Beverages

[taimatsu]

Question, because it occurred to me:

IF you drink tea or coffee, how old were you when you started, and why did you start? What's your favourite type of tea/coffee/each, and how often do you imbibe such drinks?

If you don't drink tea or coffee, what do you do when people (friends, hairdressers' assistants in semi-posh salons, etc.) offer you the choice 'tes or coffee'?

Comments

[lovingboth]

I drink about one coffee every couple of months.

"No thanks - have you got anything cold?"

Tea?

[riksowden.livejournal.com]

drink it? i practically sweat it!

I started drinking it regularly aged something like 10-12, and cos thats what we drank at mine. I like 'builders tea', nothing fancy, Yorkshire Tea is the obviously superior tea though.

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

Started universityish. Can't recall why. Cafetiere or filter coffee (with milk and unrefiend demerara sugar), strong sweet milky English Breakfast Tea. It depends - I consume copious Advanced Espresso Substitute every day, but that's hardly proper coffee.

[crocodilewings.livejournal.com]

I reply "What's tes?" :-)

(For those of you viewing this after Lucy edits it out, she misspelt "tea").
</sillyness>

I tend to reply "Neither, thanks", which then provokes the question "Why? Do you not like tea or coffee?" or some variant, and unravels into some thrilling conversation about drinks.

[windzswept.livejournal.com]

coffee and tea...

Coffee - about 10 or 11, asked my parents if I could try theirs and decided I liked it. Kenco really rich, quite milky, teaspoon of coffee in a very large mug, no sugar. normally 3 or 4 times a day, less if its hot outside, more if i'm studying.

Tea - about 4 years old, used to get it in small mugs after sunday lunch. Tea, milky but strong, no sugar. Every couple of days or so, or if I'm at Corsie's.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I started drinking tea when I was about eight or nine, I think. My mother introduced me to that marvellous beverage early on, and for a long time (and even now, though less frequently) we'd have an afternoon tea every day complete with tea service, biscuits and/or some other type of nibbly thing.

Favourite tea is Earl Grey (Twining's), but I love Blackcurrant tea as well. I am a great experimenter when it comes to tea, but I always go back to Earl Grey for comfort. :)

I also adore coffee, although I only started drinking it when I was seventeen, after a trip to Italy, where I was introduced to the real stuff and not the cat piss that North American's call coffee.

Favourite coffee is Blue Mountain. Nectar of the gods, I tell you! Sadly it costs about $50 a pound here in Canada, but I know someone with contacts so I get it cheap. ;)

Needless to say, I consume these two several times a week. I used to drink them more frequently, but I'm a social drinker of caffeinated beverages, and now that I live on my own I don't drink them quite as often as I used to.

Blue Mountain

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Who's your source? ;o)
Sadly, I'm in the UK so it probably won't do me any good.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Started drinking tea as a teenager, largely because both my parents drank coffee; a) I wanted to be awkward, and b) I didn't like their coffee (and I generalised from this to all coffee). Later discovered that they drank crap coffee, and some coffee was nice (and woke me up, and made me lose weight because the diuretic effect was counteracting water retention...) and started drinking coffee in great quantities.

Used to take milk in coffee, but gave up when I was at Oxford & couldn't be arsed to keep milk in the frankly vile communal fridges (or buy half-pints every day and watch them turn solid on the windowsill of my room). Went through a long phase of drinking coffee very strong and ludicrously sweet (3 spoonfuls of coffee, 7 sugars) to get through essay crises.

Discovered while living out that cheap tea is a lot more palatable than cheap coffee; went back to drinking tea for a while, with milk because we had a Real Fridge. :)

Will now drink either tea or coffee in practically any configuration -- don't mind either with or without milk, with or without sugar. By preference I'll drink both black & sugarless, but that only works if they're nice. I drink horrible coffee at work because it's FREE and it stops me falling asleep at the desk. The coffee with extra sugar from the machine is the most drinkable of several varieties of caffeinated brown sludge.

If I don't fancy either I'll just say "no thanks", or ask for a glass of water instead (since most people will have that). It's no big deal.

This comment was brought to you by the letter "T" and the colour "boredom".

[angoel.livejournal.com]

I answer either, 'No, thank you', 'Could I have some water / juice / etc.', or 'Yes, please', depending.

[softfruit.livejournal.com]

No idea when I started drinking tea (young) but I know when I started drinking coffee - Sat 3nd August 1991, the morning after I started drinking vodka :o) hence I drink it black with no sugar cos while I knew you were supposed to drink coffee to help recover after a night's drinking, I was in no state to remember where the milk and sugar lived to take the edge off the taste.

I'm fairly indifferent between kenco, nescafe and douwe egberts instant coffees, prefer instant to "real", and I drink far too much of it for my own health so am trying to cut down from the approx 12 mugfulls a day I was having a year ago.

[imc.livejournal.com]

IF you drink tea or coffee, how old were you when you started,

No idea - I think I must have been brought up on the stuff.

why did you start?

My mum and dad hardly drink anything else except tea and coffee, so it's quite hard to avoid (this having been said, the younger of my two brothers decided at a very early age that he wasn't having any of it and he still doesn't drink them to this day).

What's your favourite type of tea/coffee/each

Currently (for some value of "current") it's TyPhoo (often decaffeinated but sometimes plain) tea and Kenco decaffeinated instant coffee with the green lids. (I used to be a Nescafé drinker until all this baby-killing stuff.)

and how often do you imbibe such drinks?

Not very many times a month unless my parents visit or I'm visiting them or someone else who habitually offers tea or coffee. Reason being my wife can't abide tea and hardly ever drinks coffee, so I never get around to it any more.

[imc.livejournal.com]

PS white with one sugar. :-)

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Coffee in the main, drunk 'proper' coffee for as long as I can remember in France, and used to have instant coffee with whiskey at my English grandmothers. Also cold filter coffee is lovely for dipping bread and jam into.

That said, I can't drink milk any more, and I try not to overdo the caffeine, so when I'm out I tend to ask people for a glass of water, and if they offer me squash or fruit juice, so much the better.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I think I started drinking coffee at 15 or 16, used to drink a lot more in my late teens and twenties, can't anymore because my stomach will give me trouble.

Favourites:
Indulgence: Blue Mountain (but that's about 20 quid for half a pound so it's really indulgence only)
Caffeine rush: Hot Lava Java (thingy & Harrogate)
Generic every day: the dark roast from cafe direct

I drink tea (Earl Grey, Twinings Chai etc.) at work because the coffee there is undrinkable.

[lnr]

I think I was around 9 the year I gave up sugar in tea and coffee for lent, so I must have been drinking them both before that. Tea probably earlier, because it was what you got with your Sunday tea (salad, with trifle for afters) at Grandma's. Never went back to sugar for any long period after that, just didn't like it much any more, though I sometimes use it in coffee if it's for medicinal purposes.

Like Jan my coffee went black as a student because I couldn't be arsed to cope with keeping real milk and I don't do any of the fake milks (UHT, or powdered, ick ick ick). Probably at this point I switched to mostly coffee and rarely tea.

Kenco Columbian is my halfway decent instant of choice, since I can't always be bothered to make real coffee. As for tea Assam or English Breakfast or PG Tips make nice just tea tea and Earl Grey is nice for the occasional change. Now I only seem to drink tea a lot when visiting parents. And coffee most days, a cup with breakfast almost always, and sometimes one with lunch, or one at teatime, or real coffee after dinner. But if someone offers and I don't fancy it I say "no thanks".

I still drink milk in my tea. And I always ALWAYS specify black when asking for coffee (except from people who know me very well) because I just can't drink it with milk in any more, it's horrible.

[imc.livejournal.com]

Is there something about grandmas and trifles? We always used to have one (with hundreds and thousands - very important) when we went to Grandma's every sunday evening. Thankfully this followed not salad but a roast dinner of some description, which was always lovely.

[lnr]

Roast dinners are for Sunday lunch. And anyway my grandma doesn't cook them as well as my mum, since she overdoes the meat. Actually more often there wasn't trifle and it was tinned fruit (peaches and pears most often) and evaporated milk and jelly.

Roast dinners

[imc.livejournal.com]

Is this a law? ;-)

Anyway, roast dinner for sunday lunch is difficult if you've been at church in the morning, so inasmuch as it has been a tradition, the tradition in our family has been to have it at tea time.

Re: Roast dinners

[lnr]

If I do them they tend to be at teatime too, but this is lazy Sunday mornings in bed, not at church.

[chrisvenus]

Tea and coffee are both poison.

When offered by people I know I say "No thanks. They're poison."

When offered by people I don't know I tend to say "No thanks, I'm not a tea or coffee person really." If i do want a drink however I will then add, "Don't suppose you have any [blah]".

[diesilla77.livejournal.com]

Have been drinking tea from a VERY early age (about 6 months old!!!) coz my gran gave it to me as a baby instead of milk whenever I stayed with her

This has resulted in massive tea addiction (as any mate o mine'll tell you)

[ex-lark-asc.livejournal.com]

I was probably in my teens; because tea was a pleasant and readily available mug drink. Sixth-form kitchen and so on.

I don't do caffeine now; usually I ask for water instead.

[jojomojo.livejournal.com]

Hmm...I was about 10, and my dad offered me some. I
remember the bitter taste took some getting used to;
I think I made the effort because it was an 'adult'
thing to do. And now I'm a four a day man :)

[juliet]

Tea. Since I was, oh, early teens maybe? Before that, even, possibly I was certainly drinking it in *vast* quantities (10 or so mugs a day) when I was doing my GCSEs. Can't remember why. Lovely stuff, tea.

These days I drink fair-trade tea, with soya milk & a little golden syrup when available (tastes nicer than sugar). Black & unsweetened if either of the above aren't available. Only a mug or two a day, since I'm now allergic to caffeine & got told to cut down my consumption by my physio a few years back. I *have* to have a mug of tea in the morning with my toast! I kick Pete out of bed to make it for me when I have my shower; I think this is fair as he doesn't have to get up till 9 or later (works from home), & he goes straight back to bed after he's made it :-).

Never got into coffee. I discovered whilst in Italy that I *can* drink proper really strong espresso, but I wasn't even vastly keen on that.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I don't drink either tea or coffee.

I was never given them as a child, and never developed a taste for them. Subsequently I discovered that I'm vilely allergic to caffeine (it makes me have fits), so I avoid both like the plague, even decaf versions.

My friends mostly know and remember that I don't drink coffee, and keep some sort of juice in if they are expecting me. In public places, I'll ask for water, and often get offered juice or squash. Although then I have the problem of people thinking I don't honestly want water. "I'd like some water please". "We do have some squash!". "No, honestly, water's fine, it's mostly what I drink at home". "Are you sure?". Etc.

I usually do carry a bottle of water around with me, so in the worst case scenario, I can just drink that. Try to avoid it, though.

[gnimmel.livejournal.com]

Theoretically I drink both, except quite rarely these days because I'm steering clear of diuretics until I don't have to spend over two hours daily on a coach without a toilet. However with both I started very late; purplepiano introduced me to good coffee with milk when I was 20 or so (before that I'd been drinking quadruple-strength instant black coffee before exams and none otherwise). Tea I used to dislike (I also thought poppadoms tasted like tea). Then someone gave me green tea, which I liked. Then gradually I came round to normal tea. Now I like tea lots :)
The tea&coffee guy on Cambridge market does slightly cherry-flavoured green tea, which yums (milkless, that is); my favourite coffee is probably a mix of Old Brown Java with a small amount of hazelnut coffee, in a cafetiere, with milk.

If you're not bored of the subject already...

[ixwin.livejournal.com]

I started drinking tea around nine and coffee around thirteen. I've always taken them white with no sugar.

I got round the milk issue at university by using powdered milk in the first year (in years two and three I lived in accommodation with two or three others, so communal fridges weren't such an issue).

I like any decent filter coffee, and different sorts of tea depending on my mood - we generally have Assam, Ceylon and Earl Grey in the house.

I generally start the day with a morning cup of tea brought to me in bed by vectorious which I carry round the house with me and finish over breakfast. I drink two or three coffees during the course of an average work day (partly if I need waking up, and partly because it's all out of a machine and the coffee is marginally less foul than the tea), and then maybe another cup of tea in the evening. At weekends, I generally drink tea, except when studying when I'm more likely to have (instant) coffee. I'll occasionally make 'proper' coffee in the cafetiere at weekends as well.

[spikydavid.livejournal.com]

Searing insights on the nature of being - 3 comments.

Banality about your choice of caffeinated beverage - 24 comments

Here's another! :D

[cigamerisedi.livejournal.com]

Lesse... I drink both and love them both. I think I have a stronger fondness for coffee, but my British roommate freshman year certainly helped show me that tea deserves lots of credit, too.

I'm not sure when I started drinking tea and it wasn't until high school that I found a true appreciation for it. I still, sadly, don't drink it much. But when I do it's usually before bed or when I'm reading a book (particularly on a cold or rainy day *.*). I enjoy Rose tea, Constant Comment, and several of the Celestial Seasonings brand - Peppermint, Camomile, etc. I don't tend to like lemon flavors much. I require cream and sugar, just like with my coffee. And my favorite would have to be Chai Tea - tastes like Christmas. :)

I began drinking coffee when I was 5. On my fifth birthday I was told I could have whatever I wanted for breakfast. Being such a grown woman and all, I requested bacon, eggs, and coffee. My mom agreed, mostly because she was amused I'm sure. From then on I'd get coffee on my birthday as a treat. Once I got older, I'd say 13, I'd drink some with breakfast or dessert and it's stuck ever since. Now I'm also rather recreational and adore coffee shops of all kinds - mostly independent. But I'll also take a Starbucks any day, as well! I'm not terribly picky. ;) My favorites include white mocha, mediterranean irish, and white voltaire (it's coffee, vanilla, and hot cocoa mixed - yum!). My all-time favorite coffee is a bottomless cup at your everyday Waffle House!

What about you, miss? :)

[halibut.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, let's see. Around the time the Universe was coalescing into energy-clusters recognisable as "matter", my parents (well, let's be frank here, my father (whose name is Roy, not Frank)) started giving me weak, milky tea in my infant bottle. Shortly thereafter, developing a little juvenile caffeine addiction, the first thing my parents would hear in the morning would be a little voice down the passage saying: "Tea, Daddy! Tea!"

Started coffee rather later, since my parents had this slightly amusing notion that coffee was bad for children but tea was neutral. I know guzzle both quite happily -- more coffee than tea, because it's pretty quick to make. Nescafe usually. But I like to brew moccha java when I have time. Tea: depends. A local brand called Joko is my normal one, and pretty reasonable. But I like a blend of plain and Earl Grey.

Trivium: I have a nice little wooden box which used to contain loose-leaf Earl Grey tea (and the wood still smells pleasantly of it) but which I now use to keep contraceptives in.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Some time late teens, I think, but I don't really remember the details. Slightly surprised how many people can remember.

I usually drink tea now but occasionally coffee.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

I drank tea while still in my cot (I used to wake my parents in the morning by banging my plastic cup on the bars and shouting "tea, Daddy!" until he brought me some). I stopped around the age of five and have drunk precisely two and a half cups of tea since (all of those to be polite - two made by friends' parents who didn't ask but just handed me the cup which is about the rudest thing one can do IMO but I thought I'd be the better person and just drink it, the half one was during a friend's drunken crisis one night when I knew refusing it was going to make things even worse...)

Coffee I drink infrequently, and started around 8 with proper Italian espresso, which is probably why I never took it up as a daily drink. I like Red Mountain but I don't think we have any, after j4 discovered my last jar had gone past its BBE... Oh, and imc failed to mention that he also drinks a cup of tea or coffee most Sunday mornings, which I can detect even after he's cleaned his teeth. Pregnancy seemed to put me on coffee alert, for some reason. Couldn't stand the smell, and tea wasn't much better.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Oh, and in response to the question - I either say "no, thanks, I don't drink either" (which saves a) saying no again ten minutes later and b) explaining that while I do drink coffee I don't actually feel like drinking any now) or ask for another option, guessing what they might have. So at my parents I'll ask for soft drinks or fruit tea (which I drink on a year-on-year-off kind of basis), in hairdressers I'll ask for squash or hot chocolate, etc.