On Drinks

I find that drinks are a universal topic. Everyone has a favorite or two. Upon being asked what my drink preferences are, regardless of what drink we're talking about, I usually respond with a quote from While You Were Sleeping (one of my favorite movies): "Oh I don't drink anymore..." (which leaves people to come up with akward comments before I reach for whatever drink we're having and add:) "I don't drink any less either."

Most of my friends are strongly on one side or the other of the Coffee vs. Tea debate. And I always get a kick out of listening to people's snobby arguments about the finest coffee beans and the rarest tea leaves. The same goes for wine people; except that stereotypically, they are the absolute extreme. Then, once you pick a drink, there are categories and opinonated groups within that drink too. For coffee, it's Starbucks' or Dutch Bro's or Pete's or Black Rock's, it's Kona beans or Peaberry beans or Columbian beans. For tea, it's Adiago, or Earl Grey, or Vadham, it's green or black or oolong. Sweetened, unsweetened. Etc. Etc.

I drink both tea and coffee on a daily basis; coffee in the morning and a couple cups of tea at night. Mostly because I hate mornings so coffee helps keep me awake and focused on my work. And I love nights, so tea calms me down and reminds me that normal people sleep at night instead of crying over books and laughing at their own jokes and baking pumpkin bread into the morning hours. I'm not a snob for either drink. They're both delicious and super helpful in their own ways.

If I were to be a snob for any drink, it would most certainly, undoubtedly, absolutely be hot cocoa. Hot cocoa is simply a happy drink. It's for cold, Christmassy days; for watching movies with blankets, or for reading books in the rain. It's for sleepless nights and early mornings. For the lonely people that dance at 3am or for a couchful of kids in striped onesies. It comes tasting gritty and sweet in a styrofoam cup on a snowy day, or rich and thick like spicy chocolate at the adult's only Christmas party. It tastes like memories. While the wine people are stocking up their cellars of aged wine bottles, I'm stocking up on those whipped creams that spray out in star shapes. The coffee people are arguing over the best beans on Earth, and sometimes, I add a little pinch of cinnamon on top of my whipped cream and cocoa. The tea people are dunking their tea bags for the full flavor, and I'm pouring some rainbow sprinkles on my cinnamoned whipped creamed cocoa. I like knowing that the drink is completely unhealthy. There's freedom in not caring, not worrying. I think that's the freedom that little children have. Which is probably why I love hot cocoa best.