Successful parenting can be chalked up to several things. Patience, love, creativity, flexibility, and coffee. Let’s be real, coffee should be at the top of that list. I don’t think ours is the only household for which coffee is a near-sacred ritual. It goes beyond the caffeine in our home. For some reason 3 weeks after Captain was born, I developed a serious intolerance to caffeine in coffee. We aren’t quite sure why, but when I’m pregnant I can tolerate half-caf, but by 2 weeks postpartum, I get hugely jittery, nervous, and sick while drinking caffeinated coffee. I am pretty much sure this strange reaction will last for my breastfeeding years! So, when I say I am a coffee nut it’s true– because I’m willing to drink caffeine-free just to get the taste every morning.
I’ve loved coffee my entire life. I have super vivid memories of sipping the cold leftovers of my dad’s black coffee with sweet ‘n’ low in it. My mother is hispanic, and in many Mexican cultures, children start on coffee very young with a high milk to coffee ratio. I remember Saturday mornings, headed to church with my mom for meetings and her packing me a travel mug of hot cocoa with coffee in it. In fact, my kids and nieces enjoy “Nana Coffee” when they stay at my mom’s house overnight. Mornings always come with a cup of milk, coffee, chocolate, and lots of whipped cream! Needless to say, just because I had to stop drinking caffeinated coffee, didn’t mean I was going to give up coffee altogether– coffee is in my blood.
In the last 4 years since becoming a nursing mother, I have tried a lot of decaf coffees. Everything from light roast store brand to extra dark espresso beans from Starbucks. I love trying new coffees, and just because I can’t have caffeine doesn’t mean I had to give up on finding some good beans! But, I’ve found a new favorite in the last month with Lifeboost Coffee.
Lifeboost is single-sourced. It is from a 6-acre farm in the highlands of Nicaragua. The farm is surrounded by one of Nicaragua’s National Protected Areas, so the land is totally clean and pesticide free. Did I mention it’s organic and Fair Trade? Because it is! The Arabica beans are grown, harvested, cleaned, and roasted all on site. Unlike other coffees, this is free of mycotoxic presence. Myco-what? Mycotoxins are produced by molds which are not great for your health and show up in other lower-quality beans. This coffee is pure, unadulterated, Arabica goodness.
So how does Lifeboost Coffee taste? We have enjoyed a few different brewing methods with both the decaf medium roast and also regular roasts. (Milkman is reveling in having some good, fully-leaded beans in the house!) I didn’t think I could enjoy it much more than I did with a coarse grind in the French Press, but over the weekend, Milkman used a slightly finer grind and made it using the pour-over. This was ridiculously satisfying. Maybe pour-overs and presses aren’t for you, maybe you just like to have a down and dirty machine-drip first thing in the morning, and guess what? Still good like that.
This is the kind of coffee where, if you are used to drinking coffee with cream added, you don’t have to. It’s not bitter. Delightfully mild without tasting weak. Nutty and heady while still being delicate on the palate. You can taste the quality, and as an added bonus to your caffeine (or DECAF as the case may be) fix, you can rest assured that the coffee you are drinking is 100% Certified Organic and Fair Trade.
I enjoyed this coffee so much that after drinking it for just a few days I contacted Dr. Charles Livingston at Lifeboost and asked him if he would be willing to share some Lifeboost coffee with my readers! We agreed that no one needs a coffee pick-me-up more than parents, and because they offer both regular and decaf coffee, this is suitable for the parents of toddlers who need all the caffeine they can get or the pregnant or nursing mama who wants the flavor and comfort of coffee without the caffeine!
Huge thanks to Dr. Charles at Lifeboost for supplying us with the coffee for the giveaway! Make sure you check out Lifeboost on Facebook, on Instagram @lifeboostcoffee, and go to their website or their Amazon store to try out their coffee (it’s on Amazon Prime! HELLO! No shipping charge and delivered to your door? That’s how I like my coffee!)
So, head to She Rocks the Cradle on Facebook, and check out our giveaway for Lifeboost and enter for a chance to win the roast of your choosing absolutely FREE!
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