Let me preface this by saying that I have no idea how this happened. In my early 20s, I could drink five or more cups of coffee a day, no problem. I scoffed at the idea of decaf (“What’s the point if there’s no caffeine?”) and the best coffee alternatives were nowhere near my radar.
However, I soon noticed that each cup seemed to make me more anxious and less energetic, simultaneously. My nutritionist friend said it was probably “adrenal fatigue” (and that was vague enough for me to overlook — for a while) but if I was being honest with myself, there were tons of other reasons coffee didn’t sit well with me: rapid heart rate, digestive issues, this annoying twinge of back pain every time I had a sip…
So last year, I decided to finally make a change. To decaf. It worked for a bit, but after a few months, the symptoms were back — not as bad, but still enough to disrupt my day. That’s when I realized I had to cut out caffeine altogether, but I wasn’t going down without a fight.
See, I love my morning cup of coffee. It’s arguably the best part of my day. I love the routine of it. I love the feel of a hot mug between my hands, and the taste of the first sip, and — you get the picture. I had to find something that tasted like coffee, was hot like coffee, and made my morning like coffee, but was not coffee.
I’ve spent the last six months researching coffee alternative brands and giving them a shot. While I’m being honest, a lot of them sucked, and most I didn’t even bother finishing before moving onto the next. But these are the ones that, if you have to give up coffee or caffeine for any reason, are actually worth your while:
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