Around the Kitchen Table: DRINKS TO READ BY + 6-BOOK #GIVEAWAY

 

MAYA CORRIGAN: What do you sip when reading? Are you a coffee or tea person? Are juice or soft drinks your beverages of choice? Or maybe something stronger—beer, wine, or a cocktail?

Tea Sachets

Serious tea drinker here. I have three cups of strong black tea with milk everyday. It's a mild caffeine drip into my veins, twice in the morning and once in the early afternoon. But later in the day, it's herbal tea time because caffeine it affects my sleep. Mint is one of my favorite herbal teas. Last year at the Malice Domestic convention, the tea bags offered in the hospitality room included the most smooth and soothing mint beverage I’d ever tasted. It came from a centuries-old tea maker in France, Dammann Frères, whose teabags aren't made of paper, but of silky cloth. The company calls them tea sachets. 

Back home after Malice, I checked where I could buy Dammann Frères teas. I was thrilled to see that Amazon carried them, but less thrilled when I saw the price. A box of 24 mint sachets cost $25, ten times more than I usually pay for a teabag. I couldn’t bring myself to buy it. But my sweet husband gave me a box for my birthday and another for Christmas. When we went to France in June, we visited an elegant Dammann Frères tea boutique. Boxes of tea cost 40% less there than on Amazon, still expensive, but I came home with as many boxes as I could carry. And I learned that if you want herbal tea in France, you have request a tisane, as Hercule Poirot often does.

What's your go-to drink while reading or relaxing?

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MADDIE DAY: I gotta confess, when I relax reading in the evenings or on my deck in the late afternoon, I like to enjoy an adult beverage. Last night it it was a little cool in New England, and I had a richness of good mysteries to read. So I poured a glass of a nice Cabernet Sauvignon and curled up on my couch to finish To Err is Cumin by our own Leslie Budewitz. 

And look, I also have A Poisonous Palate by our own Lucy Burdette up next! I'm sure the weather will warm up enough for me to take a gin and tonic out on the deck to start A Poisonous Palate one of these late afternoons before Labor Day.

Otherwise it's two cups of dark coffee in the morning and water the rest of the day!

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LUCY BURDETTE: Love your stash of books Edith, thanks for reading! In the old days, I could and did drink high test coffee all day. Now it's one cup in the morning and on to water. It doesn't sound exciting, but I'll take sleep over excitement at night! 

 

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LESLIE KARST: Coffee in the morning, absolutely! I love the taste (with a healthy glug of milk) and I love the jump-start it provides to get going with the day. And it's a marvelous thing to sit and sip a cup of java as you peruse the morning paper. Although Robin and I tend to go our own ways during much of the day, our morning tradition of drinking coffee as we read interesting bits from the newspaper to each other is very precious to me.

 

As is our sacred evening ritual of coming back together again at five o'clock for cocktail hour. 

cocktail hour in Hilo

 

Robin prefers bourbon (which I like, as well), but of late I've become much more of a gin girl. Cin cin!

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LIBBY KLEIN: I'm a coffee girl. I only gravitate to tea when cucumber sandwiches and scones are included. But when the weather gets chilly, and it's time to make a fire, I want something cozy. And with a Christmas Cozy about to release in 24 days, my mind turns to holiday drinks. I think hot cocoa is perfect for chilly days and post sledding or snowman building, but I have something very festive to pair with Silent Nights Are Murder. One of my favorite new finds from my Christmas around German Markets - Eierpunsch - or hot eggnog. I know what you're thinking. Gross! What the heck, Libby! That sounds disgusting. I am totally with you, I thought so too. But if you've ever had an eggnog latte, I hate to break it to you, but this is almost the same thing just without the espresso. It was really good. If you want to make it yourself there are plenty of recipes around the internet. Report back and tell me if you love it or hate it. Here I am in Austria with another cup of warm spiked eggnog. 

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MOLLY MACRAE: I used to be a hot tea all day long kind of gal, but a fairly wretched case of Covid, early in the pandemic before vaccines were available, changed that. I have no idea why. Now I drink decaf coffee with milk while I read the morning paper or curl up with a good book in my old comfy chair in the afternoon. It might be fun to have a whisky sour some evening, though. Or how about gin and bitter lemon?   

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PEG COCHRAN/MARGARET LOUDON:  Mornings are for coffee, usually about half a cup because somehow I never finish the whole mug. The only time I have more than that is if we have breakfast at a diner and the waitress comes around repeatedly to refill your cup! This despite having a very good coffee maker at home and some great Ethiopian coffee!  While I'm working, I'm a total water gal.  I have a cup that keeps the water cold for hours and I sip all day long, refilling when necessary.  In the summer I make vats of decaf iced tea, which I tend to drink later in the day.  And sometimes I enjoy a glass of wine while I'm curled up on the couch with my latest book, which at the moment is Anthony Horowitz's Close to Death.

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VM BURNS:  I prefer to drink coffee in the mornings. However, I cut myself off at noon or I'll never sleep. There isn't one beverage that I always drink while reading or relaxing. It really depends on my mood and the weather. When I want an adult beverage, Seagrams Escapes are one of my favorites. There are a variety of flavors, but I love Jamaican Me Happy and Peach Bellini. 

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VICKI DELANY: Drinks when reading! Many and varied. I never read in the morning or even early afternoon, unless I’m on vacation. Mornings are writing time. When writing I drink about six cups of coffee every day.  Go ahead, hate me - I sleep well too.

I do my best reading in the summertime. Nothing I love more than sitting in the sun by the pool with a good book. In the daytime, in the summer, I like a nice Italian Soda over lots of ice. Before dinner, I’ll turn to an easy-to-make cocktail or a glass of wine (sometimes two).  I made this cocktail one Christmas Eve, and it’s become a favourite of mine as it's also suitable for a hot summer’s evening. I only later realized when I was in Italy that it’s a version of the popular spritz.

Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: A Christmas Eve Tipple

from Vicki Delany(mysteryloverskitchen.com)

As for the best time to drink a spritz – when reading in Italy, of course.

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LESLIE BUDEWITZ: I'm ambidrinkerous. :)  Though I start the morning with juice followed by a homemade cappuccino, and drink that and mineral water through the day, I do love tea on blustery days and wine in the evening. Like Vicki, and probably most of my sister bloggers, I only have a chance to read at night, unless I'm on vacation or I'm sneaking in a couple of ours on a Sunday -- like today! So for me, that means a lovely glass, or two, of wine, pairing two of my favorite ways to relax! I'm ambidrinkerous there, as well, choosing white on warmer days and red or white in winter. Today, I hope to be out on our front deck with a book and a coffee soda -- equal parts cold brew and seltzer over ice, maybe with a splash of lavender or vanilla syrup. Given the new snow in the mountains I can see between the trees, it might be the last of the summer. My favorite coffee cup commemorates Paris -- though I bought it in the Salt Lake City airport!  

And thanks, Edith, for that fun photograph! I hope you enjoy the trip to Seattle with me, on the page! 

                                                             

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KORINA MOSS: In the summer, I'm a huge water drinker, but as the weather gets cooler, I enjoy a warm drink -- decaffeinated coffee or tea. I don't drink them daily, but my extensive mug collection says otherwise. 

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CLEO COYLE: Coffee has been part of my life since childhood. Not quite mother’s milk but close. :)

As the "coffee cart girl" I served hundreds of cups of that magic elixir to the dedicated Bingo players in our church’s basement. There was a Moka espresso pot in every Italian relatives’ kitchen. And during my high school years (on those mornings when I greeted the sunrise with a pillow over my head because I’d stayed up too late the night before) my sainted mother brought a fresh brewed cup with milk to my bedside to entice me to get my butt out the door. I drank it through college and my years in journalism, so it's no surprise that I continue to think of the juice of those amazing equatorially grown beans as my warm and comforting friend. I never had a problem with caffeine and still don't, which is why I share pots of joe all day long with my dear husband (and co-writer of The Coffeehouse Mysteries) whether we are dreaming up our caffeinated adventures or reading and relaxing. Seems fitting and it fits us fine. In the fall and winter, I make my own spice blend. In the summer, my own frozen coffee drinks. If you missed my post on how to make copycat Frappuccinos (Iced Vanilla and Chocolate Lattes), click here for the easy recipe and save yourself some cold hard cash by making these chilly refreshers at home. 

Click here for Cleo's Easy Coycat Frappuccinos
(Iced Vanilla & Chocolate Lattes)

GIVEAWAY!

Join us in the comments to be
entered in this week's drawing for

the 6 terrific mysteries below.

Be sure to include
your email address

What's your go-to drink
while reading or relaxing?  

A PARFAIT CRIME by Maya Corrigan

A SCONE OF CONTENTON by Lucy Burdette

DEADLY CRUSH (ARC) by Maddie Day

HONEY ROASTED by Cleo Coyle

A CUP OF FLOUR, A PINCH OF DEATH
by Valerie Burns

To ERR IS CUMIN by Leslie Budewitz

To enter the drawing,
comment by Tuesday, Sept 3

Include your email address,

so we can contact the winner!