Milk and sugar? Milk or sugar? Neither? {Now with working Polls}

Coffee: ‘milk and sugar,’ actually half & half and sucralose (the yellow stuff)

Hot Tea: It’s been years since I had a cup. But on those rare instances when I have had hot tea, I haven’t added anything to it.

Cold Tea (well, ‘Iced Tea’ but without ice): sweetened with sucralose. No dairy products.

If it’s available, I like freshly ground dark roast coffee. But Folgers or Maxwell House from the supermarket is fine at home. Instant has to be freeze-dried crystals, never powder.

I don’t care much for flavored coffee, especially “French Roast,” which to me tastes like mold. But I will occasionally add a little cardamon or cinnamon to spice things up.

My favorite teas are English and Irish Breakfast. I can drink them all day, with milk and sugar. If I’m having Asian or Indian food, I’ll drink Oolong or Darjeeling, sweetened with sugar (no milk).

French roast isn’t flavored coffee. It’s a dark level of roast.

That may be, but it certainly tastes of artificial flavor to me.

Coffee: Sugar and creamer, always.

Tea: It depends. With a strong English breakfast tea I like a little sugar or honey and a splash of milk. With the cheap Lipton in the office break room, just sugar. Mostly because milk doesn’t go well with that kind of tea, and also because the company doesn’t provide milk in the break room, just powdered creamer. Lemon is also nice with that kind of tea, but they don’t provide that in the break room either so I go without. And it wasn’t an option in the poll.

I like my tea with nothing but a spoonful of sugar or honey (slight preference for honey). No lemon, no orange rind, no bergamot, no mint, no smoke flavor, and absolutely no milk. I always get a kick out of Orwell’s essay where he decries everyone who puts sugar in their tea as not liking tea and masking the flavor, and then goes on another diatribe about the proper way to dilute it with an equal measure of milk.

I like my coffee with even less: No sugar, no milk, and (and this is the important part) no coffee.

I had to give up coffee nearly thirty years ago because the high levels of caffeine started to make my heartbeat go nuts.

Tea has the same effect and more – it causes me to run to the bathroom repeatedly.

I tried decaffeinated tea, but it just tasted like mud.

When I did drink coffee, I would always put sugar in it. On the other hand, I could never stand sweet tea.

CreamER, but never milk. Lactose intolerant, although straight cream seems to sit ok, it just doesn’t taste as good to me as the fake stuff, oddly. (Coffeemate original)

Coffee with cream (not flavored) and no sugar.

Decaf Assam black tea, brewed very strong (to disguise that it’s decaf), with a generous amount of heated milk and raw sugar.

I gave up coffee and regular tea years ago because caffeine started to disagree with me. Doesn’t mean I don’t cheat every once in awhile with a half-caf espresso. With raw sugar only.

I only drink coffee when I really, really, really need caffeine. When I do, I need cream and as much sugar as I can get to dissolve in it.

For iced tea, sugar and lemon juice.

For hot tea, both cream and sugar. Preferably not milk.

My order of preference for lightener:

  1. Heavy cream
  2. Whipping cream
  3. Liquid fake stuff
  4. Powdered fake stuff
  5. Half-and-half
  6. Milk

One exception: Russian-style teas taste horrible with cream, but wonderful with lemon.

What, precisely, is “Russian-style tea”? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

I always drink black coffee. My favorite tea is Irish breakfast, which is meant to have milk in it to complement the robust flavor. I give it milk and honey. My rule is coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon.

Well, in the USA, anything with the word “Russian” in the brand name. They tend to have stronger, somewhat harsher flavor than the regular brands. The blurb for one brand claims it has a “sweet, malty, and smokey” taste.

Okay, I get it. It’s really just a particular blend of tea leaves. I can’t say I’ve ever seen such a brand, though.

I thought maybe you were referring to the “Russian tea” we had at language camp when I started learning the tongue back in the '70s. As I recall, it was a blend of Lipton instant tea and orange Tang, mixed with hot water out of an urn. It tasted pretty good, but it gave me the runs. :sneezing_face:

You need a samovar to make tea the traditional Russian way. The tea itself is boiled until it’s really strong, and is then transferred a pot that’s placed on top of the “chimney” running through the samovar to keep it warm. (Back in the day, the “chimney” was a long tube filled with hot charcoal. Modern samovars have electric heating elements inside the urn.) You pour as much tea as you want into your cup (or stakan, a glass held inside a metal podstakannik) and dilute it with water heated inside the samovar. (The word means “boils by itself.”)

Nowadays, of course, they use tea bags more often than not, just like everybody else.

Russians tend to drink tea with lemon and (sometimes) sugar. In the past, it was customary to strain the tea through sugar cubes held between the lips and front teeth, which decayed the latter. You can still see old-timers with really rotten teeth (if not gold crowns) from doing this. (They also might drink tea out of a saucer instead of a cup or glass.) An alternative is to have jam with your tea: a tiny spoonful of one, then a sip of the other.

When I was studying Russian at the Pushkin Institute in Moscow, we always had a tea break in the mid-afternoon. A very nice middle-aged lady with gold teeth was in charge of the trolley laden with tea and snacks that was set up in the main dining area. When she learned that I like milk and sugar in my tea, she started bringing a large can of condensed milk to the service every day, an act of kindness for which I was eternally grateful.

Tea, not a fan.

Coffee, only drink it black.

The only tea I drink is green tea, although I do drink some hot infusions like chamomile. Never with milk or sweeteners.

I don’t drink coffee. It’s unpalatable to me, no matter how much it’s diluted. Even tiramisu is not good.

My hot beverage of choice is cocoa. I add enough non-sugar sweetener to make it palatable. (Unadulterated cocoa is very bitter.) And some milk if available, but it’s fine without.

Greenfield is a major Russian brand, and I think it’s available in the U.S. I have a box of their Christmas Mystery at home, and it’s very strong and spicy.

For many years I drank neither tea or coffee. In middle age I taught myself to drink tea, as that was what was available. Much milk, and some sugar, as its undrinkable without these things. I won’t take coffee under any circumstances.