Roastaroma is a full bodied herbal tea manufactured by Celestial Seasonings that is as dark in color and bold in taste as your favorite cup of Designer Joe.  However, researchers report, when consumed on a daily basis, one is NOT just drinking brewed tea.  Instead, since this tea is a blend of roasted barley, roasted chicory root, and roasted carob, with spices like cinnamon, allspice, and star anise, it is a product of Herbal Infusion.  Also known as Tisane, this “essence” “born” out of carefully planned and measured mixtures of botanicals provide health benefits not seen with other teas.  For example, having Roastaroma as regular part of your daily routine not only adds zero calories to your diet, it also provides a more calm and relaxed state of mind, supports heart health, aids with stomach and digestive problems, provides cleansing properties for the body and promotes energy and wellness.

Genmaicha is a green tea with roasted brown rice.  And as with other green teas, this nutty flavored tea provides antioxidants that improves the function of the immune system, liver detoxification and lowers cardiovascular and cancer risk.  Also a zero calorie drink, Genmaicha increases energy expenditure by increasing fat oxidation which, in turn, can result in measurable fat loss.

Teeccino, also made from roasted carob, roasted barley and roasted chicory.  It contains figs, almonds and dates for sweetness and its nutty flavor.  As you would guess from its ingredients, there are a significant amount of calories in every choice of flavor.  That’s right!  Depending on the flavor and brand, there can be between 12 and 20 calories per cup in this caffeine-free herbal coffee!  Not such a good alternative to its five calorie caffeine cousin Plain Ol’ Joe.

Cafix is an instant, freeze-dried grain drink.  Another product made from barley and chicory, this non-acidic coffee substitute is 100% naturally caffeine-free.  That means it’s not DEcaffeinated.  It is all natural, contains no cholesterol, no trans-fat and is very low in sodium.  Many believe that it’s the perfect instant coffee.  It offers the same comforting flavor of caffeinated coffee with the exotic flavors found in Teecchino (barley, chicory and figs), as well as red beet extract, without as many calories.  Like Coffee, Cafix only contains five calories per cup.

Pero is my final offering for this morning.  From Switzerland, this too is an instant, 100% natural, caffeine-free coffee substitute that contains many of the Usual Suspects reported above with even fewer calories.  At one calorie per teaspoon, it can be added to any hot drink or it can stand on its own.  So, even if you are not in the mood for “coffee”, but want a unique flavored sweetener in you hot drink, add a teaspoon of Pero and become surprised.

So my dear early risers, there you have it…the top five coffee substitutes.  One little aside though, with all of the hoopla surrounding eating Gluten Free, you might like to know that only Genmaicha and Teeccino ARE Gluten Free.  You see, it pays to read the entire article.