Winter is here, and it will be the time for snow days, sledding, snowball fights, and even shoveling.  Doing all of these activities is not only tiring, but also leave you cold and numb. To combat this, people drink hot beverages in order to get their blood to a temperature above freezing.  A couple of drinks you could have are tea and apple cider. Let’s take a closer look at each of these refreshments

       First, let’s talk about breakfast tea.  Breakfast tea is black tea and is the strongest type of tea.  It has 40 to 70 milligrams of caffeine, which is about 20 less than coffee and originates from Britain.  It is very popular in the U.K, where people have tea twice or more a day seven days a week. It goes great with those little tea biscuits, pastries, and any other breakfast item.  Putting some milk in not only makes it taste better (or not if you don’t like it) but it also makes it less strong, similar to how people put milk in coffee.

Next, all the other teas.  There are four other types of tea: green tea, white tea, oolong tea, and herbal tea. Green tea is a healthy tea, shown to prevent cancer, increase brain function and also contain certain minerals important for health.  It originates from China and has wormed its way into other Asian countries as well. White tea is known as an extremely delicate tea because it is so little processed. It is a tea that is picked when the tea plant is just beginning to bloom when the buds are white, hence the name.  It is from China, just like all the other ones.

Oolong tea is a Chinese tea that falls between black and green tea.  In a process called oxidation, the tea leaves go through a chemical reaction and gain different flavors.  Black tea is allowed to go through this process in its entirety, giving it it’s signature characteristics.  Green tea is oxidized very little, allowing it to keep its leafy taste. Oolong tea falls between this, being oxidized from 8 to 80%. Finally, herbal tea is not technically tea, as it does not come from the same plant as all the others do.   Herbal tea is instead made from various fruits, leaves, roots, flowers, or any other edible plant that is not tea. Since there are an infinite variety of possible brews, there are an infinite variety of herbal teas. It is by far the oldest tea, dating back to Ancient Egypt and China.

Finally, apple cider is a warm beverage that many people enjoy in the cooler seasons.  Unlike tea, most kids like apple cider. It is the purer and less processed apple juice.  It usually has little to no sugar and is sometimes pasteurized. It is made by first squeezing the juice out of apples and then boiled to concentration.  At this point, it can be pasteurized, to kill bacteria and extend its shelf life. However, if unpasteurized and left to ferment, it can turn into a hard apple cider, which is sparkling and contains alcohol.  It can be enjoyed cold or warm, although it’s better to drink it warm in the winter. It originates from Greece and Rome, where they mastered cider.

Winter is here and it is cold and harsh.  When you’re inevitably forced to shovel snow on your driveway, or if you go sledding and end up having a snowball fight, you need to warm up.  You won’t have much fun eating dinner with frostbite and hypothermia. This is why these drinks are so important to have in the winter. Without them, we would only have cold drinks, and nothing to drink in the winter besides boiling water.  In conclusion, tea and cider are some good choices for warming up in the winter.

Works Cited

Garfield Medical Center. “Different Types of Tea and Caffeine Content.” Garfield Medical Center,

Gunnars, Kris. “10 Proven Benefits of Green Tea.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 17 Jan. 2018, 

The Republic of Tea. “What Is Herbal Tea?” The Republic of Tea, 1 Oct. 2015, 

“What Is Oolong Tea?” Teatulia

“What Is White Tea?” Teatulia