Coffee all the way for me! Too much coffee if I'm being honest, but I usually switch to decaffeinated sometime during the day.

I fell in love with drinking Flat Whites when I was in New Zealand and Australia, sadly you don't get those as often here and if you do they don't taste the same. And I'm sure it's not just the holiday feeling. Love your mug collection.

The pandemic has changed me...
Coffee is my morning brew of choice. Just a simple brew with milk.
but since the pandemic started, I’ve now become a tea drinker with my dinner. I used to drink water and/or a glass of wine. At the start of the stay at home orders, i decided that drinking alone in trying times was well, not something i wanted to do...but plain water wasn’t doing it either, so i started brewing up some tea to drink with dinner. And almost a year later, I’m still at it. I’m sure how i make it/drink it, would draw ire from true tea drinkers, but its working for me
as for hot chocolate, i love it, but find that my at home attempts are never as good as what i get from local coffee shops, so its mostly as special treat.

Funny topic, Sal!
Coffee - every day, two-three cups, year round (I'm Italian, you know). Preferably made with the dear old traditional Bialetti coffee-pot.
Tea - only during Winter months, also two-three cups a day. No fancy teas of herbal infusions for me. Simple black tea.
Hot chocolate - during the Winter months, when out. At the bar, with whipped cream please (of course I know all the bars that make the best chocolate).

Ahhhh...

(This is such a great thread, Sal, it's bringing a smile to my face)

I love coffee - the hotter and stronger the better. I have a new coffee maker that is fun, it mimics pour over coffee. I think it makes better tasting coffee than most coffee makers, although I would love a Nespresso. I used to be able to drink coffee into the evening but now can't have any caffeine after noon-ish or it will keep me awake.

I do have the occasional green tea or hot chocolate or other Starbucks drink but it's pretty rare.

I drink both nearly every day! Coffee in the morning, tea throughout the day. Occasionally a coffee in the afternoon if i need the pick-me-up.

For coffee I generally have either a latte or a pourover cup (either black or with a little milk and sugar, never cream. I actually really dislike cream in coffee.) Sometimes I make cold brew in the summer.

My coffee consumption has actually gone down lately, believe it or not, because for pandemic reasons I am no longer drinking espresso at work. (We do not have a regular coffee maker at work, only an espresso machine and no milk, so we all just made double espresso shots and drank them straight.)

We also have an entire shelf dedicated to tea in our house. Most of it is loose leaf. I often do the Chinese method of just dumping loose tea in a mug or pot without a bag and letting the leaves settle before drinking. If you have good whole-leaf tea (i.e. not broken or powdery), it works well. I almost always drink my tea without anything else added. With the exception of chai and boba (both of which are a different animal altogether IMO), I never put milk or sugar in my tea. Very occasionally (generally when I am sick) I will put honey and lemon in black tea.

I drink iced tea too, generally black as well.

Hot chocolate is more of a dessert than a drink to me!

Both. I have one cup of coffee in the morning. DH is a coffee snob and makes the best. I have one cup of tea in the evening, usually cinnamon herbal. Both are without sugar or milk/cream. Occasionally I like to indulge with a latte from Starbucks, usually as a break on a long drive. In our past lives, when we actually went out for lunch, I would have iced tea or coffee.

Coffee in the morning, with almond milk creamer, but I'm lazy and just use a Keurig and whatever pods are cheap at the grocery store. If I had a real kitchen I'd use a french press, but in my current set up it's just too much palaver to clean it every day. I can't stand black tea (or iced tea) but I do like green tea and some herbal blends.

Another coffee lover here. A few years ago I went an entire year without coffee in the hopes of helping migraine. It didn't make one iota of difference so I was pretty pleased.
Since the lockdown my DH has been making me a latte every day in these lovely mugs. We purchased this petit dejeuner set in France over 35 years ago so very special.

For well over a decade it was a daily morning cappuccino, espresso machine and all. I love grinding the beans and frothing the milk. I like smooth drinking, non-burnt beans. And then the pandemic look down occurred and somehow I started ordering amazing loose teas. I now start my morning with a big mug of tea with milk; sometimes creating blends. Delightful ritual also. I have to have a hot beverage in the morning; not sure whether rotating between tea and coffee is in my future. Fun to see what others enjoy.

I drink both, but I LOVE tea - have done ever since I was four, and my grandda let me drink morning tea with him (at that time very weakly brewed with loads of milk and sugar) when I was four My mom also drank ridiculous amounts of tea, and all my friends loved having tea with my Mom (whether they ever drank it anywhere else or not) - she was known for always having the kettle warm for anyone who might want to sit for a chat.

These days, I make myself a full pot in the morning, and then make myself make cups throughout the day and into the evening. I will do one caf and one decaf teabag in my morning pot, and then it's decaf the rest of the day - decaf Typhoo-brand black tea is my favourite! I like herbal teas, Earl Grey, etc., but I always come back to my plain old black tea with a bit of 1% milk. Like Angie, I am partial to some cake or a biscuit with my tea after lunch

I do enjoy a decaf Starbucks latte on occasion, and especially enjoy coffee when we are on vacation somewhere that makes it really well (Italy, Cuba and Jamaica were excellent coffee spots).

Ok, off to put the kettle on now ...

Tea! Many cups a day. My current favourites are Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Four Red Fruits, Lady Gray, and Prince of Wales. Most of the day, I can drink my tea black, but in the morning and before bedtime, I prefer tea with milk.

My favourite herbal tea is Licorice & Mint.

I cannot drink coffee unless it is mixed with ice cream (a delicious summer dessert or -refreshment) or whipped cream (like in Irish Coffee).

Hot chocolate with whipped cream is wonderful on a cold winter day.

A mug of Bialetti made espresso with 1/2&1/2 in the a.m. I prefer it stronger, but since DH makes it and cleans the Bialetti I don’t complain. Occasionally I will drink Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice which is the only kind of herbal tea I like. I was raised with Genmai tea with dinner but it didn’t stick.

Tea for me, mostly herbal, because I am super sensitive to caffeine.

I love coffee, but I am sensitive to it in general, even the decaf (boo hoo). So for me, a coffee is a treat. I like it with cream and sugar. I have a French press for when I want to make a cup or two.

Hot chocolate is also yummy! I like to make it with macadamia milk.

Back to discuss hot chocolate. It’s a bit of a treat for me. A big hot chocolate treat for me is mexican hot chocolate with all the spices.

Speaking of genmai... I remember drinking it quite often when I was young, but not exactly when. I feel my
mother would just come ‘round with it. Maybe my parents ended supper parties with it as an offering, maybe that was it.

Up until a few months ago I was tea all the way. Like about 8 cups a day. No milk or sugar, though most of my life I did have milk.
Then I was asked to cut back to only 3-4 caffeinated beverages. 1-2 of them are usually coffee, which I don't like much but need! I have that with milk and sugar/stevia. I just use instant, despite DH being a coffee snob so we have a grinder and machine.

I also drink herbal tea, usually lemon and ginger or peppermint. I enjoyed pomegranate the other day at someone's house.

When at a Cafe, I like chai lattes which do have milk, because I agree that it is different. I make cocoa at home often too, and like it very milky with only a little cocoa.

We don't have half and half in Australia either, though I think you can buy some sort of extra creamy milk.

I like coffee too but actually a matcha latte has wormed its way into my affections recently!Made with oat milk then it doesnt need sweetening.

I'm a tea granny through and through. Multiple cups a day. With 1% milk. (I used to take it black, +/- sugar or lemon, until one memorable day in undergrad when I had a long slog across campus in a downpour to collect a forgotten textbook. The person with the book had a big mug of strong milky tea on his desk, and I couldn't wait to get home and make my own. And I no longer burn my tongue twice a week.)

I've discovered I really don't care for coffee. I just drink it in situations where caffeine seems necessary and no tea is available. Such as when my eldest, who was attending convent school, came home and announced, "We are all going to give up something for Lent, and the mommy is going to give up tea". (That was rough. )

I do enjoy a range of tisanes (herbal teas) and other varieties of tea (chai, green, Moroccan mint, rooibos) but more often when it fits the theme of the meal or the mood of the moment. Most of the time, I'm reaching for a King Cole teabag (a Maritime blend that seems twice as strong as other black teas).

My kitchen always includes a tea station with room for kettle, teapot, some mugs, and my stash of teas. Here's a picture of the current one.

Ginger tea is a recently discovered delight, so far just in Korean restaurants. For those of you who drink it at home, do you just crush a ginger root into your teapot, or is there a brand of teabags that you buy?

On the hot chocolate front, for anyone who finds themselves in Canada, Tim Horton's - Canada's inexplicably favourite coffee shop - makes the WORST coffee on the planet imo but the BEST hot chocolate (and they do properly steeped tea, too - it's the only acceptable takeout tea I've ever found )

Sal, enjoyed Chamomile today

So glad you started this thread! My gut goes through occasional periods where it rejects something I’ve eaten for a long time. If I lay off for a few months, I can eventually go back to eating it with no worries. It seems that I’m now in that condition with my protein powder ;( I used to put low fat milk in my coffee, could go back to doing that, but with so many ideas here, I am feeling much less stuck than I might have otherwise. Today I did a simple thing and had black tea with lavender honey in it. So thanks for starting the thread!

What's that little guy Nemosmom?!? He's so cute!

I have so enjoyed reading everyone's thoughts on tea, coffee, tisanes, hot chocolate etc...

It is a ritual that is important - and a small thing that we can enjoy every day (often cheaply too). I love equally tea and coffee at home or out at a cafe. Different but special. I love making hot drinks for visitors - my pet frustration is when people say - whatever is not a hassle....I don't have all the options of course but I usually have four or five at least and am happy to make any of them.

There are a few beverages I haven't heard of - and I have got some ideas as we move into winter.

At least this small daily pleasure has been possible every day in a pandemic.

@Helena - that's my porg cup! From Star Wars

Coffey mixed with hot coca and lots of creamer. I'm not a snob it does not matter as long as it is hot.

Like kkards, the pandemic has changed me. Since hearing that one way to fend off the virus is to routinely drink a lot of warm liquids, I have a cup of a hot drink beside me. It is mostly tea with no additives. Usually one tea bag or spoonful is good for 2-3 cups. It has also helped with hydration in our dry air and keeps me away from snacking. Coffee makes me feel like eating sweets, which is a big NoNo for me.

So interesting the strong opinions and the different reasons why people drink hot drinks.

My Mum and Dad (and all deceased grandparents) were really into tea, and it was such a part of their routine.

My teenage sons (16 and 19) don't drink tea or coffee at all. Occasional hot chocolates only. I started coffee when I was 15 and still remember my first cappucino (in NZ in the 1980s it was either filter coffee or mostly instant.........)

The title of this post, a variation on the old “coffee, tea, or me” still makes me smile. “Something else hot”

The summer I was 26, I stayed with my then-fiancé, who was accustomed to an afternoon coffee on the lawn at his university. I joined in the conversations, and eventually drank my first coffee: Milchkaffee from the cafeteria. It was probably from some awful machine.
My son is 18 & doesn’t drink coffee, is opposed to putting any kind of caffeinated beverage in his body. That’s probably a good thing. He has a hard time waking up, but he does get out the door. If he sped things up with caffeine, his afternoon crash would probably be even bigger than it already is.

I don't drink any hot beverage regularly, I probably drink hot water with lemon the most and then i do enjoy hot chocolate with whipped cream and hot tea a handful of times each throughout the year. I love amaretto flavored cream in my hot tea.

I never drink coffee which surprises me because my parents both loved coffee and always had a pot going. I have never liked the smell or taste of coffee and I don't like anything mocha flavored either lol.