Chitta Latte was born out of necessity and shaped by a global pandemic. 

Several weeks into the coronavirus outbreak I found myself spiraling. The fear and frustration of the moment had caught up to me. Weeks turned to months and my mental health had deteriorated to an unrecognizable place. The lifestyle that I had worked tirelessly for was gone, along with my daily routines, and sense of purpose. I was out of a job and I was losing my mind.

In an effort to reintroduce some small degree of order back into my life I picked up the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. My main takeaway was that a focus on small, repeatable improvements rather than full scale change all at once is the key to self development. It was a constructive message during a time of hopelessness and I appreciated the idea of slowly marching my way out of misery rather than taking massive swings at progress and inevitably falling short.

One of the daily optimizations that I focused on was an effort to limit my caffeine intake. Pre pandemic, I was working an intense job that required every bit of my mental capacity and in order to keep up I found myself consuming upwards of 5 to 6 cups of coffee a day. Once the pandemic started, my intake moderated slightly considering I was sitting around all day, but I was still completely reliant on a daily regimen of at least 300 mg of caffeine in order to feel any sense of normality. I knew this habit had turned into an addiction, but my sincere love for coffee during this time had only grown stronger as I clung to the familiar and comforting feelings associated with making and consuming it as a cherished relic of my pre pandemic life

I tried attacking the issue with mindfulness, but simply being aware of my caffeine intake was not helping me drink any less, especially given my high tolerance. So I tried switching to alternatives like tea which I enjoyed but not nearly as much as my coffee. I researched common solutions which lead me down a rabbit hole of learning how caffeine works on a molecular level. I began learning about adaptogenics, and how they help to modulate the release of caffeine over time rather than the large rush I had become accustomed to. So I purchased a popular adaptogenic coffee replacement- I won’t name names, but it tasted absolutely horrible.

I believed in this idea of supplementing, rather than replacing my coffee with adaptogens as a way to make each cup of coffee last longer, thus needing less caffeine throughout the day, but I couldn’t find any products on the market that would let me do this in a way that wouldn’t sacrifice the taste of my favorite coffee. This is how Chitta Latte started.

I continued researching, and experimenting with mysterious powders until I finally had something I liked. I stuck with it, mixing mushroom extracts into my coffee everyday for weeks. Sure enough, over time my caffeine dependance was nearly gone. I still enjoyed my daily cup of coffee, but no longer found myself reaching for more throughout the day. I was happy to have solved my caffeine problem, and that would’ve been the end of that had it not been for the drastic change that was taking place in my life around that time.

Beyond an improved cup of coffee, after several weeks of use I found myself far more optimistic and cheerful than ever before. I was thinking clearly, without distraction from stress, or brain fog. I had boundless physical energy that compelled me to do hard work outs on a daily basis. I was waking up every morning feeling more refreshed than ever before.  I suddenly found myself, still very much in the midst of a pandemic, in a far more positive mental headspace than at any point over the last several years. 

I originally created this product simply as a tool for getting more out of my daily coffee. It was only overtime that I recognized these ingredients for the blessing that they really are, as a tool for getting more out of myself. Armed with this new discovery, I decided to forgo my career and pursue the opportunity of creating this product at scale. It is my desire to help proliferate these incredible ingredients into the standard American diet, using coffee as the medium of exchange, as a way to serve those who are up against hard times.

Thank you,

Rob