A holiday riff on a classic cocktail is a fine thing, but the “seasonal twist” always seems to start and stop with cinnamon. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with cinnamon—it’s accessible and uncontroversial, it reads as sweet without adding actual sweetness, and it is even purportedly good for your blood pressure or something. As such, it seems to find its way into any and all holiday-specific cocktails, the first and last answer to the question of how to make a drink taste right for right now.

I've just sat down with my third cup of tea for the day. Technically it might be considered my fourth, as my work mug is the largest one I could find. Often it feels like a good cuppa is the only thing that gets me through a tough day -- and even on a good day I still enjoy the ritual. But does tea's feel-good appeal come down to more than just personal preference?

Air travel is draining, and usually requires a cup or coffee (or tea) or two, but you probably want to get your fix before boarding your flight. Flight attendants — the people I like to take my plane advice from — do not and will not drink the hot coffee, tea, or water served on planes because that water comes from the tap, and plane tap water can be quite gross.

I rarely feel bad for men. Most of the time, they are kind of hard to feel bad for. But I feel bad for them when I read the gift guides aimed at them. Nearly every guide of gifts for brothers, fathers, husbands and lovers (ew) contains “leather box for keys and pocket jerky (as seen later in gift guide),” “a subtly tough beige or grey weekender bag that doesn’t look at all like a purse,” and “stupid bloody whiskey stones.”

The royal wedding is right around the corner. While there certainly will be a lot of champagne being poured that day, drinking tea is also a big part of the royal family's day -- and there are rules.

Kombucha has been around for years but has recently gained a lot of traction as a soft drink replacement due to some clever marketing that pits it as a low-sugar tonic that can heal all sorts of maladies. It’s taking up more and more space in the drinks aisle at the supermarket as consumers clamour for options outside the traditional high-sugar drinks and anything that seems remotely healthy.

But is kombucha actually as good for you as some may claim?

When you're having tummy troubles, you might think reaching for the bubbly haven of ginger ale is the best option. But soft drink, as it turns out, doesn't do much for your stomach, and that ginger ale probably doesn't have any real ginger in it anyway.

Happy weekend, and welcome back to 3-Ingredient Happy Hour, the weekly drink column featuring super simple yet delicious libations.

It's been a rough news week, and it's only Thursday. Fortunately, though, today's raging controversy is about tea. Is it OK to microwave it? Is it better to microwave it? Australian research says yes, while tea aficionados worldwide recoil in horror.

You have a lot of options when it comes to preparing your coffee, and fewer options for tea. Why is that? After all, they're both tasty drinks many of us use to kick off our mornings and relax during a busy day. Turns out, it all comes down to what flavours you're trying to get out of each plant.

I hate waiting for hot drinks to cool down before I can sip them. If you feel the same way, here are two simple methods that will cool your tea or coffee down fast so you can enjoy it sometime this century.

Kitchen cabinets have a habit of accumulating a lot little jars, most of which contain spices and seasonings. If you're worrying about working your way through them before they lose their flavour, make like the folks at Extra Crispy and use them to make some "ad-libbed teas".

Pineapple is delicious, and not as difficult to butcher as it looks. Once you've cut up your fruit, don't toss the skins - you can use them to make a delicious infused tea in about an hour.

Making tea isn't exactly hard, but when you're busy working it's often hard to remember to pull out the teabag. So DIYer Andrey Chilikin rigged up a Raspberry Pi to an old CD tray that pulls the tea bag out of our mug after a set amount of time.

If you enjoy a good cup of tea, but don't like it too strong, this DIY gadget will make sure you never forget to take the tea bag out.

Australians aren't particularly imaginative when it comes to tea - dunk a Lan-Choo bag in a mug of boiling water, add a splash of milk to taste and you're basically done. In other parts of the world, tea drinking is much more sophisticated process that involves unique plants, brewing processes and receptacles. This infographic looks at 21 popular and exotic teas from around the world.

You can add a lot of flavour to drinks by using tea ice cubes in place of normal ice. Do the same for your breakfast or post-workout smoothies -- most already call for ice, so using tea ice is an easy way to add extra flavour or a little special punch without adding more kilojoules or a ton of ingredients.

If it feels like your morning coffee isn't giving you the jolt of energy it used to, your tolerance may be to blame. You can get your caffeine tolerance back to normal levels in about two weeks, but you'll need to wean yourself off of it.

The World Health Organisation announced today that hot drinks probably cause cancer. That does not mean that the hot coffee in your hand right now is going to kill you. This announcement comes with a lot of caveats, and most of us are probably in the clear.