I love coffee, but lately I’ve been having completely unexplainable dizzy spells in the morning. I think it might be a combination of dehydration and coffee addiction (if not the caffeine itself). So I’ve decided to stop drinking coffee for a while and see what happens. I’m drinking an herbal ginger, turmeric tea instead.
Obviously, tea with turmeric and ginger is a lot healthier. I usually take my coffee black and my tea with nothing in it. Both are healthier than the average person’s regular morning milk-n-sugar concoction. Mostly I just love a hot beverage to wash down a light snack when I wake up to break the fast from sleeping all night (usually a handful of nuts).
Speaking of milk-n-sugar concoctions. I tried Ovaltine and about spit it out. The primary ingredient is sugar. I about got diabetes just from one sip. What is it about the food industry that has to be so much sugar into everything?
Tea is also a lot easier to make while living as a nomad. Like coffee, it makes filtered water taste better, but has a better chance of accomplishing that goal given the many different bad tastes that come with water filtered from any number of sources. The best (and really only) coffee option is Alpine Start instant coffee, which is barely passable as coffee with perfect water, let alone random filtered water. Plus the amount of fuss to manage making an actual good cup of coffee as a nomad just isn’t worth it. Believe me, I’ve tried literally every option there is. An overpriced cup of joe purchased from a hip barista becomes a worthwhile—albeit occasional—guilty indulgence. And if I really need a caffeine hit to survive there is always caffeine pills, which I first heard of bikepackers using when Lael Wilcox shared her complete Tour Divide kit.
One (usually negative) side effect of coffee in the morning is to hurry along natures call to get it out of the way. Within ten minutes after a cup of coffee I find myself having to get up and find my “facilities” kit. I’ve noticed the same is not true of tea.