Can we drink decaff coffee or hot chocolate?

[oggydude]

I am new devotee and here in uk it gets pretty cold around in the winter so I would like to have a hot drink to drink and offer to krishna, so are we allowed to have decaff coffee or hot chocolate, and was surprised that the radha krishna iskcon resturant in london sells decaff coffee.

Take away Menu | Radha Krishna Temple ISKCON London

Thanks and hare krishna

[kichigai]

first of all it depends on the deity you're offering it to. coffee is rajasic, so most KRSNA deities won't accept this as an offering. cacao i'd have to look up.

 

you could do a "yogi tea" for a hot drink and carefully select the spices you use.

 

the easiest way to drink "transcentental" coffee is, to add a little water offered to KRSNA (for bathing or such) to your coffee.

[jivasonic]

Its all about intoxication, not about the coffee itself - caffine is a brain altering intoxicant, but so is your own brain by thinking and doing certain things, so you have to use common sense- like is this intoxicating ?? or not.

 

J.

[atmarama]

Haribol - I suppose it depends on how strict you are with yourself... Many devotees do drink decaf and hot chocolate... In South Africa we have rooibos tea, which is naturally caffeine free, I think you can find it in the UK as well.

 

Jaya Sri Krsna

[Vamsidhari Das]

hare krsna. If u would really like to offer something hot to your deities and have them as prasadam during the cold season, you may offer milk that has been boiled with a pinch of cardamom or alcohol-free vanilla extract. Such hot milk would be excellent. If you would like to have coffee, decaff coffee is also rejected as decaff coffee has been proven to be not 100% caffeine free. As such it would be unofferable to Krsna or any other deities. Most of our deities are visnu-tattva(incarnations of Krsna) as such they are only to be offered food items in the mode of goodness and that prasadam would also be suitable for us. Its nonsensical to say that we should have different levels of standard in following the rules n regulations. Cocoa is restricted in terms of offering to krsna n consuming according to srila Prabhupada's standard. This is simply due to the fact that caffeine is present in cocoa. A such we shud not drink hot chocolate or even eat chocolates for that case. However many Iskcon devotees still consume cocoa. Carob is a caffeine-free substitute for cocoa if u didnt know earlier. To make offerable naturally caffeine-free coffee, simply dry roast about 6 to 7 pieces of cloves for about a min in a heavy bottomed pan and then add 1 cup of corriander seeds and dry roast in medium flame till it becomes blackish and smokes a bit. To this add half cup sugar and allow the sugar to mix with the dry roasted ingredients and melt. once the sugar is melted and turns dark brown like caramel, add half cup of water and give a quick stir and then add 6 cups of milk or slightly more or less according to ur preffered strength. Bring milk to a boil and it would smell similar to milk coffee. once it boils and rises, switch off stove and filter the contents to get the hot beverage. you may reheat the drink after mixing the offering back to the main batch of preparation so that you can drink the prasadam "coffee" piping hot. hare krsna. hope this helped u to improve ur krsna consciousness.

 

ur servant

Vamsidhari Das