When I announced the imminent launch of my latest app project, The Archive, a beta tester asked how many jars of coffee I consumed while coding.

“Jar” is no mistake. I drink from a 750ml glass jar, full to the brim. That’s one portion of cowboy coffee, or is it turkish coffee? – I’m not quite sure what to call it: grind the beans, pour water, stir from time to time, let it settle, then drink.

I can tell you the theoretical maximum of jars of coffee during development since I only allow myself 1 jar on Wednesdays and Saturdays, if I drink coffee at all on these days.

• 15 months of development
• 4.25 weeks per month
• max 2 days per week where 1 jar of coffee is allowed

Thats 127.5 jars of coffee.

A jar holds a bit more than 0.75 liters. That results in ~95 liters over 15 months. For each jar, I grind about 1 1/2 tablespoons of coffee beans. I did drink coffee at about 7 a.m. on days of intermittent fasting: I don’t eat before 6 p.m. on these days, so the strong brew strikes hard and has a long-lasting effect.

At the moment, I don’t need the crazy energy to amp up my programming. I’m just wrapping up the release, so I switched to decaf. Because I don’t always allow myself hot beverages, but when I do, it should be strong and bitter.