Best Tea for Quitting Coffee (if you’re rich)
by Evan Shultz
Sleepless nights. Grumpy mornings. Getting startled at work, and responding with a roundhouse kick to a coworker’s jugular. Chewing grounds when the filters run out.
It may be time to quit coffee.
But I’ve been there, tried that. Switching to decaf sundered any hope of productivity: Along came the headaches, death threats, seppuku fantasies. There’s always tea — but, tea is so weak. Like water with a hint of potpourri. If only there was a drink with all the flavor of coffee, and all the caffeine, too . . . but then that would be coffee.
Then I found MatèVana, a signature blend from Teavana, the Atlanta-born tea vendor that now brings premium loose leaf to store locations in 30 states (and elsewhere through its online shop).
Matè teas, made from an Argentinean shrub, have all the caffeine that coffee does, but with a bouquet of xanthines to smooth out energy absorption — so no more buzzes followed by mid-afternoon crashes. The problem is that matè generally tastes like boiled cactus.
Except MatèVana. A special mixture of matè and other ingredients, this blend tastes the way coffee smells: the same warm aroma filling your head, the same thick flavor purring at the back of your throat, without any acid sour or bitterness. And an aftertaste that’s actually pleasant.
So there’s finally a replacement for coffee — a coffee 2.0, if you will. Same energy, better taste, no buzzes or crashes . . . why isn’t everyone drinking this stuff?
Just one catch . . .
It’s expensive.
Not just Starbucks expensive, Starbucks Frappuccino® expensive. Two ounces of MatèVana, enough to brew ten to fifteen cups, retails for $5.80, or about $.50 a cup. Compare this to Starbucks anniversary blend, one of the java giant’s more expensive coffees, which sells at about $.30 a cup. So while drinking MatèVana might turn Mr. Hyde back into Dr. Jekyll, the good doctor will require his doctor’s salary to afford it.
But only if it’s served straight up. Many teas blend well with other teas, so try gradually cutting MatèVana with, say, a caffeine-free rooibos (red tea) — easy as pie (and just as delicious). Maybe the red tea could eventually replace MatèVana completely. Once the body is weaned off caffeine, that nice, cheap, normal cup of tea might start to taste like a real drink — and decaf coffee like a walk through bliss.
Or there’s medical school.
MatèVana is so good it might be worth it.
Tea Info:
MatèVana
Can Be Purchased: at any Teavana store, or online
Website: www.teavana.com
Price: $5.80 for 2 ounces loose leaf, dry
RedFence Rating: 9 (out of 10)
Photos by Evan Shultz
