While I do love my caffeine jolts from a wonderful cup of coffee, sometimes you just don’t need a pick me up but still want to have a fantastic, steamy, full-flavored coffee.
While shopping on IHerb, I came across a chicory-based coffee substitute called Teecino. I decided to order it to see if it would fit the bill as a decent coffee substitute. For a wonderful afternoon snack, I also decided to pair it with an Australian-made snack, Twix Pods!
The Teecino flavor I got was the Vanilla Nut. It is supposed to be 75% organic and is made with a number of herbs. It is considered to be coffee-free, caffeine-free, acid-free, and also a prebiotic! That does sound very healthy!
Taking a look at the ingredient list, there is: carob, barley, chicory, dates, almonds, figs, vanilla nut flavor, and vanilla extract. This sounds very healthy, and I couldn't find a single chemical in the list!
The package also recommends that you start by only using a little with your coffee to slowly wean yourself off coffee entirely, but I figured I might as well give it a go at 100% strength right from the beginning!
Opening the package, there was a delicious scent from the vanilla inside. It didn’t really smell like coffee, but it did smell good!
The package recommends a heaping tablespoon to make one cup, so I put some in my filter holder.
I added some water, and my kitchen was immediately filled with a warming vanilla flavor. It really did smell amazing!
While waiting for the water to filter through (and it did take a long time!) I took a look at the Twix Pods. This snack is a little cookie cup with a dab of caramel that is covered in chocolate. It is apparently only for sale in retail shops in Australia and New Zealand, so I was very surprised when it was at my local supermarket, and on sale as well!
The individual pod looks interesting, and the cookie is more like a wafer, with tiny little holes on the surface.
Finally, my “coffee” was ready. The first sip was quite good! The vanilla flavor is very strong, and there is a dark, earthy, wholesome flavor to Teecino’s Vanilla Nut.
The drink is quite sweet, but in a natural way. I often like sweeter coffee drinks, but this was interesting because the natural sweetness from the carob was tasty. The addition of barley was also fine, as we often drink barley tea here in South Korea, and so it certainly didn’t bother me.
The Twix Pods were okay. I don’t think they are as good as a whole Twix bar, but the little dash of caramel inside each one makes for a nice snack. I think one of the advantages of the Pods is that you don’t have to eat the whole bag at once, whereas with a Twix bar you really do want to eat it all in one shot!
Teecino has certainly made an interesting product here. The flavor is really good and without the bitterness and acidity of coffee. I don’t think I will replace all of my coffee drinking with Teecino, but I can definitely see myself having some for a nice evening drink.
