In an attempt to cut down on coffee and caffeine intake, I’ve decided to switch over to Yerba Mate tea. Yerba mate has the highest caffeine content of any tea but since I’m used to super-strongly brewed French press cups of coffee, I figured it would be a good intermediate step.
Yerba Mate has all the antioxidant benefits of other teas and in addition to caffeine, it has several compounds that help create caffeine-like effects without the jittery-check-that-the-stove-is-off-five-times feeling.
I added the ginger for both it’s zesty flavor and it’s energy boosting powers. Lime was added for the vitamin C punch and, since I drink it in the morning, a way to kick off my digestion for the day. Lastly, I threw in some licorice root for it’s stimulating properties (avoid if you have high blood pressure or adrenal fatigue) and for it’s healing properties for the entire digestive tract.
I used a cold-brew approach to avoid the release of tannins from the tea which made it pretty mild tasting. I’d recommend trying it without any sweetener at first but feel free to add any honey or maple syrup if you don’t find it very palatable (even though it’s mild, there’s a distinctly grassy flavor).
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp Yerba Mate tea
- 1 tsp licorice root (optional)
- 1/2 to 1lime, sliced
- 1/2 to 1 inch section of ginger, minced or grated
- 1 liter of water, distilled is best but I just uses some water that had been boiled and then had cooled
- 1 liter container to brew and store in
- tea strainer or cheese cloth
Steps:
1. Gather the ingredients and add the first 4 to the 1liter container.
2. Add the 1 liter of water.
3. Place by sunny window and leave for 24 hours.
4. After 24 hours, use a tea filter or a cheesecloth to strain out the hard bits, clean out the 1liter container it brewed in, and decant the tea back into the clean bottle.
5. Enjoy and put leftovers in the fridge.
Hooray for making the transition to a less-caffeine-addicted life! Â For more on how I switched from coffee to teas, read the post titled How I Become A Recovering Coffee Addict.