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Alternatives to tea and coffee
RArmstrong15283
New
hiya
I'm looking for recommendations of caffeine free alternatives to tea and coffee.
I have tried various herbals teals, peppermint, lemon and ginger are my favourites but I would like to try something else.
No fizzy drinks or decaf tea and coffee.
Any ideas?
0
Comments
Have you tried orzo? It's probably the best you're going to get besides things like brown rice tea.
I like the herbal chai (spice) tea. Some of them are more full-bodied than other herbal teas, and are good with milk. I also like the Acai berry tea. You can refrigerate that, and drink it like a fruity summer drink, and it's sugar-free, unless you add sugar. I find it refreshing.
"Stash" brand makes a caffeine-free "yumberry blackcurrant" tea that's great. Experiment. Make it an adventure. :thumbsup: .
Water......with lemon and/or berries.
Lemon water is definitely refreshing. I haven't tried it with berries. Sounds intriguing.
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Jason's orzo suggestion also sounds interesting. I wonder where you find it--in the coffee aisle at health food grocers? I've had Tibetan-style barley tea, and the barley flavor is pretty good. Toasted barley. Yummy!
Try it. It'll change your life, hahaha
They sell fancy infusing cups and pitchers....I just toss them in and use a straw.
I'm not crazy about strawberries in it....but blueberries and raspberries are my fav!
.. lololol
I've been known to throw cherries in water too....but that's when Im feeling wild on the other side of town..
OK, now you've really intrigued me! I'll do that!
If you can, freeze them first. Some berries will break down rather fast and it can get kind of pulpy.
hmm.... The health food grocer has frozen boysenberries (my fave!). Maybe the thing is to buy frozen berries.
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We have a lemon verbena plant growing in our front yard. I just grab six leaves off that every now and then and pour boiling water on them. Beautiful!
See if you can get hold of some of that. It can often be found dried in health food stores.
I agree! I used to drink high quantities of soda pop. Now I am down to 12 ounces of non-caffeinated root beer per day, and most of the time drink plain water. Some of the new flavored waters taste very nice, but I haven't looked into the health factors.
Barley Cup available in your part of the world? Yogi teas are excellent. Make real ginger tea with ginger and honey. Fresh herbs such as lemon thyme steeped in hot water with an infuser. A good cordial with hot water.
:wave: .
My staple beverage is two litres a day of plain water laced with lemon wedges.
In the morning I begin with orzo latte as non-caffeinated option. It's good. Almost passes for coffee.
Chai latte is also a delicious option. I never drink the chai mixture without milk, so I don't know what it tastes like.
Other than that, sorry, I'm high on green tea caffeine. Can't be cured.
Decaf options seem to destroy the antioxidants and polyphenols that are so good to our system, so beware of decaf varieties in tea and coffee.
Caffeine is not actually bad for us, so don't deliberately cross it off your list.
Edit: Let me remind you that it was Zen Buddhist monks who first launched the production of matcha green tea, the sort with the highest-caffeine content, because they claimed it improved their endurance for meditation.
Gin?
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Fruit infused water is wonderful, and some veggies, too. I do a cucumber mint one that is excellent, berries of all types, pineapple, peaches, other herbs, lemon/lime, all sorts of things. I am kind of lazy and I got an infusing water bottle to make it easier, so I don't have to strain the fruit out first. Excellent in the summer especially. Also, raspberry leaf tea can be great, and doesn't have caffeine. It's different than store-bought and fun to make if you have any access to raspberry plants. you just dry the leaves and then steep them for like 10 mins in boiled water. Very good.
I recently had doctor's orders to give up caffeine, which was tough to do because I am a huge coffee addict. I am not sure if you are trying to replace caffeine or not, but that was my intention.
Now I drink water with a lemon squeezed in it in the mornings - and I am not sure why it works, but it has replaced my coffee habit and am no longer dependant on caffeine.
I sometimes have a little Siberian ginseng tea to get through my afternoons.
And I have found acorn 'coffee' as a nice alternative treat.
Just check out the sugar content..... :eek: .
I think he means the new ones with no sweetener. I don't know exactly how they're flavored, but it's a very subtle taste. They're pretty good refrigerated on a hot day. They've only been on the market a few years.
If they contain sugar, it's a lot more than is healthy for you.
If they contain artificial sweeteners - and I'm sorry, but Aspartame is definitely artificial - then they may well be equally bad for you.
I actually don't know whether the research is reliable or not. Why risk it?
Besides, the flavour of aspartame and other artificial sweeteners literally makes me vomit. I can detect them immediately, and they make me feel really ill, they're foul.
They have no sweeter at all. It's a new flavoring process they've developed that's very subtle. Just a hint of fruit flavor, or mint, etc.
not seen them here.... can you provide a link to the product....? :scratch: .
Roasted barley tea is what they serve at the zen temple. It's very good! And naturally caffeine free.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roasted_barley_tea
Is that what Chinese "genmaicha" is? The article says, "Maicha".
Here's some interesting info from the Wiki article:
Roasted barley tea was found to inhibit bacterial colonization and adhesion, specifically to the major cause of tooth decay and implicated in cardiovascular diseases, Streptococcus mutans biofilms. It also lowers blood viscosity, proportional to the level of alkylpyrazine in the tea. However, the roasting process revealed 200-600 micrograms/kg of acrylamide among Japanese mugicha. Acrylamide and its metabolite, glycidamide, react readily with a number of biomolecules including haemoglobin.
Certain mint teas that are traditional in parts of Greece also inhibit tooth decay. It's so interesting how different cultures in different parts of the world found the herbs in their region that fulfill that function.
I'll check out the product names when I go to the store, and will see if they have websites.
In the meantime, here's something for the OP I just found online, on how to make your own:
http://www.theyummylife.com/Flavored_Water
OK, one brand is "Hint". Here's an article on the founder of that company, interesting story. It sounds like she uses the same flavoring technique some of our members have posted. The product is available through Amazon.com. The other company is "Metromint". But I've heard that some people really don't like the mint combined with the fruit flavors. (All their flavors are minted.) For some reason (for our US readers), Whole Foods USA stopped carrying this type of flavored water, but other healthfood stores do. https://www.drinkhint.com/
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303636404579393233863358714
I like original flavored water :buck:
"Classic" water.
.
AKA ...... crystal punch
Or "Adam's Ale".
Or just change one letter: http://adnams.co.uk/
It's not the same as Chinese genmaicha. Apparently Genmaicha is green tea combined with roasted brown rice. Maicha is just roasted barley and that's it.
Interesting because this tea is what is traditionally used to clean the eating bowls and utensils after each temple meal, at least in the korean zen temples.
I don't know if this counts as herbal tea so you might have tried it but Asian food stores often have some sorts of ginger or ginseng "teas" (without the actual tea), one of my favourites is "Gingen", which is basically just ginger powder that comes in a
poshystylish package. Mixed with honey and lemon it also makes a great beverage for flu.And then there is jiaogulan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gynostemma_pentaphyllum) which is both healthy and caffeine free.
What about stevia? Whenever I need some sweet taste, I use stevia.
Though very sparingly, since the taste is very particular and domineering.
Never tried it, to be honest. I don't take sugar in any drinks, I do not have a sweet tooth by any means. I far prefer savoury or acidic flavours - will happily drink water and ACV or lemon juice, with no added sugar or honey, I far prefer it....
Now that we've shared all this info, I feel like I'm throwing away my money by buying those flavored waters, for whatever it is--$1.20/bottle, or something. $12 for 10 small bottles? It's only water! :screwy: .
I could be making this at home for free!
I started drinking hibiscus tea by drying and steeping the flowers from the plant on my porch a few years ago. It has a very subtle, earthy taste that can take some getting used to (I prefer not to mix it with other ingredients like ginger or lime juice, which is common in Mexico), but it has a very calming almost sedative effect.
Apparently it also has a very powerful blood-pressure lowering effect because my blood pressure has been in a very healthy range since I started drinking the stuff. Before, I always ended up in the borderline range of high BP. Now it's in the low normal range.
water