Coffee, tea or hot chocolate?

We have a very emotional relationship with hot drinks, which we adults like to use to "spice up" our day. Some people swear that tea calms them down and soothes their senses, others can''t imagine a morning without coffee, and more and more people swear by hot chocolate. Although they are quite different in taste and appearance, all three have a few things in common - perhaps that''s why we can never agree on which drink is best!

How much caffeine do you need?

Coffee is always the first thing we think of when we think of caffeine. Different coffee blends can provide up to 200 milligrams of caffeine per cup, but how much your body requires depends largely on your coffee drinking habits. The body gets used to caffeine, so regular coffee drinkers can''t do without it, while non-regular coffee drinkers can feel nauseous, tinnitus and shaky after just one cup.

If you think you need caffeine to help you wake up and concentrate at work, you can also make yourself a cup of tea. A cup of black tea has around 80 milligrams of this stimulant in it. So, to calm and relax, it''s better to opt for green tea or herbal tea.

What about hot chocolate? Although we prefer it for relaxation, it can also revitalise us, as a cup can contain up to 70 milligrams of caffeine. Most brands of hot chocolate don''t exceed 10 milligrams, so hot chocolate is not a drink that will keep you up at night, but it does give your caffeine receptors a mild ''buzz''. Hot chocolate is therefore the most caffeine-restricted of the hot chocolate drinks, which makes it suitable for children. Of course, it makes up for this ''deficiency'' in another area: rich flavour!

What gives us the greatest variety of flavours?

In all three beverages, the taste depends on the plant part itself, i.e. the type of tea leaves and coffee and cocoa beans, the growing conditions, as well as the processing of the plant source and the preparation of the final beverage. This means that we are not actually comparing three basic beverages, but a multitude of variations - and if coffee lovers cannot already agree on which brand is better and what the best preparation is, then it is not to be expected that they will be able to find a common opinion on which hot beverage should take the winner''s place.

Coffee lovers, tea lovers and hot chocolate lovers each swear by their own beverage. Want to know what decides their choice?

Tea offers the most natural variations, as it has been cultivated intensively for centuries, giving us a wide variety of varieties. Coffee has been something we didn''t even bother with for quite a long time - only in recent years have speciality coffees with provenance and tasting events featuring various boutique roasters come to the fore. Hot chocolate is no different. Brands that rely on quality and a high proportion of cocoa particles, special fermentation conditions for the beans, special roasting conditions and masterful combinations of all three types of cocoa bean: criollo, forastero and trinitario are gaining ground. Chocolate and hot chocolate can also be flavoured: chilli, coconut, hazelnut, vanilla, orange, mint or banana change our experience completely. What is it that convinces our palate and makes us choose coffee, tea or hot chocolate? Actually, the reason for the individual choice is not to be found in the beverages themselves.

It is the brain that smells and tastes!

The sense of smell and the sense of taste are handy tools that deliver information to our brains about what is delicious and what is less so - but it is the brain that ultimately decides what it likes. Each person develops their sense of smell and taste in a different way throughout their lives, resulting in different brain patterns - what smells like violets to one person may remind another of strawberries, what smells incredibly good to one person may leave another completely indifferent. But that''s not the only reason we like different things, that we swear by coffee, tea or hot chocolate.

Most of our judgements of smell and taste are developed from our experiences in the first ten years of our lives, and everything we perceive as adults is subconsciously guiding us back to that time. Did your parents drink coffee at home every morning? Then you probably loved it yourself. Did your grandmother''s house smell of tea? That''s most likely your first choice too. Will you never forget what it smelled like in the sweet shop or chocolate shop you went to with your parents on special occasions? Make yourself a hot chocolate - let it soothe you, give you a warm hug and take you into the arms of the most beautiful emotions.