The Coffee Lovers’ Guide To Tea

As a coffee snob if you had told me even a couple of months ago that I would be looking into teas I would’ve laughed as I took another sip of my carefully brewed V60 or Aeropress. But as I soon discovered, there’s more to tea than your English Breakfast & Earl Grey.

I am a self-professed coffee aficionado; I know exactly how I like my coffee and it needs to be prepared meticulously to match my standards. Or at least, I was until not too long ago when I discovered that caffeine might actually be making me relapse into Crohns’ flare repeatedly. At first, I gave up coffee only for the week I was in the hospital treating one of my Crohn’s flare up, it was mostly because the coffee they served at the hospital left much to be desired to put it politely. Ordinarily, I would’ve gone back into my old habits after being discharged, but despite being terribly ill I noticed a difference and the only way to be sure was to continue foregoing coffee for another week just to be sure.

Mind you, I strayed away from coffee not caffeine and that’s a big difference as I soon found out. Everyone has their morning rituals and one of my anchoring morning habits include having a cup of freshly brewed coffee whilst planning out my day, it relaxes me whilst charging me up to tackle the day at hand. I needed to substitute it with something and I chose simply Yorkshire tea with hazelnut milk, its not the most marvellous choice, but it’s something to warm my hands up with on a cold morning. My guts seemed to handle that just fine, for all you crohnies out there.

This got me thinking, clearly its not simply the caffeine that is agitating my stomach rather it is the process of brewing or the fashion in which it is consumed that makes a difference. Having been a coffee drinker for over two decades I did not take it very lightly to completely give up on this beloved companion. I was sat with my good friend Andy, who was educating me on the innumerable benefits of drinking green tea and green tea obviously has caffeine in it along with a load of other really good stuff.

I enjoy a green tea time and again but I needed more…

That’s when it occurred to me to find a middle ground and researched into  matcha  latte. To put it simply, its a green tea latte. I never bothered looking into it before but a matcha latte has 34mg of caffeine as opposed to a regular coffee’s 60mg however, the matcha’s effect lasts  MUCH  longer than caffeine in a normal coffee. Aside from that, matcha also contains high levels of antioxidants, amino acids and L-Theanine. L-Theanine is the secret ingredient that is lacking in a regular coffee which has a calming effect on you as it slowly releases the caffeine compared with the rush of caffeine rush that coffee provides. I was pleased to also find out that matcha even has 3.25mg of calcium, 1.85mg of Vit C, 20.5mg of potassium and 274mg of protein per serving. It has high concentrations as matcha is made from powdering the entire green tea leaf rather than merely dipping loose leaves in hot water such as you would with regular green tea.

Now come on IS there another tea that has all of these nutritions in it AND tastes so yummy?! I am officially a convert! What’s even better is that you can make your own matcha lattes at home! All you need is the green tea powder and some warm milk, mix them together and you’ve got one of the most natural, healthy options instead of your morning protein shake if you fancied it.

I just had to share this as a #Crohnie and a die-hard coffee addict discovering this has been truly godsend. If you’ve come up with your own alternatives for a better lifestyle I would love to know about them in the comments below