Alright, so I got this idea in my head the other day, kinda out of nowhere. I was just sitting there, and I thought, you know, I should try and really think about all the beverages that start with b. Just a random little project for myself, something to chew on.
My first thoughts? Pretty obvious, I guess. Beer, of course. That one’s a giant. And then my mind went to Bourbon, can’t miss that one if you’re talking ‘B’ drinks. Maybe Brandy too. Simple enough, right? But then I figured, no, let’s actually try and dig a bit deeper. See what else is out there that I’m not immediately thinking of.
My Little B-Beverage Quest
So, I actually started to make a bit of a game out of it. I grabbed a notepad – yeah, I still use one of those – and started jotting things down as they came to me. I even asked my wife, “Hey, quick, name some drinks that start with B!” She looked at me like I was a bit nuts, but played along. It’s funny what you remember, and what you totally forget.
Here’s a bit of what I started to pull together:
- Black Tea: A classic, gotta have that. I drink this almost every day.
- Black Coffee: Another daily driver for so many folks. Simple, strong.
- Buttermilk: Now this one took me back to when I was a kid. My grandpa used to drink it.
- Bailey’s Irish Cream: Definitely a ‘B’ and definitely a beverage, though maybe more of a treat.
- Bloody Mary: Ah, the brunch favorite. That counts, for sure.
- Bubble Tea: This one’s huge now, wasn’t around so much when I was younger.
The tricky part, and this is where my practical side kicked in, was deciding what actually counts. Like, does a “Banana smoothie” count just because of banana? I decided, for my own little list, it had to be something where the ‘B’ was part of the common name of the drink itself, not just an ingredient. So, “Banana smoothie” was out, but “Barley water” (if I could find someone who still drinks that!) would be in. It was my little rule to keep things from getting too crazy.
This whole thing actually reminded me of this one time, a few years back. My brother-in-law, Dave, he’s always up for some weird challenge. We were at this local summer fair, pretty small town vibe. They had this stall, and the guy was selling homemade Birch Beer. Now, I’d heard of it, but never actually tried it. Dave, of course, goes “We HAVE to try this. It starts with B, like our last name!” (Our last name doesn’t start with B, he was just being an idiot, you know how he is). So we bought two bottles. I took a sip, and man, it was… different. Not bad, just really, really unique. Sweet, a bit minty, a bit like old-fashioned root beer but not quite. Dave, he chugged half of his down and then made this face like he’d just licked a tree. He said, “Well, that’s certainly… birch-y.” We ended up using the rest of his to water a very thirsty-looking potted plant nearby when he wasn’t looking. For days after, every time we saw a birch tree, one of us would go, “Fancy a pint?” It became one of those silly inside jokes.
So yeah, this whole mental exercise of listing beverages that start with ‘B’ turned out to be more of a trip down memory lane than I expected. From the everyday stuff like Black Coffee to the more obscure ones, or ones tied to a funny memory like that Birch Beer incident. It’s amazing what you can uncover when you just start with a simple letter. Makes you think, doesn’t it?
