Today we’re covering the best morning drinks to start your day just right. We’ll be covering the Three Big Ones, coffee, juice, and tea, and how you can up your breakfast game with each of the three.

Coffee – Getting the Most out of Your Brew

Whether your daily cup comes from pods, ‘coffee bags,’ grinds, or starts out fresh as whole beans, how do you ‘really’ get the best out of your morning brew? That what we’ll be taking a look at below.

Minor Disclaimer: Let me say that everything I’m about to say about ground coffee, applies more or less equally to coffee pods with just one caveat. Coffee pods are (typically) airtight, meaning the coffee inside ‘does’ stay fresher longer, since it is ‘never’ exposed to air. In that regard, quality coffee, packed into airtight designed pods, is indeed a cut above bagged ground coffee. This also applies to ‘coffee bags,’ and whether or not they’re stored in an airtight container until use. With that out of the way, let’s begin.

1) Whole vs Pre-Ground – The Summary. Let’s start with the positives of ground coffee. It’s easier to use, saves time, and is cheaper. That’s it. By contrast, whole beans are fresher, of higher overall quality (because roasters generally pay more attention to what makes it into the final package for the purpose of eye appeal), and lasts ‘much’ longer. As such, with all things being equal, the same quality whole beans will produce a more flavorful, and more aromatic, cup of coffee, than comparative ground coffee. As such, go for whole beans unless you absolutely cannot spare the extra few minutes to grind your own.

2) Whole Beans and Freshness. Peak freshness for ‘unsealed’ roasted whole bean coffee is one to two weeks after roasting. after that, the beans will start to rapidly bleed away their freshness and become stale. Freshness can be (drastically) increased via proper storage. When packed in an airtight container, whole coffee beans will last ‘up to’ nine months. The less oxygen the coffee beans are exposed to, the longer the coffee will last. Now consider that ‘most’ bags of ground coffee were roasted weeks, and sometimes ‘months,’ (yes, months) before finding their way to the shelf of your local supermarket, where they can sit, again, for weeks if not months, and you can begin to imagine the issue that arises here.

3) Ground Coffee – Is it ‘ever’ Fresh? Ground coffee lasts just thirty minutes before it’s stale (yes, minutes). The reason for this is oxidation, as once coffee has been ground up, oxygen is able to pervade the coffee almost instantly, thereby causing decay, and it is ‘decay’ that causes ‘staleness.’ Here again, if packed in an airtight container, the coffee will last much longer (up to a few weeks) before it bleeds away all of its flavor and aroma, but given that the coffee lasts just minutes out in the open, ‘any’ exposure to air rapidly decays the coffee. Imagine how often you have to open that airtight container or bag to get to the coffee. A few minutes here, a few minutes there, and before long, even under the most ideal circumstances, that coffee has begun to lose all of the precious nuance that makes ‘good coffee’ such a joy to drink.

4) Find Your Style. It is true that ‘American Style’ coffee, aka drip brewed, has become the global ‘norm.’ There is simply no easier or more time and labor efficient method (as of yet) to produce ‘decent enough’ coffee. This is true whether we’re talking for at home or commercial use. Thankfully, drip brewing ‘does’ produce a fairly consistent brew. However, there’s nothing stopping you from bucking the trend at home. While I admit that I personally use pods (drip brew) for my daily cup in the morning, it might be worth your while to experiment with something like Turkish coffee, which produces a dense, rich, and deeply aromatic brew with its own natural crema. Conversely, pour over, while certainly a bit trickier to master than most other methods, it produces an inarguably delicious cup of coffee. And, of course, there’s the perennially popular French press, or you could give into the cold brew craze. Find what you like, and stop settling for a ‘decent enough’ cup of coffee. More tips on grinds, bean selection, and brewing can be found at sites like Sip Coffee House.

Juice – Do this one right, or not at all

1) Juicing vs Bottled. The quintessential breakfast beverage. I’m going to be real here, and say that juicing is a ‘luxury.’ It’s time consuming, cleanup intensive, and is ‘way’ more expensive ounce for ounce, as it takes ‘a lot’ of fruit to produce a decent amount of juice. Juicing is something that even the most gourmet or health conscious among don’t have time for on a regular basis. However, (and this is a big however) juicing is superior to bottled in ‘all’ other aspects. Let’s cover some of those.

Let’s start with some simple truisms. Fruit is healthy. Very few of us eat enough of it. Most importantly, the consumption of fruit is a factor in lower rates of heart disease. So, drinking fruit juice must carry some or all of those benefits, right?

Well, it’s complicated.

If you weren’t around for the ‘juicing craze’ that swept the nation some two decades ago, there was a time when it felt like every celebrity and health guru under the sun had their own line of juicers, juicing accessories, and juicing glassware. Naturally, this coincided with juice bars popping up on every street corner of every major city and its suburbs. Juicing was positively everywhere. All of this was predicated on the idea that ‘fresh juice’ was two steps from being a ‘liquified fountain of youth.’

While the craze has thankfully cooled, juicing advocates ‘still’ make some wild claims, such as that fresh juice is better absorbed than whole fruit (the reverse is true), that it removes ‘toxins’ (it doesn’t, it actually ‘gets’ filtered by your liver), that it prevents cancer, boosts your immune system, and on, and on, and on. The reality, sadly, is that there are ‘zero’ studies to back ‘any’ of this up, and that’s according to the Mayo Clinic.

In reality, according to the article linked above, the juicing process actually removes one of the key reasons to consume fruit or vegetables in the first place – fiber. This is in addition to a variety of other nutrients and minerals that ‘cannot’ be extracted as ‘juice.’

How so? Juicing is a form of ‘processing.’ Now, think about the portion of the fruit that juicing ‘processes away.’ The ‘fibrous solids’ of the fruit. Along with fiber, you’re also ‘processing away’ any other nutrients or minerals that reside in the ‘solid bits’ of the fruit, but that ‘cannot’ be transferred to the juice. Tack on a higher concentration of sugar, and you can begin to see the problem.

What does this all mean? Is fruit juice, especially fresh fruit juice, ‘not’ health? Of course it’s healthy, but there’s a catch.

If you’re drinking juice for health reasons, as opposed to the deliciousness inherent in, say, ice cold pineapple juice, the juice should have as much ‘stuff’ in it as possible. The more ‘stuff’ your juice contains, the healthier it is. In other words, the closer to ‘whole fruit’ your juice is, the healthier it is. Imagine that.

2) When Buying Bottled, The Quality Matters (A Lot). Speaking purely of commercially available juices, higher quality juices will contain less preservatives, have undergone less processing, and are likely to contain more juice and less additives than their competitors. Furthermore, they will also likely have been sitting on store shelves for a shorter period of time. The less time juice takes getting from the farm to your fridge, the better it will be for you. Simply look for juices that have as little ‘non juice’ ingredients as possible. Also, the thicker the juice, the more of the ‘solid bits’ it has, as we were talking about earlier.

Tea – It doesn’t need to be bland and boring

1) Make Better Tea in One Simple Step. Buy loose leaf tea. That’s it. It’s that simple. Let me put it this way. The difference between loose tea and what you’ll get in a teabag is more or less the difference between ‘whole herbs’ and ‘powdered herbs.’ For example, let’s compare powdered oregano to ‘dried whole’ oregano. The whole oregano is much more aromatic, and has a noticeably deeper flavor. The reason for this is simple – the more you process a given herb, the more flavor it loses, especially over time, and tea is no exception.

2) Pros and Cons of Loose vs Bagged Tea. Tea bags are convenient, quick, inexpensive, and widely available. By contrast, loose tea is generally less widely available, almost universally more expensive, and more difficult and time consuming to make. However, it’s what ‘fills’ the teabags that ‘makes the tea’ – literally. The reality is, convenience, speed, and low cost have a price – and that price, in the case of tea, is ‘brewing dust.’ Yes, the reality is that most teabags are filled with ‘tea dust.’ As the name implies, tea dust is made from tea leaves that have been processed into a fine dust. Now, if you’re a giant tea company that relies on mass year-round sales, you likely aren’t going to be ‘pulverizing the good stuff.’ The reason is simple, you need a ‘good enough’ flavor, one that can be replicated across numberless bags of tea all year long, regardless of what’s in season. You probably also want that tea to be able to sit on a shelf almost indefinitely. By contrast, whole leaves bring nuance and depth to your cup, if only because they’ve been processed less, while having taken far less time to get from the estate or farm or garden to your cup. Less processing, plus less time sitting around on a shelf, equates to a more flavorful and aromatic cup of tea. It really is just that simple. In addition, the purveyors of whole loose tea leaves are very much selling ‘flavorful tea,’ as their business model is selling you quality tea – not convenience or speed. They’re well aware that you’re taking the time and effort to go through the ‘ritual’ of brewing your tea. As such, they’re invested – literally – in the quality of what’s being brewed.

3) But are teabags ‘really’ that much more convenient? The answer to that is “if.” ‘If’ you have the right equipment, brewing a cup of whole leaf tea is ‘almost’ as easy and convenient as brewing with a tea bag. For example, using a tea pot and cup combo is simply matter of placing two or so teaspoons of tea into the basket, pouring hot water into the pot, and you’re done. It really doesn’t get much easier than that.

4) Brew Times. While this varies (a lot) from tea to tea, I do strongly recommend not consuming your tea the instant it ‘looks right.’ Instead, pay attention to recommended brew times. It really does make a difference. For example, herbal teas should brew between five to ten minutes. This according to Artful Tea. By contrast, most green teas should brew between one to two minutes. In other words, take note of the type of tea your drinking, and adjust the brew time accordingly.

However, excessive consumption may lead to some side effects, such as anxiety, poor sleep, and headaches. Most side effects are related to tea's caffeine and tannin contents. So if you are looking for an alternative to your morning drink, Vital Recharge by Grundy MD will help you effectively. It is a combination of fruits, electrolytes, and vitamins that support your day-to-day energy level, improve mental clarity, and enhance your overall well-being.

And that’s a wrap. If you enjoyed this editorial-style post, let me know in the comments below, and you’ll see more of it.