If you had to choose one beverage and give up the others for life, which would you choose? Beer, Wine, Coffee, or Tea? Give reasons?

If I had to pick and "tea" included herbal tea I'd pick tea. Otherwise none of them. Why?

Alcohol = bad. Caffeine = bad. Tannin in large doses = bad.

I'd gladly pass on all four, and I do. :) Except for a few years of caffeinated soda use, I always have abstained and am healthier/happier for it. Any purported health benefits from any of the four can be gained from other sources without being combined with the bad to get it.(Like how smoking can increase short term memory and weight loss but I don't smoke to get them.) And for those who aren't as familiar with the side effects of excessive tannin's as they are with the negative effects of alcohol and caffeine?

"If ingested in excessive quantities, tannins inhibit the absorption of minerals such as iron which may, if prolonged, lead to anemia. " - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannin Tannin is in a lot of different foods and it's beneficial or anti-nutritional aspects depend on chemical structure and dosage. Excessive tea consumption can lead to problems.

---Excerpt from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannin--- In order to prevent these problems {inhibited mineral absorption}, it is advised to drink tea and coffee between meals, not during. Foods rich in vitamin C help neutralize tannin's effects on iron absorption. Adding lemon juice to tea will reduce the negative effect of tannins in iron absorption as well.

Adding milk to coffee and tea has very little to no influence on the inhibitory effect of tannins. In sensitive individuals, a large intake of tannins may cause bowel irritation, kidney irritation, liver damage, irritation of the stomach and gastrointestinal pain. With the exception of tea, long-term and/or excessive use of herbs containing high concentrations of tannins is not recommended.

A correlation has been made between esophogeal or nasal cancer in humans and regular consumption of certain herbs with high tannin concentrations. ---End Excerpt--- While moderation is the key with anything (even too much water can be toxic), there's no need to push the limits when there are so many other sources for healthy and enjoyable consumption here in the USA.

If I could drink only one thing it would be water. However, that is not one of your choices. So, I would say that I would choose to drink coffee.

Why? I have already given up beer and wine (long story here). I have tried tea and just never got the taste for it.

Now, when it comes to coffee, that is another story. I wake up to a cup of coffee, have a cup on my desk all day long, take breaks to go get more coffee, and make sure I never run out. I suppose caffeine is my drug of choice these days.

Gotta love it!

I would have to choose coffee, because I never drink beer or wine anyway, and only drink tea when I have a cold or sore throat. I could find another solution for the sore throat, I'm sure. Now if you asked me to choose between coffee and Pepsi, well, that would be extremely difficult!

Beer. It is the only all-around drink. Wine goes with some food and even can be enjoyed by itself.

But, it's too strong to even be a contender for sole drink. You can't go to a festival and drink only wine all day. I've tried at the local Greek Festival (they don't sell very good beer and have some great wines) and wound up getting plastered.

I have to be careful to have a few beers during the day to avoid getting too intoxicated, and possibly even dehydrated. Coffee gets you up in the morning but do you want to drink it all day? It's not a social drink for weekends or evenings.

And, if it's the only drink, well it pretty much tastes all the same. There's some variation but nothing like the variation in wines, let alone beers. Tea is a fine drink, I like iced tea for lunch particularly, but like coffee it is not something to drink all day.

And, it pretty much tastes the same, althought with a bit more variety than coffee. It still all comes from a single ingredient, tea leaves, and you can only do so much with a single ingredient. So, for something that goes just as well with dinner as with breakfast, and which has more than 70 major styles and tens of thousands of variations, I'd pick beer.

Tea helps me relax. I probably drink it more than the other three. I stopped drinking coffee all together.

I would pick Tea as well. With beer my body would start to fail...Coffee gives me horrid acid reflux :( Wine is headache central 95% of the time but Tea has antioxidants, it comes in many flavors, it can be energizing and doesn't screw with my tummy and head!

Tea! Although I enjoy coffee, there are many more varieties and tastes in tea, plus one can get a good dose of caffeine too. Tea has some health benefits too, like anti-oxidants.

I'd pick tea. There are so many varieties - black tea, green tea, white tea, herbal tea, and then you have iced tea. I only ever drink tea and water anyway, so it's an easy choice.

Although I'd miss the others (except coffee. I don't like coffee at all).

I'd choose tea. I prefer tea to coffee, and beer to wine. While I wouldn't like to give up beer, I drink a lot more tea than I do beer, and there are other alcoholic beverages that I enjoy besides beer.

There are no caffeinated beverages I enjoy as much as tea. Yerba mate is nice but I don't like drinking it very often.

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