NoJoMo 23:9 in NoJoMo 2023

Thirsty Thursday! What do you like to drink - alcoholic and nonalcoholic?

I’m mostly into nonalcoholic drinks these days, because I’ve been having major hangxiety whenever I have something boozy. How badly? The last time I had a cocktail -literally one appletini- I had a panic attack over “mixing” alcohol and ibuprofen… Which I had taken about ten hours previously for a headache. (I mean, yes, mixing alcohol and painkillers is dangerous, but one ibuprofen isn’t likely to cause any problems, especially when there’s that much of a time buffer between the pill and the drink.)

So for my soft drinks: Coffee, first and always. I have a 12-cup maker, which is more than I’ll drink in a day, but once I’ve had my two cups with half-and-half, I pour the leftover coffee into a pitcher and keep it in the fridge for iced coffee for the rest of the week.

Water is also a perennial favorite. Not flavored water, not sparkling water. Just plain tap water run through my Brita filter. I will occasionally squeeze some lemon into it, but that’s as far as I go.

Finally, iced black tea. I also like cold mint tea, and since I have a mint plant that’s taking over my herb garden thriving, I almost always have enough on hand to make a gallon of it.

Oh, and over the summer, I found a papelón at the Vermont Discount Store¹. A papelón (aka panela) is a disc of cane sugar juice that’s been extracted and filtered, but not refined. In various South American countries, it’s used to make a drink called papelón con limón (or aguapanela), which is limeade but on another level entirely. It’s sweet, but not cloyingly so, and there’s a much better depth of flavor from the cane sugar than you’d get from refined or even brown sugar. The papelón is also thought to have a higher mineral content, so it’s one of the main drinks for farmers and other manual laborers.

…You know, it’s very funny to me: I’m not a picky eater in the slightest², but apart from these drinks (and seasonal ones like egg nog and hot chocolate, or apple cider) I don’t drink anything apart from what I’ve listed. I mean, once in a very great while, I’ll have a soda (root beer and Coke preferred; I will cry if you give me a Pepsi), and when I lived in Indianapolis, I’d get a chocolate soda every year at the Indiana State Fair, but like I said, it’s rare. I’m a picky drinker, I suppose.

…Hey, I had to have one flaw, right?

¹This is a chain of salvage stores around the state, but the one I go to the most is in Vergennes. The business model is, they buy items that either (a) have damaged packaging (i.e. the pallet was dropped, the truck was in an accident and the items ended up spilled on the freeway; and yes, they do sell dented cans, but I’ve never seen any that were swollen or otherwise unsafe) or (b) are past the sell-by date, or (c) weren’t selling well at the regular store. The particular branch I go to always has canned tomatoes for about .79 cents each, boxes of matzo ball soup mix for 25 cents each, and bottled water for 25 cents a pop, plus a ton of other little snacks and treats for less than a dollar, and I’ve literally stocked up my pantry from that store alone for less than $10. (I still get my fruit, veg, and meat from Shaw’s or Hannaford, and I get my coffee beans and half-and-half from my local general store.) The discount store puts Aldi to shame, and I’ve been shopping at Aldi literally since the 90s. You know, back when you’d get teased if you told the class your mom shops at Aldi. //rictus through the flashbacks//

²The only things I absolutely will not eat: Green bell peppers, liver, cilantro, raw onions, black licorice (anything anise-flavored, except Jamaican curry), and okra unless it’s pickled. Anything else, I’ll at least try first. I also don’t eat shellfish, but only because my body decided, once I hit 30, that I was now allergic to all of it. Which wouldn’t be so bad, since I’m one of those freaks who likes surimi (imitation crab/lobster), but I found out recently that some brands still use small amounts of shellfish when making it. Which… Yawl. I might not die if I eat shellfish (my throat will swell shut and I’d better hope I have my inhaler and some benadryl handy, or I’m in for a miserable night), but there are plenty of people who will, and who also eat surimi thinking it’s safe! More food label transparency, NOW!