A List of my Favorite Drinks
Written on January 16th, 2016 by Tomás Zazueta
NOTE: This post is from my old WordPress archive. I first started blogging after graduating High School. I thought it would be a good idea to preserve some of these articles here.
So, I haven’t done any serious posts in a while, so I figured that I should come back here and change that.
Well, too bad, because this post is the polar opposite of serious.
I’ve actually wanted to do this for a while now. Some people don’t really know this, but I’m really picky about my drinks. When it comes to food, I couldn’t really care less – I’m just as content eating seafood, italian food, mexican food, et cetera. But when it comes to drinks, I like to stick to my definite favorites.
I’m not even talking about alcoholic drinks. At least that would probably sound more sane, given that there are a lot of different combinations that probably get people drunk faster/slower (if you couldn’t tell already, I don’t drink alcohol and therefore know nothing about it).
No, these are just a couple of regular, everyday drinks of mine that I practically obsess over.
5. Milk
Man, I love milk. Eating something sweet? Chances are you probably have a nice cold glass of milk to help you wash it down.
Or how about the other side of the spectrum – you’re eating something spicy. You can usually handle the heat, but this time you’ve reached your point. It was tasty at first, but now your tongue is on fire. You wonder if you even have taste buds any more.
Water doesn’t do the trick, and ice melts too fast. You head to the fridge, and then you see it – your salvation. You pour a glass of milk and chug it down. It still takes a while, but you can slowly feel your mouth go back to normal.
Cold milk is the definition of refreshing.
I tend to stick to skim milk, I don’t really mind the taste. To tell you the truth, I don’t really like the rich flavor that other types of milk have. It just feels unhealthy and thick.
4. Aloe Vera Drink
I first drank this in high school. My mom bought a case of this stuff because it was on sale. I would take a bottle with me to school everyday and drink it with my lunch.
At first I didn’t really like how it looked. It was clear, and it had pulp floating around in it. But once I had a taste, I came around.
It’s very sweet. Like juice-level sweet. And that’s about it. Nothing about its taste strikes me as unique to the aloe vera plant.
The pulp makes it unique, I guess. It’s kinda chewy. I don’t really mind it being there, but it’s not really a big deal for me in the first place.
I drink it because of how sweet it is. It’s a very nice drink to have when you just want to drink something sweet.
3. Horchata
*cue AP Spanish jokes*
This is a fine drink. It’s pretty much sweet milk. Except there’s rice and cinnamon. Except cinnamon is my favorite spice so it’s even better than milk.
It’s almost an overwhelming taste really. Overwhelming in that the taste lingers for a bit after you’re done drinking it. Maybe it’s because it has such a rich flavor? I don’t really mind that.
I have drunken my fair share of horchata over the years. I don’t drink it all the time, usually when I’m eating mexican food. I guess that association is why I like it so much.
In a way, I’m not too passionate about it, but at the same time I really like it. I don’t go to a mexican restaurant for the horchata. But at the same time, I don’t go to a mexican restaurant for the spanish rice. Horchata is just a part of the experience of eating mexican food, and that’s a big reason why I like it so much. It’s a fine drink.
I’d be pretty sad if I lived in a place where I couldn’t drink horchata. It’s such a nice drink, you know?
2. Water
Yeah, water. I don’t really need to describe what it tastes like.
And that’s why I like it. I don’t go to a chinese restaurant and go “Man, I could really go for some horchata right now.” Nor do I go to a BBQ restaurant and ask for an aloe vera drink.
Water is perfectly neutral. I can have with with any meal and be just fine. Or I can have it by itself. It is independent from any specific food. Everyone needs water.
Not to mention, water is probably the most refreshing thing to have when you’re thirsty and it’s been a long day. I don’t really look for flavor when I want a drink, and water keeps me hydrated. I can’t really ask for anything else.
1. Raspberry Iced Tea
This is my favorite drink of all time. I like most of the other drinks on this list, but I love this drink.
Anyone who’s known me long enough has seen me drink this. And even if you haven’t, you probably still know that I don’t drink soda.
I don’t like soda because it’s carbonated. I hate the sensation of fizzy bubbles on my tongue. But at the same time, I always wanted to know how it tasted. I always saw the commercials on tv of kids enjoying coca-cola and pepsi. I wanted to enjoy soda like they did, but I could never get past the fizziness.
And what do you find at soda fountains? You guessed it, soda! As a little kid, I hated it when everything in the fountain was something I didn’t like.
Sure, some places also stock lemonade, or Hi-C. But those are too sweet or sour. I like them enough, but that is just too much sugar for a kid.
Then, one day, my mom got a drink from a soda fountain.
“Here, try this.” she said.
“But I don’t like soda.”
“This isn’t soda. You’ll like it.”
And I did! Here’s this drink, which is sweet but not too sweet, and had no fizz at all. It tasted the way I always imagined soda tasted like.
If I could, I would drink this all the time. I would have it with every meal. I would sip it idly. It only has one weakness: when I eat sweet foods, raspberry iced tea doesn’t taste sweet. The sweetness of the food overwhelms the taste.
It is my favorite drink. There is nothing to compare it to. I love it too much.
