Enter Tavern, Order Drink

What is your favorite drink?

For the question, “What is my favorite drink?” I of course can’t just supply as easy answer. Naturally it depends on the context.

If there’s pizza, there should be beer. Oddly enough, I used to hate IPAs, but a little while ago, I tried one, and really enjoyed it. I don’t know what switch turned on in my brain, but now it’s my go-to beer (as long as it doesn’t have all kinds of fruit aftertaste or odd ingredients).

With food of the more elevated type (i.e., not pizza), Merlot is an excellent accompaniment. I started drinking it back in Columbus, OH, during my master’s program; my friend Martin and I would go to Bernie’s Bagels and order a carafe of Merlot and a glass of ice—we preferred our chilled. More about Bernie’s in Audio Chimera Podcast Episode #4.

Should there be the opportunity, I will order a Gin and Tonic. For awhile—in the late ‘70s—I always ordered Whiskey Sours. For some reason I thought that was a cool drink. But somewhere along the line I tried a Gin and Tonic, and never strayed from that.

In the realm of soft drinks, I’ve always been a Coke person, and I hate Pepsi, which I find bitter. I’m amused that Pepsi drinkers often complain that Coke is too sweet. And I remember the kerfuffle that was “New Coke,” when they reformulated it to taste like Pepsi. I stopped drinking Coke until they brought out the Classic formula, or whatever the branding became for restoring the original flavor.

Finally, there is coffee. I’ve been having some palpitations and irregular heartbeats and visited a cardiologist who’s had me wearing a heart monitor for two weeks. In the meantime, his nurse said my one or two cups of coffee a day were not likely an issue. One day I had that second cup of coffee, and once again affirmed that, “I really like coffee.” For more on my history with coffee, check out Audio Chimera Episode #9.

Please finish those listening assignments before my next blog post. [WINK]