Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast.
Hey English learners, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 250 of the Listening Time Podcast.
250 is a momentous number, I think.
Many people might expect a special episode for episode number 250, but to be honest, I don't have anything special for this episode.
I'm actually just going to talk about drinks, a very simple topic that I haven't really talked much about, I think.
I think it was my wife who gave me the idea to talk about drinks.
Sometimes she gives me an idea for my episodes and I'm thankful because thinking of different ideas can sometimes be the hardest part of doing this type of work.
So today we're going to talk about different drinks cold drinks, warm drinks and this will be relevant for all of you, because everyone needs to drink something in order to survive.
So that's what we'll talk about today.
And for those of you who really want to improve your pronunciation if you feel worried or self-conscious about the way you pronounce words and sentences in English, then I highly recommend that you check out my pronunciation seminars, in which I help you pronounce things more like a native speaker.
So click on the link down below to sign up for those.
And also check out my US Conversations podcast.
That's my other podcast where I talk to different people from around the country.
It's a lot of fun.
We talk at normal speed, so it's great practice for your listening.
And I provide the transcript for all of those conversations.
And on those transcripts, you'll also find the definitions of key words and phrases.
So check that out.
That link is also down below.
Okay, let's talk about drinks.
First, let's talk about water.
So in the U.S., some people drink tap water.
Tap water is the water that comes out when you turn your sink on.
So the water that comes out of the faucet, your sink, this is tap water.
And many of you might think that this sounds crazy, because in your country, tap water might be really unsafe to drink.
I know about this because I lived in Mexico for years and in Mexico, you cannot drink the tap water.
If you do, you're most likely going to get sick.
I remember when my sister-in-law got married, her husband invited his friends to the wedding and his friends were from Ireland and they came to the wedding in Mexico and I remember that one of them didn't know that he couldn't drink the tap water, I think, and And he ended up drinking it and got really sick.
So in many places, you cannot drink the tap water.
But in the US, typically, people consider it somewhat safe, at least, to drink the tap water.
How safe is it?
Well, depending on who you ask and where you are, people might just say that it's completely safe and normal and they wouldn't even think twice about it drinking it.
But other people, and maybe in certain cities, might say no, don't drink the tap water, it's not that great.
It depends on who you ask.
One of the things that people don't like about the tap water in the US is that it has fluoride in it.
And many people don't want to just drink a bunch of fluoride.
So that's another downside for some people.
And in California, this is probably the case in some other states as well, but I'm not sure.
But in California, the restaurants, all of the restaurants here need to serve free tap water.
So you can ask for water at any restaurant in California and And by law they're supposed to give you free water.
This is something that people might not know if they're from other countries, but if you come here and you go to a restaurant and you don't want to spend money on a drink, just order water.
It's free.
So if you do this, then you can save money on your meal.
This is what i do.
I rarely order a drink with my meal, unless it comes with the meal as like a combo, or if it's a warm beverage.
I will sometimes order a warm drink, which i'll talk about in a few minutes.
But if you want, you can just drink free water at restaurants here.
Just know that it's tap water, so you don't get a free bottle of water.
It comes from the faucet, the sink, so just know that.
In terms of how I like my water...
I actually prefer room temperature water for the most part.
Room temperature means that it's not warm, it's not cold, it's just the temperature of the room that it's in.
So the exception would be if it's a really hot day, then yeah, I probably want colder water.
But I tend to just drink room temperature water, which in the US is not what's most typical, I think.
At least in my experience, people tend to prefer cold water.
And they often put ice in their water.
Ice cubes.
And I know that in Mexico, for example, a lot of people drink room temperature water.
And Mexicans that I know do not like the fact that here in the US people make the water really cold with a bunch of ice.
So...
I don't know if that's a cultural difference, but in my experience, I've noticed that.
So I don't typically put ice in my water unless it's a hot day and I want to cool down and I'm really thirsty.
But the average American might prefer their water colder than me, so I'm not typical, I would say.
And then in terms of how much water I drink, this really depends on the season.
I drink a lot more in the summer than I do in the winter, probably.
And it shouldn't be that big of a difference.
I should stay hydrated no matter what.
But I think you understand why I drink more in the summer.
It's because I feel thirstier in the summer.
I sweat more and I just feel the need to drink more water.
But I think that I drink a decent amount of liquids every day, and I try to drink them earlier in the day.
Rather than right before bed or something.
I don't want to have to wake up to go to the bathroom a lot
So I tend to hydrate myself earlier in the day and I don't want to drink too much later in the day.
Now let me talk about cold drinks.
So besides water, what are some of the cold drinks that I drink or other people drink?
Well, one of the first ones that comes to mind here in the US is soda.
Soda is extremely popular in the US.
You will know this if you come to the US and you go to different restaurants or just go to people's houses, they will often drink soda.
There is a huge variety of soda in the US.
There are more types of soda here than in most countries, I would assume.
There are many different types and flavors of soda.
There are different types of soda, like diet soda or like zero sugar soda.
These are really popular.
For example, coke zero.
That's a really popular drink because people want soda but they don't want the calories or the sugar and so some people drink that and these sodas can be pretty addictive.
I don't drink that much soda in my everyday life, but when I start drinking soda I tend to want more soda, especially in the summer.
If I get into the habit of drinking soda, I'll just want more soda.
I'll crave soda, as we say.
You have this desire for that thing.
I crave soda when I'm thirsty in the summer.
But I also really like healthier sodas.
I try not to drink much normal soda.
I even just choose water when I can at restaurants.
But I do like healthier sodas, the sodas that are made to not be very bad for you.
Some of them are actually good for you, like they have prebiotics or whatever.
I like those as well.
I don't need my soda to be super sweet.
Another thing besides soda is juice.
This is one of the most popular drinks around the world.
It's been drunk for hundreds of years, thousands of years.
This is a very popular drink and it's something that kids can enjoy, adults can enjoy.
Juice is great and one thing that is interesting let's say a difference that is interesting in the us and in some other countries is that unfortunately, here most people don't drink freshly squeezed juice like orange juice, whereas in other countries this is a lot more common.
My wife hates the fact that here in the US, it's hard to just find freshly squeezed orange juice.
You have to do this yourself.
Whereas in Mexico you can go to a restaurant and order orange juice with your breakfast and and it comes freshly squeezed.
It tastes amazing and it's just not the same.
When you order orange juice in the US and they give you this artificial juice that does not taste the same as freshly squeezed orange juice.
So unfortunately, in the US, at least in my experience, It's rarer to find freshly squeezed juices at breakfast restaurants.
It's just not that common here.
Another thing that's common in Mexico and It's also something you find in Southern California, where I live is aguas frescas.
These kind of like juices, but not exactly.
These are Mexican drinks that are typically made with certain fruits or fruits sometimes not fruit, but rice or barley or whatever but they're very sweet.
There's a lot of sugar added to them and you typically find these in california at taco shops, mexican restaurants, and Some of them are good, but the best ones are usually in Mexico, and this is one of the things that I miss a lot from Mexico.
I would always drink these drinks at restaurants in Mexico and some restaurants had really good aguas like guava flavored or mango coconut just really, really delicious flavors.
Great, great drinks.
So i miss this.
Another drink that i drink often Not that often, but my wife often buys this is kombucha.
Kombucha is a drink that has become more popular in recent years.
It's a fermented drink.
It has that fermented taste to it.
I like that taste.
So for me, it's good.
Other people don't like this, but i like kombucha and one of my favorite drinks.
It's very simple, but one of my favorite drinks is raw milk.
Not just milk in general, But raw milk, meaning it's not pasteurized, it's not homogenized, it's just raw milk from the cow.
This is expensive in the US and in some states it's hard to get.
Different states have different laws about raw dairy actually.
A lot of you are probably surprised to hear that, but in different parts of the country, or in some countries I think Canada, if I'm not mistaken It's like really hard to get raw dairy, or it's illegal in some cases.
Whereas, like in Mexico, where I lived, you can get raw milk from the local farmer who comes around and sells his milk.
And it's delicious.
It's one of the greatest drinks ever for me, especially the raw milk that my mother in law gets in her city in Mexico.
It's so good.
It's like my favorite drink ever.
So I love that.
And then speaking of milk, one of my favorite cold drinks besides just milk is milkshakes.
This like ice cream type drink.
It's like a very sweet milk based drink.
I love milk based drinks in general and milkshakes are incredible.
So I had to mention that.
Of course, there are many other cold drinks that I could mention, but these are just a few that I really like.
And now let me talk about warm drinks.
So the first warm drink that most people think of when they think of this category of beverages is coffee.
This is Probably the world's favorite warm beverage.
Of course some countries might prefer tea, but I think in general coffee is probably the most popular warm drink.
And in the US, it's very common for people to drink large cups of coffee.
They might have a mug, like those cups with a handle, and they might drink their coffee slowly over a long period of time while they read the news or scroll on their phone or eat their breakfast or whatever.
Or maybe they drink it while driving, while they're at work.
You will typically find Americans, especially in the morning, with a large cup of coffee.
And that is very different from some other countries, like some European countries, for example, where people drink these small espresso shots and it's just a really quick thing.
They don't spend 20 minutes drinking this tiny little cup of coffee.
So that's a difference between the US and many other countries is how people drink their coffee.
It's typical here to see big cups or big mugs of coffee.
People sip it over a long period of time.
That's typical here, and a lot of people like sweet coffee drinks, like if you go to Starbucks and order their different drinks.
They're sometimes really sweet but they taste good and there are different seasonal drinks, like In the fall or winter.
Coffee shops will serve different coffee drinks with different flavors like, for example, the famous pumpkin spice latte that we have here in the US.
I don't drink that much coffee, to be honest.
And when I do, I prefer decaf because I don't really want the caffeine.
It doesn't have a great effect on me.
But I do like coffee just because I like all warm beverages and I actually like the bitter taste of coffee.
So I
I like coffee.
I just don't drink that much of it because I don't need caffeine.
I'm not addicted.
I don't really like caffeine.
And I just don't have the habit of making myself coffee every day.
But I like it.
Tea is the other big one.
If people don't like coffee, many times they like tea and they drink this instead.
I used to drink a lot of tea in the past.
Now, not so much.
I don't like it as much as coffee, but there are certain teas that I do really like.
But tea comes in a lot of varieties.
So some teas taste a lot better than others.
And teas are not just for pleasure or for taste.
People use teas medicinally, like they drink certain teas to help them feel better if they have certain sicknesses or pains.
So tea is an interesting drink because it can be used for other purposes besides, just when you want to drink something.
So I do like tea, but if I had to choose between tea and coffee, I would probably choose coffee.
And one of my favorite warm drinks that I have been drinking every day recently, because it is the season for this drink, is apple cider.
I don't know if many of you have tried apple cider before, specifically warm apple cider, but this is one of my favorite warm drinks and it's really seasonal.
At least here in the US, apple cider is typically served or drunk during the fall or winter season and it just tastes like christmas to me.
So i love apple cider.
Sometimes i'll put a little caramel in there, some cinnamon, maybe you can put other things like marshmallows, whipped cream.
It's great.
So i love apple cider.
I love hot chocolate.
This might sound like a kid's drink, but I would disagree.
I think that hot chocolate is delicious for people of any age.
I probably like hot chocolate more now than when I was a kid.
This is one of my absolute favorite drinks.
I might even like it more than apple cider.
I don't know.
It's a hard thing to say, but I think I might like it even just a little bit more, because I love chocolate.
However, there are a lot of bad quality hot chocolates that get served at restaurants or wherever, especially if it's made from a powder.
I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
These hot chocolate packets of powder where you pour the powder in the hot water or hot milk.
By the way, I prefer milk hot chocolate, not water based hot chocolate.
But yeah, if it's made from a powder It's not good for me.
So there are a lot of bad hot chocolates.
But when I have a good hot chocolate, there are a few things that taste better for me.
And then there are a lot of other non-caffeinated ones or caffeinated warm drinks that are very good.
You can get them from Starbucks or other coffee shops.
There's a drink from Starbucks that my wife and I have been drinking recently.
That's really good, but it's super sweet.
It's almost too sweet, but those warm drinks are very tasty.
And I even make some other warm drinks at home that are milk based.
And I put like different spices in there like nutmeg and cinnamon and things like that.
I just love warm drinks in general.
There are few warm drinks that I don't like.
So I'm a warm drink kind of person.
All right, I hope that you enjoyed this episode.
Thank you for helping me reach episode 250.
I hope that this was good practice for your listening and that you learned some new words today.
Remember to check out my pronunciation training so that you can improve your pronunciation and pronounce things more like a native speaker.
The link to sign up is down below and the link to my US Conversations podcast is also down below.
Check that out as well.
Thank you all for listening and I'll talk to you in the next episode.
