I Quit Coffee For 31 Days (and I'm a Coffee Roaster!)

Jul 28, 2026Apostle Coffee

I Quit Coffee for 31 Days (Even Though I'm a Coffee Roaster). Here's What Actually Happened

Coffee isn't just something I drink — I run a coffee roasting company, so it's my work, my routine, and honestly a big part of who I am. Which made the idea of quitting it for a full month feel more than a little reckless.

This wasn't about whether coffee is good or bad for you. It was about testing my relationship with it — finding out whether I actually need coffee, or just think I do. Here's what 31 days without it taught me.

The Rules

Simple and clear, for 31 days straight:

No coffee, including decaf.
No energy drinks, no tea, nothing with caffeine in it on purpose.
Caffeine-free fruit teas only.
No other changes to diet, exercise, or sleep — whatever shifted needed to happen naturally.

Before day one, I sat down with a doctor to get a baseline: blood pressure, heart rate, an anxiety score, and a daily reaction-time test to track focus. The plan was to measure everything, then measure it all again a month later.

5 Things I Learned Quitting Coffee for 31 Days

1. Withdrawal Is Real — But Not Dramatic

It isn't painful so much as disorientating — a constant low-level reminder that something's missing.
Mild headaches, like a tap on the head telling you you've forgotten something.
It lasts long enough that you stop pretending you can go without it.

2. Focus and Brain Fog

Focus drops fast, and it's not just sluggishness — it's mistakes. Real ones, like sending out the wrong coffee orders.
A genuine fog descends in the first few days, making it hard to stay on track even after a full night's sleep.
Daily reaction-time tests confirmed it — scores dropped from average into the below-average range.

3. Missing the Ritual

It turns out quitting coffee isn't really about the chemicals — it's about the emotion.
Those small morning rituals — brewing a French press to share with your partner, ducking into a cafe for a flat white — are what you actually miss.
It's less depressing, more like a quiet awareness that something meaningful has disappeared from the day.

4. Replacing the Rush

Coffee brings a heightened sense of urgency. Without it, things still get done — just less intensively.
An anxiety score tracked weekly actually rose in week one, as expected when you remove something that's been driving you forward for years.
But across the following weeks, that score steadily dropped — landing at a calmer, more relaxed baseline than before the experiment started.

5. Mindful With Meaning

Be mindful of your coffee habits — and if you love coffee, respect it rather than quitting it outright.
Quitting for a month doesn't make you want to remove coffee from your life. It makes you more certain about why you drink it in the first place.

What the Health Data Actually Showed

The biggest surprise: removing coffee led to no improvement in sleep quality, and no meaningful change in blood pressure or heart rate. There was a small amount of weight loss, but nothing dramatic. Reaction time, tested consistently throughout, stayed in the same below-average range with or without caffeine.

So, Was It Worth It?

This experiment was never about convincing anyone to quit coffee. What it did show is that taking a short break from something you rely on lets you see exactly how it fits into your life.

Coffee isn't just the caffeine — it's connection. It's a ritual, a reason to pause and enjoy something properly. Quitting for 31 days didn't kill that; it made it intentional instead of automatic. Asked to choose between giving up coffee or alcohol forever, the answer was coffee, every time.

If there's something in your life you feel dependent on — coffee, screens, work, anything — maybe the answer isn't cutting it out forever. Maybe it's just taking a pause long enough to decide how it fits back in.

Happy brewing.