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?