Starbucks coffees each day...but never went back after that.

If I ever have coffee, I need it more sweetened than all get out in order to be able to stand it...but at the point, it probably ceases to be coffee, and would instead be considered a mutated concoction, I'm sure...

I loves myself a lot of different teas...an assortment of green, red, and black teas. Don't really care for white teas, though...

I go to coffee shops...for tea. Sometimes I actually buy some of their own tea, or I just have them slip me some hot water, and bring my own tea bags.

I do like the atmosphere of a lot of coffee shops, though; they're usually pretty quiet places, great for reading, or just for relaxing...

I go to places like Caribou Coffee, Panera Bread, Cosi, and local, independently-owned coffee shops.

Oh, and PF Chang's Dragon Eye Oolong Tea? I'd swear that's my favorite tea in all of existence...

You..... really love to use this phrase, don't you?

Yes ma'am!

It's either that, or over-using whatever profane phrase that we usually over-use...

I think of drinking coffee the same way I think of eating: as a joyless chore undertaken to achieve a particular effect, i.e., caffeine boost and sustenance, respectively.  I mechanically sip a few cups of instant coffee over the course of each day.  This routine is so ingrained that I no longer discern the taste of coffee.

I like how drinking 0 cups per day still qualifies you as a "light coffee drinker".

They just opened up a Dunkin' Donuts near me.  Right across the street, in fact.  Yeah, someone up there's clearly testing me.

How tempting it is to be able to run down and grab a latte in the time it takes for a commercial break to finish during Glee.

I don't drink coffee anymore.  I'll have decaf every now and then, and I love me some coffee ice cream, but I find that as a regular drink, it's way too addictive (at least for me), so I avoid it.