When I’ve had caffeine, it scares people. Well, when they can focus on me. Not only that, but it gives me heart palpitations, which also scares them because I stop mid-whirlwind to concentrate on my erratic blood flow. Fortunately, I can’t stand the flavor of coffee, and don’t like much soda or tea. But I LOVE the smell of coffee and I like a hot drink during the cooler months as much as the next person. Hot chocolate on a regular basis is just too heavy. So, I was intrigued when my mom introduced me to Teeccino Caffeine-Free Herbal Coffee, Mediterranean Hazelnut
Despite the name, there isn’t any coffee in this brew. To me, coffee is horribly bitter, even when mixed with milk, sugar, etc. If someone invites me to meet for coffee, I’m sure they misinterpret my cringing. Even though I finally figured out that I can order something else, I have an instinctive gut recoiling. This product’s label says that Teeccino tastes like coffee. If so, my taste buds can’t verify that, since they never function past warning me of imminent danger of coffee acid poisoning.
But maybe it does taste somewhat like coffee, because when I drink it plain, it does have a slight sharpness that I like to tone down. I may have princess taste buds. 🙂 I like its flavor, though, so I experimented with creative mixing, and came up with a Teeccino latte!
- I make the brew according to package directions of 1 rounded Tablespoon for 2 cups of water in my little mini-drip machine.
- I fill my favorite mug half way with the brewed Teeccino
- I add 2 level teaspoons of granulated sugar
- I add milk to equal the amount of Teeccino already in the cup
- And about 1 Tablespoon of Hershey’s chocolate syrup
- I heat it all up again in the microwave for about 1 minute
Then I find a sit-down task and pretend to be an adult drinking coffee working at the office. It’s great fun!
Dom and I really enjoy Pero, it’s an instant, caffeine-free coffee replacement made of barley, malted barley, chicory and rye. It doesn’t taste exactly like coffee, of course, but I think it’s nice with a lot of milk and sometimes a touch of cinnamon. I’ve purchased it from Whole Foods and Amazon.
Liz, sounds like it has very similar ingredients to the Teeccino. Bound to be more than one on the market. 🙂
I have also been enjoying a daily hot chocolate as follows (slowly heated and constantly whisked on stovetop) :
milk (mug full)
~ 1Tbls non-alkalized cocoa
~1/2 tsp cinnamon
dash of cayenne pepper
~1tsp cacao nibs
The last first two ingredients being the only necessary ones, of course. I don’t much feel the caffeine from this (I’m also terribly sensitive to caffeine – even one cup of coffee or green tea in the AM keeps me buzzing and disrupts sleep).
I frequently put a dash of cinnamon in my hot chocolate, but I remain skeptical of putting cayenne in! Maybe I’ll try it on Greg. 🙂
*first two ingredients
I was given some teechino a while back, but I only brew coffee at home when absolutely necessary – maybe once or twice a year, and non-caffeinated isn’t usually on the menu at those times. 😀