This is nuts…
I don’t think I would consider myself a coffee snob. I’m definitely a coffee connoisseur and likely in a gateway to addiction era but I’m just as happy with Maxwell House or Folgers as I am with my Black Rifle stuff at home. I mean, one is better than the other but I can make any of it work pretty easily as long as it’s coffee and my husband is bringing it to me. He just does it better. I’m not quite as easy going about coffee out in the world. There are some popular coffee spots that I really struggle with and I’m not naming names. Thankfully, we have an absolute gem of a coffee bar in my hometown and it is not only the spot for amazing coffee creations but comes complete with the most fitting coffeehouse vibe. Look them up, Gambit Coffee Bar in Southern Illinois. When I’m home, I’ve had to get creative with having a good cup of coffee. I didn’t know for years that a big chunk of my issues were coming from Lupus and dairy having a fist fight in my gut. As a vegetarian, I really wanted to avoid dairy as much as I could anyways. I have never, even as a kid, liked straight cow’s milk. I do like cheese, a lot. I’m Italian, it’s hard to eat anything without cheese. Plant based cheese is not great. So, when I first started drinking coffee I was using everybody’s normal grabs from the grocery store. I loved the coffee, felt awful after drinking it. Years later, I saw an article about coffee creamers in America that are illegal in other countries and my crunchy flag went up. I immediately started researching and cutting out brand after brand. It aligned well with my journey to figure out life with a chronic illness, which was also including a lot of food and ingredient pruning. I landed on several plant based options and have continued to try new ones as I find them. In a rural area full of hunters, we don’t always have the best selection of vegan or plant based options. This is my newest find, the Nut Pods that is both dairy free and sugar free and I love that. It has a way less tangy after taste than some of the others that combine the coconut and almond milk and especially goes down smoother than the others with no sugar. It’s definitely worth a try if you are looking for a plant based option.
