Not long ago, I was proud to call myself a recovering caffeine addict.  I even wrote about how I transitioned from coffee to herbal tea without making myself miserable in this post.

Then some stuff at work happened and I discovered a place close to my house to buy Chameleon Cold Brew…and I totally backslid into some of my old habits. (Not as bad as before, thankfully! But still.)

So when I started upping my detox efforts by doing Megan of ZestyGinger’s program, Love Your Liver Spring Detox, I suddenly found myself withdrawing from the caffeine in the form of mental fog and painful, pounding headaches. Detoxing has been incredibly effective for me to improve a lot of hormonal my symptoms but it hasn’t come without some side effects, like these headaches and skin problems.

This recipe has been my solution to slowly withdrawing my caffeine requirements but in a way that doesn’t cause me pain and allows me to enjoy the ritual of having something delicious to drink in the morning.  It’s not a perfect solution but I don’t intend to use it in the long term either…I will eventually cut back down to green tea and then switch over to herbal teas after that.

The black tea provides a baseline amount of caffeine that gets me off coffee and down the right path. The cinnamon is there to provide anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits that’s conducive to my detoxing efforts while providing the sweet hints and aroma that most of us love so much from coffee. The burdock root also functions as an antioxidant in this recipe and helps with detoxification by increasing glutathione levels…it also provides an earthy base to the drink that is reminiscent of coffee.

Setting expectations: this drink doesn’t taste exactly like coffee, it just has some tones and characteristics that allow you to get close to it without actually indulging.  If you are really are set on having coffee, I think having a smaller dose of regular coffee or coffee that’s half caffeinated and half decaffeinated is a solution that will work better as far as expectations are concerned.

I prefer cold brewing this tea blend and then drinking it over ice…probably because it has finally gotten warm here in Chicago! But you can totally make this tea in a regular teapot with boiled water and drink it hot…or brew it hot and let it cool.  The taste ends up being slightly different than cold brewing it but I like it a lot still.

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons black tea
• 1 tablespoon dried burdock root
• 1 whole cinnamon stick, broken up into pieces
• water

Things You’ll Need:

• 4 cup glass jar (I use these mason jars for this)
• cheese cloth
• rubberband

Alternative: If you have a metal strainer that fits the opening of your jar, you can just use that instead of the cheesecloth method.

Steps:

1. Place your cheese cloth over the opening of the glass jar.  You’ll want to make a “pouch” type space to place your teas/spices in.

2. Place the black tea, cinnamon, and burdock root in the pouch you just made with the cheese cloth and secure with a rubberband.

3. Pour cold water over the teas/spices until you’ve filled up the entire jar (4 cups).

4. Leave to brew for 24-48 hours.

5. When you’re ready to drink, squeeze out the water from the cheesecloth to get all the herbal goodness out, put a lid on your jar, and store in the fridge for up to several days.

XOXO,