My Favorite Winter Beverages
By Jeff Salter
Gosh, this topic will be difficult to respond to unless I clarify a few things first. If it’s wintertime and I’ve been inside all day (and not ventured out into the cold weather), I’m just as likely to drink the very same things, in the same amounts, as I would during a typical summer day — coffee in the mornings, water or juice in the afternoons and evenings, and (often) a bit of iced tea after my nap. I also love milk shakes… and (to me) they taste just as good in January as they do in July.
The one winter beverage that I used to drink a bit is the very seasonal egg nog. Not sure why, but I haven’t had any egg nog in a long time, but I still remember the delicious, rich flavor. Yum!
So, I guess I should say that the following are beverages I particularly enjoy when I’m either out in the cold weather… or have just come inside after being cold outside.
Hardly anything tastes as good to my body and soul as a cup of hot cocoa after I’ve rushed in from trudging through snow or ice (or cold rain). It’s not only pleasing to all the senses, but has the extra “value” of seeming to properly honor traditional values somehow. Almost as though it harkens back to an earlier time, something more primitive — perhaps around a hundred years ago or so. Am I truly honoring history by sipping hot cocoa after trudging through the snow? Probably not. But it makes me FEEL traditional and comfortable, as though I could step into a 1940 Norman Rockwell painting.
Okay, if cocoa is my beverage AFTER coming in from the cold, I must say that hardly anything tastes better while staying outdoors watching a long, tedious pre-teen winter soccer game… than a steaming cup of coffee. The downside of drinking coffee at a soccer game is that you’ll soon need a “facility” and there’s nothing near those soccer fields except MAYBE a port-a-let. And perhaps not even that.
Let me add here – since at least one of the Foxes mentioned that drinking coffee in hot weather seemed unusual – that I need my morning coffee, no matter if I’m hacking through a tropical jungle or perched on an Arctic glacier. Yeah, your innards do respond slightly differently to hot coffee when your outsides are already sweating from heat and humidity… but caffeine is caffeine, folks.
Another of the Foxes mentioned something about coffee tasting bitter or otherwise unpleasing. Well, yeah, unless you stir in some sugar and pour in a dollup of creamer. [Actually I don’t use creamer or milk, myself, however].
I got started drinking coffee as a 17.5 year old freshman at Mercer University in Macon GA. It was the cheapest drink at the campus co-op (10 cents per cup) and you got free refills. A cola was (I believe) about double or more that price and you paid for each serving.
Question:
What about YOU? Is your favorite winter beverage any different from your favorite summer drink?
[JLS # 314]
Angela Schroeder
Patricia Kiyono
Elaine Cantrell
Jeff Salter
Joselyn
Tonette Joyce
Four Foxes, One Hound 
I’m like you, Jeff. I drink the same things all year round, doesn’t matter if it’s cold or hot outside. And I do like hot cocoa, the richer and chocolatier, the better.
I’ve never been much for coffee. There was a time when I was living on 3 hours sleep and maybe a hangover and I would drink coffee straight up black. But I really don’t like the taste. Even after adding flavors that don’t make it coffee anymore. From time to time, I will drink a latte. And that’s when I’m reminded that I don’t like coffee and Starbucks is great about making it sound delicious. 😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
three hours of sleep? Jenn, Jenn, Jenn.
You must have been running on adrenalin
LikeLike
Work, school, trade, and a bit of partying. Oh, and youth!
LikeLiked by 1 person
… and one day, it all catches up with you…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I enjoy milkshakes in the winter too but my favorite place to get them is closed from the end of October until around Valentine’s Day. So I go without until February at least.
I enjoy my tea all year but on really hot days I will have iced tea.
Hot chocolate when coming in from the cold makes me think of simpler times as well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
there are three or four good milk shake places here in Somerset and they’re open year round — two DQs, a Sonic, and Hardees. Might be others as well.
LikeLike
I had a friend that used to drive me batty ordering hot coffee when we’d be out in 90+F weather with 90% humidity…and I’d be asking for extra ice in my tea or soda! However, there may be method to this madness of hers…and yours. Latin Americans, Africans and South Asians eat hot, spicy foods to count-act the heat. Perhaps it helps you? I remember many years ago when there were record-low temperatures in Siberia, (I cannot remember just how cold that was), the people were buying ice cream like crazy, again, to counter-act the outside, (and I imagine, inside), temps
LikeLiked by 1 person
now that’s something I could NOT do — eat something cold while my body is cold.
If I’m drinking a milk shake or eating ice cream during winter season, I’m certainly gonna be indoors and otherwise toasty warm.
LikeLike
I never thought about it, but I think the low price of coffee may have had something to do with my learning to drink it while in college. That, and the fact that I had to trek across campus to get to classes. Central Illinois usually doesn’t get as cold as Michigan, but back in the 1970s the ISU campus had lots of open spaces, and that winter wind got mighty nasty at times. For the price of one cup of hot chocolate I could brew a pot of coffee.
LikeLiked by 1 person
in my college dorm I also had a little contraption which heated water — hardly more than a pint, I guess. I used it to make instant coffee in my dorm room.
LikeLike
A hot pot! I had one, too. I cooked rice and all kinds of stuff in it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
if I’d been more creative and industrious, I could’ve cooked other things with it, I suppose. But I was pretty lazy back then.
LikeLike
I used to love milkshakes. I even ordered one for breakfast once. My FIL got the biggest kick out of it. (He was even happier when they messed up the order and he got one too.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I could definitely drink a shake in the morning. Though I would not let that REPLACE my morning coffee.
LikeLike
Pingback: What I LIKE About Winter | Four Foxes, One Hound