Ruby Red Grapefruit juice.

Coke (original, non-diet) with lots of ice.

I find pretty much everything else to be too sweet (always have) so end up drinking a lot of water.

I assume "other than beer or wine" also excludes hard liquor ? We don't have a thread for that either

When in weight loss mode Diet Pepsi or Coke zero preferbly caffiene free, otherwise Classic Coke is preffered. There is a specialty one, I can't remember the name(anyone?), but they make a pop that tastes like an orange creamsicle - when ice cold its awesome on a hot day.

Tom, you are correct - A&W Root Beer (especially on tap) is the best.

But my all time favorite is the Orange & Cream from Stewart's Fountain Classics. (Tastes just like an Orange Creamsicle.)

Had my first one at a Cracker Barrel in Lakekand Florida.

I know EXACTLY what you mean, Mary (about both the tea and the diet A&W).

I can't take full credit for the science behind the tea thing. It's mostly stolen from Cook's Illustrated, but it made a huge difference for me. The keys are to NOT have the tea in contact with the water for very long and to not have the water too hot.

Here's what I do:

Start a quart or so of water in your teakettle.

Get out 10 Lipton teabags. Tie the strings together (I do two batches of five and then tie those two batches together). Strip off the little paper tags on the end of the strings.

Throw the teabags into the bottom of a ~ half-gallon glass pitcher.

Listen to your teakettle. Don't let it boil. Just BEFORE it's going to boil, pull it off the heat.

Dump the hot water onto the tabags.

Set a timer for three minutes and start it.

When the timer beeps, immediately pull the teabags from the pitcher.

If you like sweet tea, this is a good time to add sugar. Fill the rest of the pitcher up with nice, cold filtered water or ice.

Relax on your verandah.

Great minds think alike! In the time that you were Googling "creamsicle", I was posting!

Tom's tea sounds a lot like the tea my Dad makes, except that Dad takes advantage of the inverse relationship between the number of tea bags and the time that they brew:

(amount of tea in bags)(time brewed)/(amount of water) = strength of tea

[figured you gearheads would appreciate that one. You know who you are]

Anyway, Dad uses 4 tea bags and then brews them for 15-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Our sugar preference is 1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar per half gallon. The wife likes 1/2 cup, and restaurant tea in the South is more like 1 cup ...

Another product I like is Honest Tea, especially the honey green tea. No HFCS there, to be sure. Good stuff.

Coka Cola, all the way. Acquired the taste in Viet Nam when I'd drink a six pack a day.........................................even if it was warm. Hey! It was hot, and it was difficult to find ice in the boonies. Years ago I migrated to Caffeine Free Coca Cola Classic. But, not long ago, I became hooked on this.



In Fact, I'm drinking some right now.