Quit Coffee With These Substitutes
Coffee. One of the most memed of beverages, coffee is often how millions of days begin.
But assume for a moment that you must give up coffee. Whether you are doing so for health, religious, or environmental reasons, numerous coffee alternatives exist.
Here are some examples of coffee alternatives that have some health benefits.
Barley Tea
Barley tea is a popular Asian beverage, often being substituted for water in Korean restaurants. While it doesn’t have the dark appearance of coffee, it does have a similar bitter, nutty flavor.
Barley doesn’t have caffeine, so you can drink all you want when you want. Further, barley tea has been shown to aid digestion, increase weight loss, prevent tooth decay, and even increase fertility in men!
Dandelion Tea
Roasted dandelion roots, when made into a tisane (a tisane is essentially a “tea” beverage that is made from anything other than tea leaves), have a flavor similar to coffee. The drink was even marketed as “dandelion coffee” in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Like most tisanes, dandelion tea doesn’t have caffeine.
While results are tentative, scientists are testing dandelion tea to see if it has anti-cancer properties.
Chicory
You may have heard of chicory before, as it’s often used as a coffee additive. However, chicory isn’t coffee; it is a root that has a bitter taste that serves to amplify the flavor of coffee. It can be brewed on its own to make a chicory beverage that is similar to coffee.
Like the above examples, chicory does not have any caffeine. However, chicory does have inulin, a form of prebiotic fiber that can aid in intestinal health. Further, chicory has several vitamins, including Vitamins B6 and C.
Golden Milk
Golden milk, which includes ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, and black pepper, has anti-inflammatory properties due to the turmeric. Further, if you use whole milk to make the beverage, the fat in the milk can help you stay full longer and can help the body absorb the chemicals in turmeric more thoroughly.
Yerba Mate
One of the few tisanes which actually has caffeine, yerba mate has a bitter, smoky flavor that is somewhere between coffee and green tea. Further, it has numerous vitamins and minerals, with some studies suggesting that yerba mate has more antioxidants than green tea!
Black Tea
As far as coffee alternatives go, black tea is hard to beat. While black tea has fewer antioxidants than green tea due to its long fermenting time, many of green tea’s health benefits carry over to black tea, though to a lesser extent; antioxidant properties, lowered blood pressure, lower LDL, and many other tea-related health benefits can be obtained through black tea.
Black tea also typically has more caffeine than green tea; not as much as a cup of coffee, but enough so that you’ll have a little extra pep in the morning.
And, because black tea is so popular, it’s easy to find various substitutes for coffee for reasonable prices at just about any store.
One particular black tea to consider is pu’erh. A fermented tea, it has a flavor profile very similar to coffee and works well when mixed with chocolate and cream.
Postum
While its health benefits are less pronounced than many of the other beverages on this list, Postum has long been held as a healthy alternative to coffee. The flavor profile of the proprietary blend of molasses and wheat strongly resembles coffee, but without the caffeine.
Postum has particular popularity with Seventh Day Adventists and Mormons, who are forbidden to take caffeine into their system.
Conclusion
Regardless of what you choose, trying a new beverage is worth it if for no other reason than to give you more diversity in your diet. Consider trying some of these, even if you plan on continuing to drink coffee!
Author Bio
Larry Alton is a blogger and passionate writer at knowledgesworld.com. He loves cooking and is fond of travelling.
