Training in the early morning

William said:

are there people who are not effected from caffein? If so i am one of those.

i can drink 1-2-3 cups of coffee or similiar things, but i never feel any response to it...it's not a problem per se, because i don't like the taste of coffee, but if i need it like the last day while having end presentations to make at university i wished it could work for me

I used to be like that, and then gradually it started to affect me more. Not entirely sure why.

Jon Douglas said:

For me the caffeine boost is minor but a happy side effect of a drink i enjoy anyway

Yeah, but the problem with enjoying the taste of coffee is sometimes you don't wan't caffeine, but you want to drink coffee. And, well...

Joshua Slocum said:

I used to be like that, and then gradually it started to affect me more. Not entirely sure why.

 

Yeah, but the problem with enjoying the taste of coffee is sometimes you don't wan't caffeine, but you want to drink coffee. And, well...

 

I used to think decaf was awful until I started getting my beans from a high-end roaster.  The problem with most name brand companies is that they have all of their high end coffees, in dark, medium and light, and then they have a single option for decaf which is usually made from the beans that they don't want to use for the variations that sell more.  From what I understand, any bean can be roasted to be decaf, and the examples I've tasted (the exact same beans used for both regular and decaf) taste exactly the same.  The only way to tell if I had decaf or not was if I couldn't sleep.

There's also difference decaffeination processes that will have different impacts on the flavour. It can be done well, but it isn't always.

In general I find a lot of decaf to be quite passable these days. And I'm pretty adept at drinking coffee (at least I used to be). I used to own a coffee bar. I've done loads of blind taste tests to the point that I could identify where the bean came from with just a sip.

Rob Kowalski said:

I used to think decaf was awful until I started getting my beans from a high-end roaster.  The problem with most name brand companies is that they have all of their high end coffees, in dark, medium and light, and then they have a single option for decaf which is usually made from the beans that they don't want to use for the variations that sell more.  From what I understand, any bean can be roasted to be decaf, and the examples I've tasted (the exact same beans used for both regular and decaf) taste exactly the same.  The only way to tell if I had decaf or not was if I couldn't sleep.

thecolin said:

In general I find a lot of decaf to be quite passable these days. And I'm pretty adept at drinking coffee (at least I used to be). I used to own a coffee bar. I've done loads of blind taste tests to the point that I could identify where the bean came from with just a sip.

Yeah I've tried a good number of "high end" decaf coffees. Some of them are decent, but it never seems to taste quite as good as caffeinated beans from the same roaster. I haven't done double-blind testing so it might simply be my own preexisting bias, but that's hard to get rid of. 

I love working out first thing in the morning. I need a little caffeine or a pre-workout, but that's it. 

Fasted training in the morning is the way to go.

I think there's plainly still a difference, they're passable, but clearly a little lacking.

Decaffeineation takes out flavour plain and simple, they're just doing it a lot better these days. A lot of specialty roasters will go extra dark on decaf to get more flavour. But while it's less bland, it's also less balanced.