I used to think this same thing, that my enjoyment of coffee was largely the ritual. But then I switched to decaf for quite a long time and all my little rituals fell away quite quickly.
I still occasionally drank coffee when I felt like the taste, but I certainly wasn’t performing daily morning ritual.
Also once per week I allow myself an espresso, and I get a nice buzz from it that lasts the entire day.
Add that to conditioned place preference and you have your rewarding coffee ritual.
Even though I quite smoking over 10 years ago I still remember it with the fondness of an old friend.
I wouldn’t claim it works the same way for everyone, but the difference between coffee being a treatment for migraines and migraines being a symptom of coffee withdrawal may be indistinguishable in immediate term.
I quit caffeine for about 2 years and the headaches never subsided (except the caffeine withdrawal ones of course).
They are just a fact of my life I’m afraid.
As much as I’d like to get off of caffeine I am very grateful to have is as a remedy.
I just can not do it. It is just not the same sitting here without the taste, smell and sensory experience completely divorced from the actual caffeine. That is with even taking more caffeine than I would get from my brew coffee.
And it’s pretty important to realize that well-made decaf doesn’t have to taste worse than regular coffee. James Hoffmanns decaf project proved this for me, and his video about decaf sold me on the idea: decaf drinkers are the OG coffee drinker, drinking it purely for the taste, even without the drug-induced high that caffeine gives you.