Coffee, Tea, or… Diet Coke?
Time for a poll — what is your morning beverage routine? Coffee, tea, or something else?
Though I try to remain in denial, I’m fully aware there are some of you out there who can’t function each morning without a (gasp) Diet Coke. That seems to be an unholy alliance, but hey, I also like to eat cold spaghetti carbonara for breakfast, so I suppose no judgment should be passed. And I’ve been a flip-flopper on so many levels for so long that I want to hear about the strange and varied ways people use caffeine to start their day.
My personal saga with hot beverages started when my mom introduced me to Constant Comment and a strange concoction called Russian Tea made with Tang and instant tea powder. After a high school crush on Sheetz cappuccinos and Denny’s diner swill, I moved into a full-blown day-and-night coffee addiction from college (complete with an espresso machine in my freshman dorm room) through the next decade.
When I started getting stress-induced heart palpitations, the doctors told me to cool it on the java, so I went back to tea almost exclusively until this fall, when I finally realized it was the job—not the coffee—that was making me twitch and grind my teeth every weekday morning. The affair was back on. Coffee+Casey=True Love 4Eva.
I still switch my morning cuppa to tea every few days (and have discovered that Tazo’s Wild Sweet Orange simulates the citrus blast of Russian Tea without all the fake powder), but most days I’m a French roast in the French Press
kind of girl.
My sister is psyched to be using her Christmas present of a brand-new Bialetti
, my stepmom always burr-grinds her beans fresh every morning, and my mom is still in love with Starbucks. Everyone’s got their own idiosyncrasy.
So, spill the beans—what’s yours and how did you end up with your choice?
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Casey Barber
Casey Barber is the owner and founder of Good Food Stories LLC and a visual storyteller whose work often focuses on the intersection of food and culture. She is also the author of the cookbooks Pierogi Love: New Takes on an Old-World Comfort Food and Classic Snacks Made from Scratch: 70 Homemade Versions of Your Favorite Brand-Name Treats, and she couldn’t get anything done without the help of her executive assistant cats, Bixby and Lenny. Her favorite color is obviously orange.
Sadly the caffeine no longer gives me any heart palpitations…and yet I still get my red eye (shot of espresso in coffee) every morning from Starbucks. Its become more of a habit out of convenience and routine than for any morning high. If I was good at cleaning, then it would be a French Press girl all the way. Sadly I am lazy and my girls at Starbucks know to get the Venti red eye and Venti water ready every morning.
Hate tea and the thought of a DC in the morning or at any time makes my stomach turn. Glad its not the coffee messing your heart up Casey!
As my soul sister Lorelei Gilmore once said, “I am 90% water, 10% caffeine.”
Spaghetti carbonara does have bacon so it counts as breakfast in my book. As for my coffee preference, I like black coffee until I twitch uncontrollably or espresso when feeling European in the mornings. In the afternoons, I like brewed vanilla chai tea with a splash of half & half and a splenda (I know I said I didn’t use Splenda anymore.. well Im back in the U.S. and I can’t help myself).
There is something wonderful about a cup of tea – whether it is morning, afternoon or evening. It is liberating to see this country coming around to tea – no longer am I stuck with the Lipton tea bag in a luke warm tiny cup. Instead, more and more, I see a pot delivered with tea properly steeping. A former Diet Coke fanatic, I now take solace and get my energy from my daily cup of loose leaf.
Tea (Lipton!) on weekdays at the office, coffee in the French press on weekends. Seems backwards, but works for me!
Wow, the tea fans are making passionate arguments (even though Lisa loves Lipton and Bryan’s so over it). I don’t think any of it is backwards as long as it makes your day a little better!
Diet Coke is the first thing that hits my stomach in the morning. I usually have 2 before food, then a couple more when I get to the office. I try to knock off after lunch so I can sleep. Sometimes the promise of DC is the only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning.