Why Doesn’t Coffee Work For Me? Try These 6 Top Alternatives

You might often catch yourself thinking ‘why doesn’t coffee work for me?’

You’re not alone. There are many people that say coffee doesn’t boost their energy and they don’t see much difference in their energy levels when they have it. Why is that happening?

Is it a blessing in disguise not to get alert after gulping down an espresso? 

The most common reasons why coffee doesn’t work for you

Believe or not the most common reason why this is happening to you are kinda obvious:

First, you’ve built up enough tolerance by either having coffee day in, day out or consuming serious amounts of coffee from a young age. Our bodies are versatile and resilient. When you take in too much coffee over time, your body’s metabolism adjusts to the energy source and neutralises it. similarly to any drug we ingest.

The other frequent reason stems from your genetics, hereditary and the odds are at least one of your parents can drink dozens of cups of coffee without experiencing any of the negative effects of coffee including insomnia and fast heart rate. 

What can you do if coffee doesn’t work for you? 

One way to start feeling that caffeine really kicks in and keeps you going during the day is to switch to coffees with higher caffeine content. 

If you’re into espresso, check out Café Bustelo, an espresso-style coffee collected and roasted in Cuba and Nicaragua, is known for its intensity and rich flavour. Typically, a cup of Café Bustelo contains 96 mg of caffeine whilst a single espresso has 63mg – if Cafe Bustelo was a boxer it would clearly have been competing in the heavyweight division. 

Another coffee with an excessive amount of caffeine is Vietnamese coffee. 

If you’ve been drinking gallons of coffee, consider cutting down your intake for some time (say a couple of weeks) to help your body to get all the caffeine out. Your body gets re-calibrated, allowing caffeine to impact your body again. 

Why coffee isn’t having any effect on my body today

Have you recently changed your sleep time, caffeine intake or medication dose? 

Adenosine, a chemical in the human brain that helps us go to sleep, but when we drink many cups of coffee and caffeine takes over our brain needs to produce a huge amount of the chemical to help our body break down caffeine faster, but this takes time.

Simply put, stop drinking today and give yourself a short (a day or two) break from coffee and soon caffeine is going to have a normal kick in you again.  

Have you been having any other caffeinated drinks (soft, energy or sports drinks) lately? 

If so, the odds are you might have built up an excessive tolerance to caffeine that even a standard cup of coffee has no impact on you. The truth is many of these beverages don’t make a point of disclosing the enormous levels of caffeine they contain.

What about overindulging sweets? Have you been treating yourself to lots of cakes containing espresso powder, brownies, coffee-flavoured ice cream or any other chocolaty sweets. 

Similar to coffee, chocolate is rich in caffeine content; in fact, the darker the chocolate the higher the caffeine amount.

Here are the caffeine amounts  in different chocolates: 

• Dark chocolate: 12 mg (per 1 oz.)
• Milk chocolate: 9mg ( per 1.55 oz.)
• White chocolate 0mg

Giving up coffee for a few days whilst indulging such sweets might make us believe that our caffeine intake has been low whereas the truth is it’s gone way over the limit. 

Another reason that caffeine isn’t kicking in today is stimulants including Adderall that often have a strong reaction with your body, so you don’t tell the difference when you’ve had many cups of coffee or none. 

How genes have an effect on our caffeine tolerance

To find out more about caffeine’s positive and negative effects on health, the Harvard School of Public Health carried out research having 120,000 participants with European and African heritage; the research hypothesis was: our genes play a role in our bodies’ response to caffeinated beverages including coffee.

Interestingly, one of the main findings was that our body regulates in a natural way the amount of caffeine it takes on, which suggests that genetics have an effect. But as mentioned before, your caffeine tolerance can’t entirely rely on your genes, but it can be  another reason or even a combination of reasons why you don’t get a mood boost after having an espresso.     

Six alternatives to try when coffee doesn’t work for you

If you’re a die-hard coffee drinker toying with the idea of living caffeine-free for some time, I feel for you; while getting through the short yet arduous ordeal of not having any coffee it’s wise to look for a few alternatives.

Here are four coffee substitutes (but they don’t taste as good) that will help you endure your coffee break. 

Apples: Surprisingly, many people start their days with an apple rather than coffee. You get an energy boost from an apple’s vitamins and natural sugars while also hydrating your system, and your body is forced to wake up by chewing alone. What they say about eating an apple a day is actually true.

Water:  Having a glass of water with your breakfast is essential for shaking off sleep. Our bodies become severely dehydrated after 6 to 8 hours of sleep and your organs are properly awakened with a glass of water. It obviously doesn’t increase awareness and concentration as coffee does, but it will hydrate both your body and mind. 

Lemon Water: It’s a great source of  vitamin C that works as an antioxidant, supporting  and shielding your skin. A few drops of lemon in a glass of water first thing in the morning will do the trick for you, forcing  your body to wake up faster and getting ready for the day. 

Ginger tea: Ginger is a warming herb with an array of health benefits, including easing indigestion and boosting your immune system. Studies have indicated that ginger extract can improve supply you with massive amounts of energy. This is partly because ginger may aid in boosting circulation, which would enable more oxygen to reach our tissues and spread blood flow throughout the body.

Smoothies: What’s better than kick-starting your day with a delicious smoothie full of vitamins and energy. Spinach with beetroot and melon is my favourite, but of course, there are so many variations and you can make your own one with just what fruit and veg is left in the fridge, or why not search online; you’ll be spoiled for choice with so many recipes scattered around the web. Also the pink drink is another great alternative

Golden Milk: A little-known drink that effectively boosts energy levels throughout the day, making it the perfect replacement for anyone who can’t have coffee. It’s created from non-dairy milk that has been cooked with spices like ginger, turmeric, and cinnamon. The main benefits of golden milk include lowering inflammation, maintaining cell health, and promoting brain function.

What are the benefits of giving up caffeine? 

Let’s go over the health benefits of cutting out caffeine: 

• Get better sleep quality: If you don’t have any caffeinated brews, it’s easier to go to sleep. 
• Your skin will look younger: Caffeine doesn’t help our skin to look younger. 
• You won’t have issues with your blood pressure: Caffeine makes us alert and many experience increased blood pressure. You won’t have any of this when giving up coffee. 
• Your teeth look brighter: Coffee marks on your teeth will be wiped out when cutting out coffee.

Wrapping up

Let’s face it coffee is great, especially the morning cup to kick-start the day.

If you tried the ways we suggest tackling the issue, but coffee is still not working for you DON’T PANIC. Why not have a cold shower?

This will definitely help you start your day strong.