Teabagging

As many of you who've lived with me or had class with me can attest, I have been a Cokehead for the last several years.  No, not crack cocaine - Coca-Cola.  You see, I don't sleep very well at night anymore, so I'm always dead tired throughout the day and need caffeine.  I don't like to resort to coffee unless I'm pulling an all-nighter, because it has way more caffeine than I need and really works a number on my excretory system (I won't gross you out with all the specific details).  Therefore, I would always get my caffeine fix from soft drinks.  But not just any soft drinks.  My soft drink of choice was - and still is - Coca-Cola.  For one, it tastes much better than Pepsi does, and since LoCo only sells Pepsi products, it's kinda like my way of fighting the system, y'know what I mean?  Also, Coke is much better for dealing with the headaches that I often get.  This is because it was originally invented as a headache medication.  Seriously.  The only reason it became a soft drink instead was because the guy accidentally added carbonated water instead of regular water.

But a couple weeks ago, I replaced Coke with green tea as my caffeinated beverage of choice.  I've found quite a few good reasons for doing so:

1) Green tea is a lot healthier than Coke.  For one thing, there's a lot less sugar and artificial sweeteners.  Plus, green tea is high in antioxidants, which (help me on this, all you bio / premed people!) help reduce the risk of cancer. 

2) Green tea is a lot cheaper.  I got a box of 40 tea bags for $3.99, compared with $4-5 for a 12-pack of Coke.  That cuts my spending on beverages by about 70%, which is great news when you're practically broke like I am. 

3) Green tea doesn't give me as much of the side effects that Coke did.  I mean, you'll probably have to use the restroom in a short while after drinking it, as is the case with any caffeinated beverage, but because green tea doesn't have the carbonation or acidity that Coca-Cola has, it doesn't bloat my stomach as much.  Also, though Coke tastes good when you drink it, I've always found that it left a bad aftertaste in my mouth and left my teeth feeling sticky.  With green tea, I haven't had these problems.

4) Tea is good at any temperature.  On cold days like these, I find a warm cup of tea to be much more rejuvenating than a cold can of Coke.  And on a hot day, you can cool down with a glass of iced tea.  As for Coke, it only tastes good when it's cold.  It just doesn't taste as good when it's warm.

5) Green tea is more organic / natural than Coke.  Sure, it takes a few extra minutes to heat a cup of water and soak a tea bag.  But in then end, aren't you glad to be drinking something that wasn't processed in a factory as much and doesn't have all those added artificial compounds whose names only bio / chem majors can pronounce?  And if you're worried about the portability of a drink of green tea, just do what I do: heat a mug of water in the microwave, pour it into a thermos, toss in a tea bag, snap on the lid, and you're good to go.  As long as you don't drink directly out of the mug, you only have to wash the thermos, since the mug had only water in it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not quitting Coke cold turkey.  I still plan to indulge in a glass or two every once in a while.  But for my daily caffeine fix, I've found that green tea is a much healthier and more economical alternative.  So won't you join me for a cup or two?  It'll be a jolly good time!

B-)