Wake up and smell the barley

As a coffee lover, have you ever tried spending three days straight without coffee? If you haven’t tried it yet, you should. It really wakes your body and minds up. When I went for my first detox, I went through one of that’s surely one of the most painful experiences known to humankind: coffee deprivation.

For those of you (thankfully me too) who have never fallen for heavy drugs, this experience really helps us understand how a simple substance, that we take for granted - because it’s always readily available in large quantities from all over the world - can put addiction in perspective.

The first three days I felt absolutely miserable without coffee. I had throbbing headaches and backache that I didn’t know I had. That’s how well coffee disguises our pain. I was on green tea, orange juice, water, and anything but coffee. Till I had a flashback to my childhood.

There were these drinks - which are still available to buy - called Pensal, Mokambo and Bolero, which were either barley or a mixture of both, or yet barley, chicory and coffee, which still made it a weaker version, as these are cereals. And as far as I can remember, it tasted like coffee. Who said you couldn’t live without coffee? Or decrease the caffeine intake? I can tell you this made all the difference to my daily routine.

I love coffee, its perfume, its taste, but it has made a huge difference to my brain function. Since I cut down my caffeine intake and establish the sensible times of the day to have it, my sleep and memory have dramatically improved. I know that if I stick to 12 pm as a cut-off point to move onto non-caffeinated drinks, I can be sure of a good night's sleep.

Did you know caffeine stays in your system for up to 8 hours? It means that, if you’re an avid coffee drinker throughout the day, your brain will still be going on long after you go to bed. I know I don’t get a good night's rest if I just keep having it.

In reality, I can’t just live without coffee, I grew up with it. I was a toddler when I had my first taste of coffee - when my mum would let me scrape what was left at the bottom of her espresso cups mixed with half a packet of sugar. I have haemoglobin missing in my caffeine flow if you know what I mean...

In the UK, only Holland and Barrett have it. And it isn't as cheap as I remember. But with products being made available for online orders, it widened the possibilities a little more. Good stuff.