Drinks

While almost all beers are made from the same base ingredients, they aren't all the same. Here's what you need to know about the differences between these two classic beer styles.

When I was a child, our parents made us drink orange juice with breakfast and a cup of milk with our evening meal. I hated milk then and, as an adult, I really don’t love it, unless it’s accompanied by a stack of Oreo cookies. Most of my friends drank milk with supper, while our parents drank water or, occasionally, iced tea. My husband, who grew up in the United States, the child of two Europeans, was accustomed to water on the table, and our family has adopted this habit.

I used to be a caffeine junkie. Any lull in my day called for a cup of coffee (or three). I once felt actual rage at a friend’s island house, far from a grocery store or coffee shop, because the only available caffeine was in the form of a full sugar soda, and I couldn’t handle the sugar. I was near tears in a restaurant with my children when I realized the only diet soda they served was also caffeine free. And by “near tears,” I mean that I wanted to kill someone.

I’ve been drinking bright green hot chocolate in the morning. This is, after all, the holiday season, where I could probably go to a party every single night, so I like to start the day right. I am an admitted jumper of bandwagons and this year, I’ve jumped on the bandwagon of spirulina and liquid chlorophyll. Why not mix them with chocolate?

I still remember the controversy in 2007 when Jessica Seinfeld came out with a cookbook about how to sneak vegetable purées into kid-approved dishes like mac and cheese and brownies. It sounded like a bad idea to me. How would a child learn to recognize and eventually enjoy vegetables if they were eating them unknowingly?

Would you pour coffee into a sippy cup? Probably not. Culturally, childhood consumption of coffee is usually avoided — at least during the very early years. But as children grow older into adolescence, the world of lattes and macchiatos can be hard to resist. So, how young is too young? We asked a few experts to weigh in. As coffee shops become places where adolescents hang out and congregate, thinking about their caffeine consumption is increasingly important.

As any parent of a young kid knows, getting a little one to willingly gobble up their recommended daily dose of fruits and veggies is a tall order — which is where smoothies come in. Smoothies are one of the easiest ways to offer up a lot of produce at once (with all of the immune-boosting properties, vitamins, and fiber little bodies need) in a vehicle that can be slurped down on even the most rushed of mornings.

Plus three other ways to use it to amp up your drinks.

From lagers to stouts.

Strawberry butter, anyone?

When the Universe gives you lemons, make lemonade.

No, it has nothing to do with the salad dressing.