On: I almost quit caffeine in one year

[slumdev]

I smile and explain that I like the flavor.

It turns the conversation upside down and makes the other person sound like a junkie.

[eurasiantiger → slumdev]

People don’t ”like the flavor”; rather, they tend to misattribute to flavor the craving they have for the neuropsychiatric state produced by their substance of choice.

In your case, both the taste and effects are produced by certain monoamine oxidase inhibitors (Harmala alkaloids) created in pyrolysis of L-tryptophan during the roasting and brewing of coffee.

[gwbas1c → slumdev]

Same thing applies to when I drink non-alcoholic beer. Sometimes I just want another beer without getting drunk.

[eurasiantiger → gwbas1c]

Beer contains dozens of flavonoids (from hops) which act as reversible monoamine oxidase inhibitors.

Alcohol is thus not essential for the feeling from drinking a good beer: MAO-B inhibition alone tends to produce euphoria.

Isn’t it interesting that all our legal drugs contain MAOIs? Coffee, tobacco, tea, beer, wine, even energy drinks...