# When Did You Start Drinking Coffee? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** coffee\ **Created:** [March 2, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049 "2009-03-02T19:58:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/21 "2009-03-02T21:07:12Z")
Born 1975. Started drinking coffee in 1989, when I started high school and had to get up earlier for school than I had to do in middle school. I’m 5’4" and the same height as my mom. I wonder if I might have been a bit taller if I hadn’t started drinking coffee then. I think I’d have flunked out of high school, though. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/22 "2009-03-02T21:12:24Z")
I never started. I tried it and didn’t like it. I don’t know what to say about when. My gut was, it is an adult beverage, but when I thought about it, I couldn’t give a reason why. But then, I’m not sure I want a 4 year old hopped up on caffeine, so where is the cut off? I haven’t a clue. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/23 "2009-03-02T21:13:01Z")
I never did. By the time I was old enough I already recognized the fact that I was addicted to cigarettes and wanted to quit (I’ve since quit); I want something else that I have to fork over money for every day, gives me the jitters, makes my breath smell bad, and stains my teeth? Uhh, no thanks. I’ll just go to bed on time instead. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/24 "2009-03-02T21:23:36Z")
all my life, so probably as soon as I could hold my own sippy cup? born in 1961. ---
**Author:** ![Prox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/da6949/32.png) [@Prox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prox)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/25 "2009-03-02T21:24:05Z")
I drank it occasionally in college, but didn’t start drink coffee regularly until I started to cut sugar (and therefore Coke) out of my diet. I did drink pop for almost as long as I remember, but now that I think about it, I drank mostly things like Sprite and Root Beer. I drink caffeinated stuff until sometime around junior high. Coffee is kinda like beer in that both need to be acclimated to a bit. It doesn’t surprise me that teens prefer the highly sweetened drinks at Starbucks. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/26 "2009-03-02T21:50:25Z")
I drank coffee only rarely until I got a job in academia. I guess I needed extra energy to put up with all the plotting, feuding, infighting, and teaching. And an extra-large mug for dealing with department heads and deans. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/27 "2009-03-02T21:57:34Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > all my life, so probably as soon as I could hold my own sippy cup? born in 1961. Same here (although born a year later). I seriously cannot remember a time when I did NOT drink coffee. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/28 "2009-03-02T21:59:54Z")
When I was about 17-18 I think. Just near the end of school/beginning of university. ---
**Author:** ![HookerChemical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/278dde/32.png) [@HookerChemical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HookerChemical)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/29 "2009-03-02T22:00:19Z")
I started drinking coffee when I was on a first date that was going really well. We had great chemistry and enough in common that we had only scratched the surface after everything we had planned, so I took her to a coffee shop to talk over a cup of bad coffee. It was 2003 and I was in my early 20s. At the time, I hated coffee. She didn’t find that out until months into the relationship that I had manufactured coffee as a pretense to keep talking to her. After that, I’ve developed a taste for coffee. My intake escalated a few years ago when I worked a job that occasionally required that I be awake and on the road at 4AM. And the girl from the date? I married her two days ago. ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/30 "2009-03-02T22:03:44Z")
Sometime in high school, so 15, 16 maybe? But my family and I have always taken our coffee black with no sugar, so I never got into the heavily-sweetened milky coffee thing. Starting when I was twelve or thirteen I was allowed to have a cup of coffee with our dessert at family suppers. Pumpkin pie and a cup of coffee on Thanksgiving is a treat beyond heaven. I kicked the caffeine thing in my second year of university. Now I am the only university student I know who isn’t reliant on caffeine or a stimulant of some kind, and I regularly pull eighteen-hour days. I love the taste of coffee, though, but decaf just doesn’t do it for me. Doesn’t taste the same. ---
**Author:** ![carlb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carlb/32/5930_2.png) [@carlb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlb)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/31 "2009-03-02T22:12:00Z")
For me it was the summer after college. I really just didn’t like the taste of coffee - I had ample opportunity to try it after church on Sundays during the social hour, and I just didn’t like it. If I needed caffeine during college, it was either Coke or tea. A couple of months after graduation, I was working for an engineering-construction company, and was sent to Tioga, North Dakota for 6 weeks. There is a natural gas plant there, and we were working as part of a scheduled shut-down for maintenance. I was assigned to the night shift, and since it was a union job there wasn’t a lot of physical labor for me (the non-union engineer) to do; it was mostly paperwork and other administrative stuff. At 3 in the morning, the only thing available to keep me awake was the coffee pot in the office trailer. From that point on coffee became an essential part of my daily diet. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/32 "2009-03-02T22:14:36Z")
I’ve drunk tea all my life. That was my Irish grandmother’s doing. It was probably in high school that I gradually developed a taste for coffee. It’s still not a daily drink for me, though. Tea remains my everyday-gotta-have-it, and coffee is a weekend thing (in the form of a double espresso at the Three Bees) plus the very occasional random cup here and there. ---
**Author:** ![Spectralist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Spectralist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectralist)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/33 "2009-03-02T22:20:33Z")
When i was 4. My grandma got sick of me asking for a taste and thought i wouldn’t like it so she gave me a sip. I’ve drank it since then. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/34 "2009-03-02T22:21:13Z")
I don’t even remember. But I remember having some with my grandmother in her kitchen (she lived with us) when I was just a little kid, maybe 8 or so. Regularly, I can’t remember. For a long time I hadn’t been drinking coffee really, but since I started temping again, I’ve been drinking more. (It’s free - I drank a WHOLE LOT LESS when I had to pay for it). And I’m noticing some killer headaches. I wonder if it’s related? ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/35 "2009-03-02T22:24:57Z")
Started with Sanka at age 10 or so (1965), began hitting the hard stuff about 5 years later. cream please, no sugar ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/36 "2009-03-02T23:13:09Z")
I didn’t like the taste of it until I was in Kotzebue, Alaska doing some work at about age 17. Drinking coffee was a matter of survival, bad taste or no. I didn’t start drinking it regularly until I’d been in the Navy for about two years, so I guess that makes it about age 22. ---
**Author:** ![Rainbowthief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4bbf92/32.png) [@Rainbowthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rainbowthief)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/37 "2009-03-02T23:25:12Z")
Since I was three years old (I’m 35 now). I’m Puerto Rican, though. It’s a clutural thing for us. We don’t see coffee as some taboo drink lumped in with booze, so I was shocked when a flight attendant refused to serve me coffee on a flight when I was sixteen. He eventually brought me a cup, but I had no idea up to that point that Americans are so conservative when it comes to minors drinking coffee. In Puerto Rico when I visited someone’s house with my family the hosts never asked my parents if I could have coffee. They simply asked me how I wanted it. ---
**Author:** ![bufftabby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bufftabby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bufftabby)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/38 "2009-03-02T23:27:33Z")
I drank my first cappuccino at 12, and I’ve never looked back. Coffee keeps me alive. I can drink it black, but I prefer at least some cream in it, with just a dash of sweetener if available. I’m 26, and I’m very happily addicted to coffee. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/39 "2009-03-02T23:40:37Z")
I started drinking coffee in medical school, circa age 21. People should start to drink it whenever they’re old enough to appreciate it. But after their permanent teeth have all come in… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Superhero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Superhero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Superhero)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049/40 "2009-03-03T00:05:21Z")
> [@Rainbowthief](#): > > Since I was three years old (I’m 35 now). I’m Puerto Rican, though. It’s a clutural thing for us. We don’t see coffee as some taboo drink lumped in with booze, so I was shocked when a flight attendant refused to serve me coffee on a flight when I was sixteen. He eventually brought me a cup, but I had no idea up to that point that Americans are so conservative when it comes to minors drinking coffee. In Puerto Rico when I visited someone’s house with my family the hosts never asked my parents if I could have coffee. They simply asked me how I wanted it. Whoa. That blows my mind. You asked for coffee, and the flight attendant said no? That’s weird. I started when I was 12. I’d had a bit of coffee once or twice and liked it okay, then a friend and I did a (kind of ludicrous) 7th-grade science fair experiment about which kind of coffee would keep us awake longer, and I was hooked. When I started, I loaded it with sugar and non-dairy creamer. These days, I like the strongest, darkest stuff I can get, with just a spoonful of sugar to round off the corners a bit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-drinking-coffee/488049.md?page=3)