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Part Two · for coffee drinkers
Coffee Alternatives
Maybe it’s your blood pressure. Maybe it’s acid reflux, or a stomach that no longer puts up with the morning cup. Maybe it’s the jitters, or sleep. Whatever the reason, there are two questions: what to drink instead, and who shouldn’t drink it. This book answers both.
Two drinks written for it
Chicory and dandelion root
If you came here to replace a daily cup of coffee, Chapters 32 and 35 are the two you want, and they are written for that purpose.
There is no caffeine in chicory and therefore no lift: it goes part of the way to the taste of coffee and none of the way to the effect. The chicory recipe is free to read.
Before you swap
Not every herbal drink is a safe swap
The book gives every recipe its contraindications and, where they are known, the medicines it does not mix with. A few you may not expect:
Why peppermint, the classic stomach soother, can make reflux worse.
Peppermint and lemon balm — free recipe →Why hibiscus, which can lower blood pressure, still calls for a word with your doctor if you take blood-pressure pills.
Chapter 22 →What ginseng, the usual pick for “natural energy,” can actually be used for, according to the European monographs.
Chapter 34 →All the interactions with prescription medicines are listed on one page: how the recipes were checked.
15 drinks
Drunk whenever you like
Fifteen of the recipes are drunk whenever you like, at whatever frequency suits you, within the limits each chapter gives.
Pregnancy
Two drinks without a restriction
Twenty-six of the twenty-eight recipes are restricted in pregnancy — most because safety has not been established rather than because harm has been shown, but the answer is the same either way. The two that carry no restriction are the rosehip brew and sea buckthorn, both of them fruits eaten as food across Europe.
The Hidden History of Beverages · second edition
Fourteen chapters of history. Twenty-eight drinks. Every claim sourced.
The e-book is on Apple Books, where the free sample has the same chapters as this site. If Apple Books doesn’t sell it where you live, “Other stores” shows the bookstores that do.