Was wondering how much coffee the average IDer drinks and whether you think it effects your thought process or sketching ability??
Does anyone take herbal stimulants like gurana when doing long sessions?
Idrinkalotofcoffeanditdoesn’taffectmeintheleast.I’mfine,Icanworkforhoursonend.
A pot in the morning, just for starteers. The idea of sketching without coffee is frightening. 
5am, in taipie after a week doing contract work, the 7eleven capps are kinda weak, deadline today an noon then back stateside… I wish I had a depth charge! Well, actually the rush of meeting deadline is probably enough.
I’ll settle for the coffee machine.
In case your wondering, a depth charge is a reg coffee with 1-2 shots expresso.
gatorade-and deli sanwiches for me keeps me up all night. I suggest that instead of coffee-too much in it makes you wired and then your body adjusts to it and then you need twice the amounts to get the feeling that you used to get.
gatorade-telling ya helps
oh-about 3-4 32FL OZ containers a day-
About 84oz a day give or take 24.
as for late night nothing beats the cofftea. Take a cup of hot coffee through a lipton’s teabag or two in there and let it steep, makes night to day.
my sketching and ideas tend to get wilder and less coherent. mainly they are less restrained. more coffee = bigger sketches. by 4am I’m sketching on poster paper taped to the floor.
eric
2-4 cups black with sugar.
Used to hit the double-mocha’s in the AM back in my younger days when we’d stay out too late the night before. It would keep me awake, but give me the shakes so I couldn’t sketch worth crap. Another reason I like computers 
When its a heavy one I drink Guanabana juice !
I read the other day that an apple actually wakes you up more than coffee. not sure about it keeping you awake though.
Coffee is one of my many hobbies that keeps me occupied - and up very late at times. 
I used to drink espresso a lot in college, but stopped when I couldn’t sleep at night and needed more just to make it through the next day, which would keep me up all night again… I’m pretty high strung as it is, so large amounts of caffein is not in my best interest.
Now I only drink one cup at a time, since my french press only makes one cup! And not to stay awake. Oh, and no pre-ground, freeze-dried, instant, or flavored need apply. 
I’ve tried the herbal stuff too, but it had no noticeable effects on me.
Never much cared for the taste of coffee. When I was in school I probably drank 5-6 cans of Mountain Dew per day though. I’ve been free of the caffeine shackles for something like 5 years now and somehow stay awake to get everything done. I think I’m running on magic at this point…
I cut out the caffine a few years ago, but I like a lot of sugar, especially in the form of cookies, while in thos design crunch times
As far as the type of coffee beans I am really enjoying El Molino Dark Cuban Roast that I get at Whole Foods. It is a very oily bean. Also I have some pure Kona coming in from Hawaii.
For strangest, however has anyone here ever tried Kopi Luwak coffee? Yes, it’s the one that is digested by and the stomach enzimes create “it’s signature taste”.
If you don’t believe me check out:
http://www.ravensbrew.com/NewFiles/kopiluwak.html They no longer sell it but the animation leaves nothing to the imagination.
You can buy it here.
For US http://indonesiancoffee.biz/en-us/dept_11.html
For Europe http://www.hasbean.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/23/products_id/57
I used to drink maybe 200 fl oz. of coke or pepsi a day, but over the holidays I realized how much high fructose corn syrup I was drinking (and ingesting in the majority of my other staples, i.e. bread…bread?!?), and decided to try to kick it all. Kicking caffeine would have made me throw-up and get all irritable for a week, and I was already in the process of replacing soda with Chai’s at Four-Bucks until they actually became four bucks, so I brew my own chai now. I’ll have a liter in the morning (5 bags + milk + honey) and the same at night, and I’ve been getting about four hours a sleep a day for the last year and feel great. I’ve actually come to love my Stanley-branded green thermos, which will keep a liter of tea piping hot for 20+ hours. Favorite brand: probably Numi from Whole[paycheck] Foods, followed by Tazo and maybe Stash. Though I was they would all make their Caffeine-free versions more obviously caffeine-free in the packaging, because there’s nothing like feeling like crap for a whole day and thinking you’ve got the flu, only to realize that you’re actually hurting for more of the good stuff.
mothy
dude, you need to ween off the juice!
You can’t cut it all out at once! But it sounds like you might need a support group for caf-fiends!
Yo, you are probably right. But because I’ve got two little ones whom I normally only get to see between the hours of 5:00PM and 8:30PM or so, I typically really need to do most of my studio work from 9:00PM to 3:00AM or so, only to have the little monkeys wake me up at 7:00AM or so (if I’m lucky)… If I wasn’t all hopped up on caffeine I would be comatose all day. And, frankly, I’m a different person entirely without the stuff. But getting deathly ill anytime you stop ANYTHING suddenly is definitely a bad sign. I’m assuming that a fully-fledged professional career will allow me to sleep eight hours every night? Can I lay off then?
")
mothy
A full fledged carrer should let you sleep 8 hour a night… SHOULD beint the key word.
Actually, apples do wake you up more than coffee. They are great for 4pm pickmeuppers.
I also am a sugar addict…but I’ve been doing a really good job cutting sugar out of my diet in the past couple of months ( sugar apparently is a migraine trigger for me). no cookies for me, cookie shop is closed.
5-10 cups of tea a day, extra protein, and fresh air do what coffee/sugar combo did, without leaving me super shaky.
So, yes…0.
Man - I thought I was bad having a pot before noon - I’m much more of a lightweight that I thought!
Anyway, if I’m brainstorming, I keep sluggin’ coffee until I’m sweating and ideas are just popping out all over the place. Makes for some really tweaky thumbnails, but a great way to get a lot of concept volume…
Coffee? Who has time for coffee?