Have you tested positive for crystalline xanthine alkaloid

This bitter white stimulant sneaks up into all nearly all our beverages. While in nature it acts as a natural pesticide to paralyze and kill insects, we humans glug copious amounts of it via soft drinks, beverages or energy shots.

Caffeine, you sneaky bugger.

Caffeine Attack (Photo credit: serafini)

The jolt from caffeine keeps us going until the crash which
follows, in my case that is a numbing headache which even sleep can't eliminate.

So, someone created decaf.

For all those hypersensitive to caffeine, wouldn't you like to know if the Americana is legit amount of caffeine?

So, someone else invented a caffeine test strip. D+caf Test Strips help you fine caffeine concentration of coffee and tea with 98% accuracy for detecting “NON-DECAFFEINATED” beverages. The test strips are so high in demand that I could not find a single live link to the product-buy page.

Caribou Coffee Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I will continue to take my chances with that dark roast Caribou Coffee. Drinking two pounds of that coffee hasn't frazzled me, so the remainder half pound should be equally relaxing.

A Fresh Brew

Because I am no longer getting my system wired with copious amounts of caffeine, my body (mainly the part above the neck) has been on "Pause" mode for a month.

The first week after I stopped drinking coffee I had a pounding headache, which diminished  only with a continuous knock on the forehead with my cordless phone. It is now held together with a goey remnant of Neosporin & Mickey Mouse Band-Aid. What didn't work for the bruised temple, is sure working well for the eroded earpiece.

A failed rendezvous with hot cocoa, on flash-snow days like today, I grudgingly sought refuge in the warm comfort of steeped tea leaves.

Whether you know how to roll perfectly round chappatis which fluff up like balloons, not knowing how to brew a good cup of tea has been my saddling curse. Weak as a kitten, my tea is usually drained in the gullet of the In-Sink-Erator. If I recollect and take out the tea bag half an hour later, the tea is only fit for soaking Parle-G biscuits or tea rusks till they sink at the bottom of the cup and I end up 'eating' the bitter-sweet mush with a spoon.

During a trip to Iraq with my mom a decade ago, we'd spend the afternoons  walking through the ruins of the freshly bombed town square, following our noses to seek the sweet enticing aroma of freshly brewed tea (she was a tea aficionado). Served in delicate cups the size of a shot glass, their sweet and minty black tea is not scorching hot; you find yourself sipping a warm dessert, sitting in the desert (see what I did there ;-))

On a rain-drenched spring evening of Portland, I savored a similar brew at Dar Essalam a Mediterranean restaurant which serves Indian-like spicy meats accompanied with Moroccan Hot Mint Tea served in a filagreed silver pot and matching cups.

Recollecting the notes of flavor, I gathered the raw materials:

- Loose tea leaves
- Orange Blossom Water
- Fresh Mint Leaves from my potted plant (they are floating in the water)
- IngenuiTEA which I have used until recently for Cold Brewing Coffee
- 2 sachets of sugar (American sugar is less sweet than Indian sugar)
- Nuked water

Everything went in the IngenuiTEA and poured out 5 minutes later.

Verdict? I finished drinking it all even before I finished typing the words 'tea leaves' the first time in this post, and I finished typing the entire post in one-sitting, which usually takes me 2-3 days to complete.

Got any tips to improve my tea nirvana?

Coffee Break

After a failing association with Allopathy medication, I have turned to my favorite alternative - Homeopathy. It never fails to surprise me that two tiny sweet pellets can have such dramatic results which popping large bitter and gullet-chocking tablets fail to achieve.

Image via Wikipedia

The only drawback is that I will be unable to freshen my afternoons with a steaming cup of mocha. Tuesday was my first day without coffee. Most times I skip a cup when I'm too busy. But since it is a mandate now, my body decided to retaliate with a full-blown withdrawal and launched a pounding headache which only an unadulterated shot of espresso can cure. Mind though conquered over matter, and I lolled the remainder of the evening in a haze.
The mist rolling across the hills aka my parking lot urges me to froth up a cappuccino. Reckoned to steep a cup of tea with the remains of a one-year old sachet I'd bought for my father when he was visiting. I settled for a warm glass of water. After yesterday's swim class though, I needed something to stir me up from the adrenaline crash. I made a pit stop at my local coffee shop Coffee Time and just stood for half a minute treating my olfactory senses to the rich aroma of freshly ground coffee.
The guy behind the counter had cocked his head up from the Nintendo he was playing to get my order started. So there was a question mark on his face as I scanned the chalkboard to find a comfort drink. Then it struck me. Hot cocoa!
I asked him if he could whip me up a cup of cocoa, asking twice if there was any coffee involved in the process. He gave a boring sideways glanced and said "No coffee." I felt the vexing urge to explain myself. "I am trying to kick the coffee habit, so just want to make sure there's no coffee whatsoever in my drink."
He nodded, and suggested that I take a medium cup. I said "Sure!"
Coffee Time is half a mile from my apartment, with a single signal light. Trying to distill any kind of soothing effect which coffee fills the nerves with, I gulped down 3/4th of the cocoa before I'd reached home. On the plus side, I am now sleeping like a baby at the stroke of midnight.