Last week, I was in Boston, Massachusetts for the day. As with every major city that I visit, I always search to see if there are any organic places in town. I saw that there was an Equal Exchange Café. For those of you who do not know, Equal Exchange is a Fair Trade, organic company that sells amazing chocolates, coffee, tea, hot cocoa, dried fruit, and nuts. You can buy their products in Whole Foods Market and at almost every natural/organic market. So when I saw that they had an actual café, I HAD to visit it since I never even knew they had a cafe. Even though I was only in Boston for about 8 hours, I found a way to stop by.

The Equal Exchange Café is located right by the TD Garden where the Boston Celtics and the Boston Bruins play. It is also located right under Trip Advisor’s office’s. The Equal Exchange Café is a coffee shop where they serve their coffee in a variety of drinks. They also serve different types of hot cocoa and teas as well. You can be assured that their drinks are all organic. They use organic dairy and organic alternative dairy to make with their drinks as well. They also sell their chocolate products, cocoas, teas, coffees, dried fruits, nuts, t-shirts, and bags. They also have a café where they serve healthy food for a light lunch and breakfast. They also sell freshly baked pastries that come from other local bakeries.

The Equal Exchange Café is very welcoming from the moment you walk in. Even though they are organic and Fair Trade, their drinks were not much more expensive than any other local coffee shop or even Starbucks. You know you are getting high quality when it comes to Equal Exchange coffee.

Since I don’t drink coffee, I had a dark hot chocolate there. It was really delicious! It was not too strong and it was not too sweet. Since I am a Floridian and it was 50 degrees in Boston, the dark hot chocolate warmed me up perfectly. My aunt drank a Mocha and she loved it!

I am so happy I had the opportunity to visit the Equal Exchange Café! I wish they had more locations other than Boston and Seattle but hopefully they will keep growing. Their products are amazing and are high quality. The mission of Equal Exchange and what they stand for is what makes them such a great company.

Make sure when you are in Boston or Seattle you stop by the Equal Exchange Café and try their coffee, tea, or hot cocoa. Don’t forget to try one of their amazing chocolate bars. My favorite is their Dark Mint Chocolate Crunch.

For more information about the Equal Exchange Cafe please visit their website http://equalexchange.coop/about/our-cafes/cafe .

Keep on supporting local, organic, Fair Trade businesses who are making a difference in this world.

Love,

Sara, “S.O.Eats”

The post EQUAL EXCHANGE CAFE appeared first on Sara's Organic Eats.

On January 7^th, 2013, it was the end of an era for me. It was the day I decided to cut coffee out of my diet cold turkey, FOR GOOD this time. How do I remember the date so well? It was the first day back to college after a long winter break and it was also one of my roommates 22^nd birthday. It was also the first day of my last semester of college. I was so tired in the afternoon after my first two classes and we were going out later that night for her birthday so I decided to have a coffee to wake me up. It was an organic coffee that I drank before so I don’t understand what happened. But it is a day that is still so vivid. Here are the events that led up to the infamous January 7^th.

My Dads’ side of the family is Cuban so I grew up surrounded by Cuban coffee. Cuban coffee consists of the famous cortadito (espresso) and café con leche (coffee with milk). Cuban coffee is HIGHLY ADDICTIVE. I repeat, HIGHLY ADDICTIVE. When I was about 7 or 8 years old I remember always asking my grandparents for sips of their café con leche. They used to let me even though some of my other family members would say that it was going to stunt my growth. In spite of that, I do not blame coffee for my height of  4’ 10”. As I got older, I then drank a lot more café con leches and other types of coffee drinks.

By the time I got to high school, Starbucks started to open up everywhere around where I lived. I think I used to go there around 3 times a week. Sometimes I would even wake up at 5 a.m just so I could leave the house by 6 to get a coffee and make it to school on time at 7:40. Then when I was about 16 years old, another day that I will never forget, I went to Starbucks and got my usual Caramel Frappuccino. Just to mention, I was not living an organic life around this time. So anyway, I got the Frappuccino and I went to visit my mom at work. I have no idea what happened, but I literally could not sit down and I felt jittery. I was running all over her office and just felt this super high off of caffeine. From that day I knew I needed to change to caffeine free or something. I opted to start drinking caffeine free with the occasional regular coffee.

When I was 18, just right after I graduated from high school, I completely changed my lifestyle to an organic one. With that, I decided to cut out all caffeine and sodas as well. At that time, my best friend told me about this product called Teeccino. It is an herbal coffee made from chicory root but it has no caffeine, low in acid, and actually has many health benefits. It helped with the cravings of coffee and it tasted great. Even in my first 3 years of college where I was working about 30 hours a week in a restaurant and I was a full time student, I survived without any need of coffee. This is unheard of in the hospitality/restaurant industry since caffeine is what keeps workers in the hospitality industry going. College is also the place where the habit of coffee starts so I totally went the opposite way. I used to drink a Teeccino about 4 times a week. One of my roommates from Vietnam used to say that I was drinking “coffee tea” which is a great way to describe Teeccino.

Then, in summer of 2012 I went with my family to Europe where I picked up the coffee habit again. Europe is known for their awesome coffee and local coffee shops. One of the countries we went to was Paris where my sister purchased a coffee from one of the local shops. The aroma of the coffee was divine and it looked delicious so I ended up giving in my 3-year end of no coffee and taking a sip. That little sip gave me an opening to start drinking coffee again. After that summer, I went into my senior year of college and in that fall semester I drank regular organic coffee about 2-3 times a week. It helped me stay up late to study and do homework. I just loved the taste.

So back to January 7^th, 2013. After an exhausting first day back to school, I drank an organic coffee. Little did I know, that coffee was going to be the deciding factor that I would never drink coffee again. So, I drank the coffee and right after I felt a lot less tired which was what I was trying to achieve. Then about an hour later, I started to feel jittery, my arms hurt, I had heart palpitations, heartburn, and I felt run down. It felt like the beginning of getting the flu where your whole body hurts although I didn’t feel like I was actually sick. It was honestly the weirdest I have ever felt from a coffee. Luckily that feeling only lasted about 4 hours but I vowed that I would not drink coffee again. I fortunately cut coffee cold turkey without cravings or crashes. Also, I only picked up that coffee habit again for about 7 months so it was significantly easier to cut it out this time.

This is how I ended my coffee addiction using Teeccino

For the first 3 weeks, I drank 1 Teeccino every day. Then on the fourth week, it went to every other day. Two weeks after that, it went to twice a week and then to a couple of days a month. I eventually stopped even craving the Teeccino. Teeccino is an amazing product and taste just like coffee. Just add your favorite creamer and you think you are drinking your favorite cup’o’joe.

It has been three years since the day I decided to finally end my love for coffee and to this day, I do not crave coffee at all. I have been offered coffee to try and I won’t even take a little sip. I know where that sip could lead and I don’t want to go down that path again. Even though I do not drink coffee or barely anything with caffeine, I still support organic coffee companies and I like to visit cool organic coffee shops around the world. When I tell people that I no longer drink coffee they look at me like I am crazy or they ask me how I survive the day without it but I am here to tell you that it is possible. Even for a Latina like me, where coffee is a staple at every family function and it is in the blood to drink coffee, I no longer need it or crave it. You too can quit coffee if you have the want, the willpower, and also if you use the best product to help you cut the habit out called Teeccino.

Love,

Sara, “S.O.Eats”

For more information on Teeccino please visit their website, http://teeccino.com .

Disclaimer: Just because this is the way caffeine affects me, that doesn’t mean it happens to everyone else.

The post How I Broke Up With My Love For Coffee appeared first on Sara's Organic Eats.