For many years I was a coffee addict. More accurately, I craved the caffeine in coffee. I'm still in recovery. Probably always will be.
But even though my withdrawal several years ago was difficult, I've managed to give up the hard stuff and get by with a little help from my decaffeinated friends.
I'll share their photos below. One of them has become my best Decaf Instant Coffee friend. Here it is.
Republica makes an organic decaf instant coffee from Arabica beans that to me tastes like brewed coffee. I just use a level teaspoon in 16 ounces of hot water. It's made by a woman-owned company in Australia that checks all of my environmental/fair trade boxes. Republica uses a water-process for decaffeination rather than chemicals. I get it from Amazon.
I had to seek out alternatives to regular coffee after developing a bladder problem in 2017. Because caffeine is a bladder irritant, I discovered that my body was happier without caffeinated coffee.
Plus, I found that after a difficult coffee transition period -- full caffeine to half caffeine to no caffeine -- I felt like I had even more energy without the ups and downs of regular coffee. And my sleep was considerably improved.
For a while, though, it seemed that even the minimal caffeine in decaf coffee was causing me problems. That led me to explore alternatives to coffee.
I started with Roma. It's a roasted grain beverage. I liked it. But naturally it didn't have a coffee taste or smell, though the longer I stayed away from coffee, the more I forgot what I was missing.
Cafix appealed to me more, though it is very similar to Roma. It just seemed to have a bit more of a coffee vibe to it.
I gave Dandy Blend a try. It has a mixture of grains and dandelion root. While it had the most coffee-like flavor, dandelion root turned out to be a bladder stimulant. I didn't need that, so decided to stop using Dandy Blend.
Eventually I decided to ditch the coffee alternatives and try the real thing in decaf. A friend told me about Kava, which had the apparent benefit of reduced acid. However, the chemical used to accomplish the decaffeinating didn't get along well with my digestive system.
So I went back to Republica, which I'd tried early on in my alternatives-to-caffeine seeking but set aside for a reason that I no longer remember. I still had a jar in the cupboard. As noted above, it's agreeing with me.
Hopefully I've found my forever Decaf Instant Coffee friend. Read the user reviews on Amazon and you may be tempted to give Republica a try yourself, if you're into decaf coffee.
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