More than one year ago, I decided that coffee (caffeine in general) wasn’t making me any good. I felt hostage to coffee: if I didn’t drink it every morning, I’d get a terrible headache, forcing me to drink it… to avoid being in pain. It also made me feel more anxious during the day.

Why was I doing this to myself? Oh, if being rational was an easy thing to do as a human.

When I had to leave early and didn’t have time for drinking coffee, I would search for coffee right away. And it had to be before 11am to avoid messing up with my sleep. And I don’t like the idea of paying almost 10 bucks for a coffee drink.

What I liked about drinking coffee in the morning was that it was a ritual. I’d drink in the morning while journaling, reading, or studying, serving as a cue for focus and instropection.

I never really liked coffee that much – it was an acquired taste. So I decided it was a matter of replacing the drink and keeping the ritual. That’s how I embarked on my caffeine-free journey.

Caffeine-free drinks experiments

My husband was the first one who stopped drinking coffee at home. I joined him a few months after, trying a few things along the way. Eventually, I got so sensitive to caffeine that even drinking decaf coffee would keep me awake at night >.<

The most obvious first experiment was loose leaf/sachet teas. I tried lots of them but didn’t click for me. I had to try something else.

I then found out about the caffeine-free powder products from Blume, a Canadian brand. I have tried almost all of their latte powder (my favourites are the Blue Lavender and Beetroot blends). I highly recommend trying them out! If you try them, buy directly from their website to support Canadian businesses :)

Eventually, my husband bought a bag of roasted Chicory Root. I tried once and it was horrible. I continued drinking Blume until I decided I wanted to spend less with this daily part of my life. For comparison, I now buy the roasted Chicory root in bulk at my local refillery and it costs around 22 bucks for ~420g. It lasts 2-3 months, depending on how many servings we drink per day.

I decided to try Chicory Coffee again. And I finally decided to research how to acquire the taste for it. I was committed to ditching caffeine for once and all.

How I make Chicory Coffee

We have a small espresso machine with a manual milk frother. I always had coffee with frothed milk, so I thought it would be nice to try that with Chicory Root coffee.

And voila! I’ve been experimenting with different variations and it’s been part of my morning ritual.

Here’s how I do it:

I brew a concentrated batch of chicory root tea for the week:

  • for a glass of hot water, I add 3-4 tablespoons of chicory root
  • drain
  • store the chicory coffee in a glass on the fridge

When I am ready to drink, I pour a bit of the concentrated coffee in a cup, froth my soy or oat milk and add a dash of cinnamon on top.

I realized it was may more efficient to brew a batch like this instead of brewing it every day. I learned this after visiting Italy this Summer, where I saw a few coffee shops offereing Chicory Cappucino as part of their menu. How cool is that?!

Dandy Blend

After a few months drinking Chicory coffee every day, I decided to try the Dandy Blend Coffee Alternative. It’s insane how much it looks and smells like coffee. And the four ingredients are all herbal! I buy the instant bag and drink it almost every day. If you’re looking for coffee alternatives, this might be a nice one to try first.

The best part of drinking chicory root, and other coffee alternatives, is that I can drink them all day, anytime of the day, without messing up with my sleep. And spending less ;)

If you’ve been thinking of expanding your drink menu outside of coffee, I hope you got some inspiration to try some new things. Have fun!