I enjoy starbucks hot chocolate. I never got a taste for coffee because my dad is a teacher and as such ingests about 5 cups a day just to get out of bed and deal with the next generation of society's retreads in the hopes of saving one of them (he works with challenged kids --- has almost his whole career, even working private schools to do so knowing that he would get no pension, etc which makes him my hero).

Anywho, I roll in to starbucks and ask for a Grande "EXTRA WHIP" hot chocolate. Sometimes I get the banana chocolate bread cake. I'm known as the hot chocolate guy (Although I don't believe in miracles, you sexy thing) because I get hot chocolate year round, even when it is 92 degrees out in July. For a few times I even nervously asked for "The usual" from the bearded hippy guy or the hot chick that hits on me even though I never reciprocate. But I felt I looked like a pretentious asshole doing so, so I stopped and repeat my order fully with all modifications each day to the same personnel. They play along with it because I tip occasionally and I laugh at their witty jokes. Plus I don't hold the place up at knifepoint, which supposedly happens quite a bit.

I'm strictly a two-cup max kinda' guy these days, but I admit to abusing the old coffee bean once upon a time.

I didn't really start drinking coffee regularly until I was seventeen and guiding at a remote fishing lodge on the BC coast.  Getting up at 4:30 every morning for more than a couple of months on end (and being young enough and stupid enough to never go to bed early) gave me a deep and abiding respect for the efficacy of caffeine.  Guests would often want to "spice up" my thermos, and I fondly remember the dudes who referred to their half-coffee half-scotch mixture as a "heart starter."

Later on, when I started my commercial fishing career, I would often brew and power-gulp an entire pot if my ass was dragging in the afternoon.  Being sleepy or sluggish is an invitation to being hurt or worse, so while I didn't enjoy the shakes, or the dry mouth, or the irritable state of mind, I did appreciate being more "with it."

Power drinks weren't around in those days, I've never been a fan of soda pop, and tea tastes like tepid dish water, so other than pharmaceuticals or illicit drugs, coffee was really my only option.  (Drug use was/is very common in commercial fishing fleets, but thankfully never on any vessel I worked or ran.)  I still enjoy a cup or two in the morning, but I tend to get extremely wired on caffeine, so I'm careful to stay away from it after high noon.  My insomnia doesn't need any help.

As for anything other than a normal coffee (with two cream), I very, very seldom opt for a cappuccino, or latte, or any special coffee drinks.  Maybe a shot of Baileys, or better yet a Von Gogh coffee-flavoured vodka shot on the side with a weekend morning cup and the paper, but that's about it.

Basically, coffee is my breakfast...with a cigarette, of course.  My brother calls it, "a whore's breakfast."  

I find meth powers my mornings much better than any coffee...even when I used to make coffee with Water Joe.

Caffeine free for me!

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

I go back and forth between espresso (yes, espresso, not "expresso") and drip coffee. I have a nifty espresso machine that takes E.S.E. pods (I order 'em by the case from Amazon...), which takes out a lot of the prep time and mess. When drinking espresso, I usually make an americano - I'm just a little too lazy to froth the milk for cappuccino, and I drink too fast so straight espresso never lasts long enough... For drip coffee, I just have a basic Black & Decker thermal carafe coffee pot. It gets the water to the right temperature (200 degrees Fahrenheit) and the thermal carafe means you never have to worry about the coffee being scorched on the warming plate.

Other than coffee, I do like my tea, but I'm not terribly picky about it. I like good old Lipton almost as much as some of the more expensive brands. I have found that drinking green tea together with coffee helps take away some of the coffee jitters, if I'm trying to pull through an all-nighter for some reason.

I never really understood the appeal of the energy drinks - tea and coffee get the job done just as well, they're way cheaper, they taste better (some of those things taste like heavily sugared turpentine), and they actually are "all natural" - as opposed to the "all natural processed Oriental secret ingredients" ("Oriental" only because they're produced in some low quality control Chinese sweatshop) that a lot of the energy drinks claim to have.

I remember when I actually used to get a buzz from coffee. I think the last time was in Seattle in '95. Two friends and I were on the last leg of a 6-day journey from the Maritime provinces (PEI) to Port Townsend in a '68 Mercedes. *

Tripping a little from fatigue I did the obligatory Starbucks and I just remmeber feeling how greAT IT WAS THAT THERE WAS A jiMI FUCKIN' hENDRIX  museum somewhere.

*We criss-crossed the Canadian border a few times but we made sure the car was well vacuumed at all times.

Am I a great person? Hell no - by most metrics I'm pretty much an asshole. -TSlothrop

Coca-cola or Bawls, usually. Coffee is generally reserved for a treat, as I prefer mine as either a mocha or a specialty brew from the local Intelligentsia shop.

For that real "picks you up while it calms you down" feeling, I've taken to mixing the Coke with a few ounces of 10 Cane rum or vanilla-flavored vodka.

Tea is definitely my weapon of choice. On an average day, I'll probably have five or six cups, though half of those might be second brews without so much caffeine. I have about 50 different kinds of tea in my cabinet, and every time I visit a new city, I'll try to pick up something new. If I had to pick a favorite, it would probably be the Kashmiri chai from Tealuxe, but really, it depends on what I'm in the mood for, or what I'm having for lunch. Darjeeling or Sencha for subtlety; Pu Erh or Lasang Souchong for a kick in the ass; Earl Grey or a nice, solid Assam for points in between.

I drink coffee mostly for the taste, usually a double americano, black, possibly with something sweet on the side, but I rarely drink it to stay awake. Lately though, since I've been waking up earlier than usual, I've been going for a walk and grabbing a coffee in the morning. The fact that there aren't any good coffee shops in my neighborhood* means that I have to walk a mile to get something decent, but that's fine, since the coffee is really just an excuse to go for a walk anyway.

If I need to bring in the heavy artillery and stay up all night, I'll have some yerba mate, in the traditional style. The people trying to claim that yerba mate has no caffeine are full of new-agey bullshit. It has loads of caffeine, but I do notice that it's a much more "even" jolt of energy than a cup of coffee, maybe because of whatever else is in the infusion - unicorns or chakra crystals or something. I don't care what it is; it keeps me awake when I need to be, and if I want to sleep after drinking it, I also find that it's easier than it would be after drinking tea or coffee.

-secretpath

*I recently had the following exchange when I stopped in to fax some documents at an "internet cafe":

Me: I'll have a double latte.
Kid: We don't have a double latte.
Me (looking up at menu to confirm the existence of said drink): OK, then... a medium latte?
Kid: Um, I told you we don't have a latte.
Me (looking once again at the menu): ...
Kid (turning around, flustered): Oh, you mean a cafe latte...

Now, I understand that in a strictly technical sense, a "latte" would simply be steamed milk, but really, if you work in a place where the main ingredient in many of your drinks is coffee of one kind or another, that part would seem to go without saying.

Everything that needs to be said has already been said, but since no one was listening, we must begin again. -Andre Gide

But this stuff is oh so good: http://www.counterculturecoffee.com/

They have it locally at Murky Coffee, if you are local to the center of U.S. imperialism like me.

The Cuisinart Grind & Brew Thermal 10-Cup Automatic Coffee Maker is a fine device, I must say. I like my coffee fresh and strong, and loading up my Cuisinart with Starbucks French Roast whole-bean coffee and filtered water at night means I will have freshly ground coffee with a minimal amount of effort in the morning. If I care to set the program mode, it'll be completely automatic - though I find I am generally capable of flipping one little switch no matter how sleepy I am.

    I need two cups of coffee a day to get out the door. Seriously, the thought of skipping them just doesn't seem possible, which is one definition of dependency. But then several of my coworkers have expressed surprise the few times I actually am tired enough to have a cup of joe in the late morning, so I realized it couldn't be that bad. Just can't drink coffee after noon-- I have enough trouble falling asleep as it is, and even a large cup after one or so will wreak havoc later on that night.
    Caffeine later in the day is a 16 oz Diet Coke, at about ten AM. This is something that probably could drop out of my diet and not be missed, but so far it hasn't.

    An interesting change in perception followed the purchase of a new coffee grinder, though. The morning ritual used to be to grind the beans for the two cups that day; later, I bought a larger grinder, with the intention (and later practice) of grinding up several days worth, and keeping the rest in the fridge. (I'm no coffee snob, so any loss of flavor was negligible, IMO.) Oddly, the daily grinding "felt" like less of a burden than doing slightly more work every 4-5 days. Not the deepest insight in the world, but it did drive home that for others, the reverse might be true.

Ex ignorantia ad sapientiam; e luce ad tenebras

My motto is "work like a rock star!"  It doesn't have an excessive amount of caffeine, but the rest of the stuff in it obliterates my boredom (the usual sign that I'm tired) like a big flaming boulder from heaven.  I didn't really believe in energy drinks until one day somebody gave me a Rockstar as a tip (I can't take cash), and I figured I might as well drink it.  15 minutes later I realized that I was having a really good day.

A biochemist I was talking to said the taurine might be a big part of the effect, since taurine is heavily involved in nerve transmission.  I tend to think he's right, since the concoctions without taurine don't seem to have that same smooth lift.

I managed to overdose on the stuff one day, combining 2 lattes with 2.5 cans over the course of an eight hour work day.  I didn't feel wired or jittery, but I couldn't go to sleep until 2 am, even though I'd had the last Rockstar at about 6pm.

Back when I was younger, I used to occasionally go on a coffee jag, drinking 6+ cups at a sitting and then writing poetry in a mad daze.  There seem to be levels of intensity that are associated with higher levels of caffeine, with the buzz being jittery and tense at three cups, and then smoothing out into straight-ahead mania at 5+ cups.  I never suffered any ill effects from it, but it's kind of a solitary buzz, because I get so wound up that I can't really listen, so I don't do it any more.

I used to be a big coffee drinker, but my stomach doesn't handle it all that well at the moment.  So, instead, I've become an iced-tea addict (preferably with a little gin).  If I need a quick fix, I'll grab for a No-Doz.  

I've always ground my own coffee beans (usually 100% Columbian) and used a percolator.  Every drip-type coffee maker I've tried just made it too weak for me.  

Starbucks just always seemed way over-priced, and quite honestly, I've always liked McDonalds coffee best.  Now that Starbucks is lowering their prices, I might try it again, but nothing beats a breakfast of McDonalds coffee and a sausage-and-egg McMuffin for me.  

there's only one way to find out...