Or put tea in your espresso machine.

I can't handle caffeine, my husband is the one who is addicted to caffeinated coffee. I still enjoy roasting my own decaf beans. (been using WP's lately) I also mainly have a decaf cap in the morning...or white or red tea. I may give that cinn. red tea at try in my La Pav pro...

I can't see why you'd get rid of your equipment when you can still use it for decaf or to have fun making drinks for guests.

If you are really done, I understand....it was a fun hobby to learn while it lasted though, wasn't it?

I tried, without success, to get my husband to give up coffee and caffeine. He has tinnitus and I read that giving up coffee would help. When that didn't work at least I encouraged him into roasting his own coffee, as well as learning to make espresso etc.. So, when an Italian cousin came to visit we had something to serve him. His wife had already given up all coffee on the advice of her doctor.

Re Doctors : Get a couple of opinions.

Two weeks ago, a friend finally went to the cardiologist as he was feeling poorly. Passed all tests, including a severe stress test. [ This guy spends his weekends running about a soccer pitch ]

A week ago he had a mild heart attack. 3 days later he had a triple bypass.

I also have health issues related to drinking too much coffee (for me that is more than two (~15g) doubles a day), but if I stay within my limits all is good.

Unless you're set on giving up the hobby, you might want to experiment to see what your limits are, perhaps starting at one single a day as posted above.

I'd also like to put in a good word for the "occasional" espresso. It might seem silly to only use all that expensive equipment 2 or 3x a week, but spreading them out like that makes the experience* much more pleasureable.

Regards, Henry

*not just the sensory experience, but also the wonderful reaction we have to caffeine

Bluecold wrote:Or put tea in your espresso machine.

This turns out to be a decent way to prepare rooibos (redbush) tea:

"Red espresso"? Nah, just a nice rich herbal tea.

Oh yeah: see a doctor. I hope it turns out to be nothing serious.

My husband used to go through phases of slowly increasing his coffee consumption from one drip/mug a day to more like 5, He started to get some troubling symptoms so he committed to having his 2 mugs in the morning and no more. He does have the occasional espresso in the afternoon. Two doubles may be too much for you as others have suggested.

I am somewhat naturally high strung and have no need for caffeine...it is very much a drug when I have it in my system...whereas my husband is very laid back/easy going....he tends to need the caffeine to start functioning in the morning.

(I will try the rooibos (as espresso) tea and steam/froth the milk to make a kind of chai with it. I've made them before but by using normally steeped tea)

Seconding the SM donkey blend suggestion. I went through a couple pounds last week, and it was excellent. There's no reason to give up because of caffeine when there are excellent decaf blends available.

Ok, I try tea. Me like tea . Me do just like coffee. DOH!

What a great idea. I am doing a Russian sambar (sic) black tea I have had for ages (sealed) and pulling great tea shots. I love it! Now if I can just figure out how to steam with my machine I will make tea lattes. I will just do occasional coffee, but, I am keeping the Behmor!

Thanks Bluecold and RapidCoffee!


Jeff

Caffeine comparison chart. Tea, coffee, chocolate, pepsi, etc.

http://coffeetea.about.com/library/blcaffeine.htm

Unfortunately that chart doesn't include tea brewed under pressure.
Also, Lockman, how do you grind your tea fine enough to create enough backpressure? Because i'm unsure if coffee grinders can handle tea.
Coffee grinder blades are lubricated by coffee oils. Tea hasn't got oils so i don't think it is a good idea to do it in your coffee grinder. My PeDe squeaked after i ground some tea. Maybe i'm worried about nothing, maybe the ground tea will deflagrate because of excess heat from the grinder blades and burn your house down.