Tea or coffee?

Coffee first thing in the morning just has to be done right? My brain wouldn't function without a couple of strong black coffees first thing! I'm intrigued by the people that seem to be able to drink tea/coffee close to bedtime without being kept awake by it! Does the caffeine somehow not affect you?

This thread is open to any hot drink/soft drink preference, so talking about coco is fine. It's interesting how people drink tea/coffee to wake up and then hot choc to sooth enough to go to sleep!?

I'll have to have a look for tea pigs fruit teas the next time I'm in Sainsbury's, just out of curiosity! Pukka herbal teas are good! Some people do seem to be adversely affected by caffeine, what happens to you if you drink caffeinated coffee?

Luckily it didn't taste like washing up water, I'd never have heard the end of it!

You like Ovaltine? Or are you a Cocoa purist?

Kitsune said:

One teabag or two?

One but strong, left for a while.

Kitsune said:

I wonder why that is, what are they adding to the coffee that I don’t know about?

Last cup of coffee I had was some real expensive stuff at a friends house, some stuff where the beans cost a fortune. Wasn't far off banging a line of coke up my nose. I don't want to feel like I'm on cocaine! I look at the caffeine content of some of that Starbucks stuff. For the price and the amount of stimulation it gives, people might as well go and buy a rock!

Kitsune said:

Thank you for the herbal tea tip, the sorrel, hibiscus and ginger looks good! I’m going to have to hunt that down and try it!

It's real fruity. Makes for real good ice tea too!

What if you drink coco as well though I have coffee in the morning 2 cups tea after that then hot choc to go to bed.. lol

It looks like bubbly washing up water with sprinkles... lol

  Yep this sums me up... Although I do have 1 or 2 coffees before 3 pm otherwise I can't sleep at night...

Thank you for giving me good tips and ideas :-) I tried making ginger coffer earlier. I put a piece of peeled ginger into a coffee mug and soaked it in boiling water for 10 minutes before adding the coffee. It tasted good, better than the Beanies ginger coffee, this had quite a kick to it. It also made my mouth go rather numb though :-(

Bergamot Tea seems good, I wonder if it's possible to make Bergamot coffee? Likewise for Lemongrass and Turmeric. I'm going to have to get inventive with my coffee making! Thanks for the links, I'll see if I can get some hints from those.

Thinking about it, I have had bubble tea before, I got some from a stand at Westfields shopping centre a few years ago. It was nice. I imagine that you could only get it from a shop as it looked like it might be a bit complicated to try making at home!

I'll have a look at the link for yifangtea too, do they sell fruit/herbal teas? I'll look.

The sugar seems interesting! I might get some!

I see he went for the small size.  

Maybe they get a discount on all the leftover tea leaves that all the leading brands don't want! False economy really if no one will drink it!

I fear that I might see this scene in an American coffee shop?

Made this earlier for my 5 year old daughter. Milkshake made with milk  and a huge scoop of carte d’or vanilla ice cream  with unicorn  sprinkles in a mermaid ‍♀️ cup. She loved it 

I love tea pigs fruit teas. I'm not keen on other brands sadly as their pricey. I drink decaffeinated coffee most of the time as caffeine and I dont mix too well

If you use Amazon they have good deals for bulk buy on there - my tassimo ones are quite often on there for £15 for 5 boxes of 16 . Shops are usually £4.50 for 1 box of 16.

my standard hot chocolate is instant, made with water either cadburys/malteasers or horlicks chocolate. Once a week or so I treat myself to cadburys made with milk. A friend usually gives me a selection of luxury flavoured hot chocs for xmas/birthday. I quite like the mint/caramel/white ones.

I also like mint mocha coffee as well.

I hate the smell of some teas so much (think it is earl grey that's the worst) that I was once sat in a meeting at work where everyone but me had tea. Had to mouth breathe the entire meeting, and had absolutely no clue afterwards of what was being discussed! 

Looking back now post diagnosis the clues were definitely there....!

The worst thing about black tea or tea with dark fruit juice is the way it stained my teeth.

Kitsune said:

How do you take your tea?

I think it depends on what kind of tea I'm having. I would usually add milk for black tea (since it's slightly more bitter with more caffeine), boiling black tea with ginger and adding milk and sugar is really good (learned it from some friends from India). If it's other kinds of tea, like herbal tea, I would usually have it plain or add honey (instead of sugar). I have some good loose leaf oolong tea, and usually just add hot water and that's all (it's really fun to watch the leaves expand). I had some earl grey loose tea from Whittard, and it has bergamot and flower petals in, so I sometimes drink it without adding anything to sample all the flavours, but sometimes add milk and drink it like a traditional British tea. I also bought previously bought lemongrass & turmeric tea from the east India company when I went to London and it's great and relaxing just to drink it without adding anything. 

https://www.whittard.co.uk/tea/how-do-you-brew/loose-tea/earl-grey-loose-tea-MSTR314583.html?cgid=loose-tea#start=1

https://www.theeastindiacompany.com/products/relax-lemongrass-turmeric-50g/

Kitsune said:

Thank you for the herbal tea recommendations. The Taiwanese bubble tea seems particularly interesting, what ingredients are in it?

It's quite difficult to make Taiwanese bubble tea at home I think, so I usually just buy it from shops outside. It requires the right temperature (I think in stores they have hot tea but add ice cubes and shake it to cool it down really fast, and then filter out the ice cubes to serve to customers), good grasp of milk-tea proportions, and a container (kind of like a cocktail shaker) to shake the milk, ice, sugar, and tea. I think the ingredients typically are good quality loose left tea, milk, and sugar. The pearls are tapioca pearls cooked with brown/muscovado sugar, though I slightly prefer the grass jelly. 

I would recommend this shop if you're in London: https://www.yifangtea.co.uk (you can scroll to the bottom of the page to see the types of tea they have for sale)

They not only have bubble tea, they also have lots of fruit teas too (I am also a fan of fruit tea). The fruits they use for their fruit teas include subtropical/tropical fruits that are quite popular in Taiwan (like passionfruit and pineapple). They also have really good quality sugar too (like sugar derived from wintermelon and sugar cane). 

My preference depends on the time of day! I love coffee first thing in the morning, then I'll have one around 2pm when my energy levels tend to dip (always drink it unsweetened with a nice amount of milk, but not so much that you can't taste the bitterness of the coffee). I like to drink cups of tea in the evening and at bedtime (not too strong, not too weak, milk and no sugar).

Their tea is awful - it's a sort-of a blend of all the worst tea in the world - no proper flavour and what you can taste is not nice.   It's actually worse than the vending machine tea!

I take my coffee with milk & sugar so I always take artificial sweeteners to the US because their coffee comes in a bucket - I'd need 20+ spoons of sugar in that - also, I ask for decaf because I'd be wired all night on the quantity of caffeine!

I can see how easy it would be to consume thousands of calories drinking the coffee without eating anything.