What drinks do you always have in the house?

[AlltheFs]

At the risk of sounding crackers, I find offering drinks to guests (family aside) really quite stressful! Partly because I don’t drink normal tea (I drink occasional green tea) or coffee so hate making it.

If I am expecting visitors I tend to panic buy drink options. If I have unexpected ones that’s even worse!

What would you say is “normal” to always have in? Not alcoholic drinks, I mean teas, coffee, soft.

DD is having more playdates now so it’s generally mums and kids that I don’t know well and often quite last minute.

We always have tea, coffee, green tea, oat milk, squash, orange juice, apple juice, coke and lemonade. And alcohol.

I think offering tea, coffee, squash or water is plenty though.

Oh yes and hot chocolate

Water (ds)
decaf coffee (me)
Earl Grey tea (dsis)
Lemon barley water (served hot, good for sore throats)
Hot chocolate
Apple juice

Otherwise, there's a couple of bottles of champagne
Two bottles of red
A bottle of Glenmorangie
A bottle of gin
Half a bottle of Amaretto
(all left over from Christmas)
Pimms left over from last summer

Hot drink wise I have tea (normal and a small amount of decaf - I drink loads of normal tea but never decaf, so just keep enough for visitors), coffee (instant) and hot chocolate.

For DS's friends I have squash - 2 types I think (my kids don't drink it so again only small bottles)and nesquik.

And then I have cans of pop - coke, 7-up, fanta/tango and appletiser. We don't drink fizzy drinks that often so opening a whole bottle if someone is only having 1 glass is a waste, so I find cans work best for us.

Also juice - probably one carton of orange.

Alcohol. We always have wine in the fridge. And
In the summer I will always have a jug of water in the fridge too.

As a guest I will always have tea. Not having 'normal' tea in for guests (assuming you're in the UK) is the only thing I would consider weird! 😂

I know its a bit of a MN cliché but the children stick to water and milk most of the time.

In the house I always have tea, coffee, milk (soya, semi skimmed and full fat) and bottled water (as well as tap of course). I also have a bottle of dilute in the cupboard for unexpected guests or illness. We rarely finish these though and usually bin them and open a new one.

I usually have a few cans of something fizzy for DP in the fridge, some AF beers for myself and at the weekends the kids get to pick a large carton of juice to share usually apple juice or sometimes I get the small cartons of Innocent smoothies if they are on special offer.

At the moment we also have a large bottle of Coke which came with a pizza meal we ordered a while back and some small cartons of apple juice for the weekend which I just bought today - kids are out tomorrow and will have a packed lunch so I thought they'd want a juice each too.

DC2 has been away all week so I've got her a small can of Dr Pepper for her return (her absolute fave!)

All the "good work" of limiting sugary crap is undone as the older kids get a hot chocolate at their grandparents after school (a few times a week)

For expected guests I'll buy anything from Champagne to Fruit Shoots depending on the occasion but don't keep things like this stocked.

Tea
Coffee
Bottles of Water
Squash
Cans of Cider / Beer
Fruit shoots or Cartons of Apple juice
Fizzy Flavoured Water

Really interesting thanks. I probably need to worry less! We always have

Tea (DH and parents)
Green tea
Instant coffee (DH has it and my parents when they come). He used to have a machine but he never used it. The cafetière broke when we moved house and he never replaced it. He seems to like M&S instant!
Coke Zero (my vice)
Lime cordial
Orange squash
Fresh orange juice
Milk - whole and skimmed

DD is 4.5 and won’t touch any cordial/squash, she likes water, milk and fruit juice. So we don’t have fruit shoots or similar in as she never drinks it. We do have small cartons of juice for trips though.

Sometimes we have Hot chocolate, cranberry juice, apple juice, lemonade, still water and sparkling water as well but when we run out we don’t automatically re-buy.

We have cut down our wine intake so now only buy it to drink unless hosting an event. When the wine rack was full I was drinking most days. Now we buy a couple of bottles for the weekend and that’s it. If we are hosting properly there’s always plenty though.

It’s the scenarios where we bump in to someone at the park and they pop over for “a coffee” that gives me the panics. I don’t really know why, we only know nice people!

Ground coffee for proper coffee, milk for my daughter, fizzy water. Absolute minimum.

We have tea and coffee and I think decaf tea to offer guests. I just have to remember to get milk if I know someone is coming because we only use oat milk. We usually have hot chocolate and fruit tea too. I struggle more with what to offer visiting children because my children only drink one particular type of fruit juice at a time until they move on to one particular other drink. I usually get orange juice and we have pink squash and we have those cartons of smoothie for DC2’s packed lunch so I offer them. DC1 is 12, so we had a couple of sleepovers when I let her get fizzy drinks but we don’t normally have them.

Tea
Coffee, ground, dolce gusto of various sorts and instant decaf
Hot chocolate
Various juices

Well stocked bar with mixers ,
Wine, beer and bubbly which can be put in fridge as required

Normal tea
Decaf tea
Instant coffee
Instant iced latte stuff
Squash
Usually cans of something (currently Aldi orange San pelligrino copies)

Instant coffee, tea bags and squash.

Various black tea
Jasmine tea
Roobos tea or however you spell it
Coffee beans I grind
Instant coffee for DD
Squash which we rarely use
Orange juice
Peppermint tea no one uses
Hot chocolate
Some kind of honeydew melon powder for making bubble tea
In the summer I buy caffeine free Diet Pepsi
Tonic water
Wine, gin, various other spirits

Fizzy water I love fizzy water

Coffee, tea, water, coke. Me and DH don't drink tea or coke, but we have visitors who do.

At least 30 different types of tea, 6 or so different herbal teas and 1 type of coffee. There is cocoa powder if someone wants a hot chocolate.

Rarely have jucies or squash. Never fizzy drinks.

There is usually some bottles of cider and we have loads of homemade brandy and liqours in the booze cupboard some that have maturing for several years.

Yorkshire tea plus sachets of various Earl Grey, fruit, mint, rooibos, green & camomile teas swiped from hotel rooms.

Real coffee, instant coffee & sachets of decaf instant, also swiped from hotel rooms.

Orange & Apple juice, milk, Coke Zero, blackcurrant squash & sparkling mineral water. And if they can’t find something acceptable from that lot, there’s always Severn Trent’s finest from the tap.

We have dilute, tea and only invite over relaxed company.

No coffee because I still haven’t gotten over the smell of it during my pregnancy. 😂

Tea bags and instant coffee. We drink them but it's good to have them as a basic option for guests even if you dont. They last for ages so no worries about them going off.

Hot chocolate because I buy a tub and it lasts for ages. Kids will randomly ask for one now and then.

Squash for kids. Blackcurrant and orange are the safest.

We don't always have fizzy drinks but now and then I'll get a box of Pepsi max because I sometimes crave a fizzy drink.

Don't bother with green or herbal teas because none of us drink them and neither do any of my immediate friends or family.

Tea, coffee, juice, cans of fizzy drinks, beer, spirits and wine.

Tea
Pepsi max
Coffee
Hot chocolate
Cranberry juice
Ribena
Vimto squash
Banana milkshake
Some bottles of fizzy grape juice
Lime squash

Instant coffee, decaf instant, range of coffee pods, ground coffee, every day tea, decaf black tea, Earl Grey, Lady Grey, green tea, green tea with mint, mint tea, turmeric tea, cardamom hot chocolate, Mexican hot chocolate.
There is probably a bottle of squash and often some seltzer type cans of fizzy, fruity water. If DD is here there is Coke Zero. Sometimes I indulge my love of cherry coke.

Various types of tea and coffee and some expensive sweetener free cordials.

Maybe some Cawston Press tins if we haven't run out. Nothing much else. It's really hard to find soft drinks that don't contain artificial sweeteners

A few different teas, coffee, two different types of squash and we always have Coke Zero and usually another type of fizzy drink in too.

I’ve got Yorkshire tea, tea pigs chilli chai teabags, camomile teabags, coffee for the cafetière or proper coffee machine, pods for the nespresso, decaf instant coffee, high juice squash, elderflower cordial, semi and gold top milk plus oat milk. And tap water.