Pick your poison

[Angrboda]

I'm also a big tea and coffee drinker.

In teas, I prefer oolongs and pu-erhs. I consider herbal teas anathema, as well as flavored teas, in general. (Though I make exceptions.) Green teas don't do it for me, though I do like an occasional white, and many moons ago, there was a green that I got from a specific store that I liked. Alas, the store is long gone. They also had what they called "root tea," which, if I recall correctly, was made from the needles of an African pine. Perhaps it was rooibos, and the fancy tale is just added confusion. I have yet to find a match for that tea, either. And I love Lapsang Souchong, though don't tend to drink it as often as I used to do.

In coffee, I like Sumatra and Central American coffees, or if I'm at a coffee shop, a large latte with a double-shot of hazelnut is my usual. With the exception of the latte, I prefer my coffee black. The past few months has seen a radical change in my coffee preferences, however. I purchased a Sunpentown, 5-liter, electric hot water pot. It sits beside me and thus I have hot water for a variety of purposes, from tea to instant oatmeal. In particular, I've taken to drinking a lot of instant coffee, despite the obvious flaws in the resulting cup, just because it's so damned convenient. In instants, the coffee I find most consistently pleasing is Nescafe's 'Taster's Choice', in either caffeinated or decaffeinated version. The Nescafe Clasico is also good.

I too like fruit juices in general, but have not tried cherry. (Il est tres cher, mon cheri!). What I drink most of, more than anything else, is cola, generic to save money, and water, typically a spring water that is sold as a store brand locally. I do add those flavorings to the water at times, but generally prefer water without flavoring or carbonation.