Herbal Mocha with Chicory and Maca

This weekend, we are off to a log cabin in the Appalachian Mountains with the whole family. Our kitchen is finally being taken apart in preparation for renovations, so we’re getting away from the dust and craziness for a week while the space gets stripped. The cabin is in a pretty remote and quiet place, and the leaves are turning – all great reasons to chill, hike, meditate, and get some much needed sleep. I’ve already packed up all the ingredients for this mocha to bring on the trip, since it’s been my favorite thing to drink in the mornings, and I can’t wait to sit on the cabin porch, sipping on this cozy herbal coffee. The base for this drink is roasted chicory root, a common coffee substitute, which gives it the deep flavor and rich color. In the U.S., chicory coffee is known as New Orleans style coffee, where it became popular during the Civil War, when the importing of coffee was stalled due to blockades. Chicory is also very common throughout Europe, and I grew up in a culture, where it was highly regarded as a medicinal plant and foraged in the summer for making herbal tea. Chicory is easy to distinguish in the wild due to its bright blue flowers (pick some if it grows around you!) and is related to dandelion, so you can use Dandy Blend here if you can’t get your hands on pure chicory (Dandy Blend includes both dandelion and chicory roots). It contains no caffeine, is rich in vitamin C and has the highest concentration of inulin of all plants. When roasted and ground, chicory miraculously resembles the flavor and depth of coffee. These days, I mostly try to stay away from caffeine, so coming up with drinks that will provide some of that much-needed comfort in the morning, minus the jitters, makes me quite happy. I add raw cacao and maca powders here for an energy boost, which also contribute more wealth to the flavor and take this drink into the ‘mocha’ territory. I’m in love with this cozy sip and find myself craving it throughout the day. It’s great hot and equally as good chilled, after some time in the fridge, or even iced. We’ve accumulated quite a few interesting links, which we are sharing today. We will be back with our weekend link roundups, along with all kinds of other good stuff very soon ;) Enjoy.

Inside Glossier – I find this beauty company’s no-makeup makeup strategy and image quite fascinating and inspiring, so I found this in depth article and interview with their founder very interesting

How I Built This – I listen to podcasts almost every day in the kitchen, and get very excited when a new, high-quality one comes out. This one is by NPR and has a series of interviews with successful entrepreneurs about how they started their businesses. So far they’ve interviewed creators of Instagram, Vice, Spanx and more.

Reluctance NY – love cool bakery instagrams like this one

Sans Ceuticals Journal – a natural beauty company with a journal full of clever, health-centric recipes like lacto pickles, Buddhist lunch, vegan butter, Bloodlesss Mary, vegan berry Eton Mess and much more

How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat – this is crazy!!!

Navigating the Beauty Supplement Aisle

Interview with Jacqui Lewis – Vedic meditation teacher

Lauren Spencer King – studio and short interview, love the photos here

Eat This Food – refreshingly unique food blog design

Behind the Scenes with Solange + love her new, perfectly pastel videos, one, two