February 13, 2007

Getting a Chai High


I dream about chocolate but I don’t do caffeine. No chocolate, soda, coffee or tea – even decaf. They all have the same impact. Once in a while I do have a chai, like today and I will now describe what it does to me. First of all let it be known that this is a Starbuck's chai latte which probably has double the sugar and twice the caffeine. Of course to be politically correct I had it with soy milk (or soya milk as it is called her in the UK).

I am high. I am shaking, I can’t see straight, I don’t feel tired, I want to keep working, but I can’t see very clearly. I have the shakes, my hands are twitching and my heart is racing. This is from one cup of chai consumed four hours ago. It also makes me nervous, anxious and nauseous. But at the same time I feel hungry.

Caffeine does other things in my body such as causing me to retain water – but we won’t go into that other unfortunate side effect in detail.

I do however buy chocolate for my friends, enjoy making brownies and love to get a good whiff whenever Stephen is eating something super chocolaty delicious. As you can imagine nobody believes that I don’t do caffeine and I’m sure it makes life quite a dilemma for Stephen on Valentine’s day.
Of course I do have some decaf chai ingredients at home but it just never tastes the same as Starbuck's.

Photo from flikr