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Our Two Cents: Favorite In-Car Beverages
There’s nothing like a hot cup of coffee in frozen weather, provided you have a cup holder for it. Or perhaps an ice cold beer when you’re working on a car that needs such motivation for its repair? In-car beverages can be a wonderful thing, but we all know that drinking and driving certain beverages is never acceptable.
So now is the time to poll the staff here at Hagerty Media for their thoughts on the matter. Will their favorite in-car beverage ring true with you? Tell us what we missed in the comments!
It Depends, Except Caffeine

“No liquid in my classic Thunderbird, ever! (No cupholders.) I will do a mix of coffee or Diet Coke in my daily-driven Focus ST.” – Todd Kraemer
“While driving, it’s water or coffee (black, no cream or sugar). Take driving or wrenching out of the equation and garage beers (or Bourbon) with a group of friends cannot be beat. I’m pretty beer agnostic, my favorites are ‘cold’ and ‘free,’ even better if you combine both types. I’m pickier on the Bourbon, middle to top shelf quality is preferred.” – Greg Ingold
Water

“Fresh Pacific Northwest rain. If I look up and stick my tongue out, I can usually catch a few drops.” – Stefan Lombard
“The only liquid allowed in my car is water. In the garage it’s strictly Busch Light (Camo/Hunting Edition). I am not trying to drink half a 90-minute IPA and forget which way to turn the wrench.” – Eric Weiner
Tea

“Tea and a chocolate biscuit, a habit picked up in the U.K. while working in a typical shop specializing in obscure prewar cars, meaning a repurposed agricultural long barn that smells a mix of pig poo and Castrol EP90.
An English car mechanic spends at least 20 percent of his working life drinking tea and eating chocolate biscuits, usually while gazing glassy eyed at a wall of SU carburetors or a stack of Woseley engine blocks that will all be “gotten to” as soon as the 12 customers waiting to have their trunions regreased are adequately served. Which is to say, never.” – Aaron Robinson
“A thermos of hot tea in the winter—it’s at best 40-something degrees in the barn when I am working on the cars. At Daytona to watch the Rolex 24 (I know you said our cars, but this story goes live while I am at the track and I am excited), it’s a michelada—a beer/tomato juice mix that’s a tradition as much as anything, but don’t knock it till you try it. I answered your question obliquely because in-car, it’s just water for me.” – Eddy Eckart
Slurpee

“A 7-11 Slurpee in a Big Gulp cup. Coca-Cola flavored, please.” – Steven Cole Smith
Shifting Gears With Homemade Chai


“I used to be a ‘water or nothing’ kinda dude in my cars, but upon a friend’s insistance, I recently made Indian chai using my mom’s recipe. Wow, this is amazing: When it’s cold, wet and generally nasty outside, there’s nothing like an authentic chai made with fresh-cut ginger and cardamom.
And boy, was it ever a soppingly moist, frozen mess here in Houston this week. Walking outside was akin to taking an ice-cold shower, with more than three inches of snow and sleet to freeze your feet. I cannot tell you how great it felt to put a Yeti with Mom’s chai in one of my Ranger’s four cupholders (two cups for every passenger!) and take a sip between gear changes with that chrome and leather shifter in my hands. Well, maybe I just did.” – Sajeev Mehta
I find 4 cupholders perfect for road tripping with a friend. A coffee and a water for each person.
ditto. coffee (black) and plain water
I’m one of the few people that really don’t complain about cup holders or the lack there cup holders.
When I drive I drive. I don’t generally eat. drink, text or much else. I drive
If I drive local I just wait till I get where I’m going or if it is a trip I often do not drink much as I only stop for gas.
My cup holders have little in other than recent change etc.
I only talk on the phone in my new truck with hands free.
With the way many drive at least some of us should keep two hands on the wheel
Bravo, no food ever in my vehicles. Water for a longer trip. I like to drive, I enjoy a good meal and beverage but no dashboard diner here. Hands free phone is a given.
I’m one of the few people that really don’t complain about cup holders or the lack there cup holders.
When I drive I drive. I don’t generally eat. drink, text or much else. I drive
If I drive local I just wait till I get where I’m going or if it is a trip I often do not drink much as I only stop for gas.
My cup holders have little in other than recent change etc.
I only talk on the phone in my new truck with hands free.
With the way many drive at least some of us should keep two hands on the wheel.
I reposted as for some reason Coltons info popped up on the screen. Note to Hagerty staff.
My classic (’66 Poncho) never goes anywhere without an old, glass, bottle of Coke in it – you know, Coke bottle body shape, red paint, etc. – but it never gets opened. Display only to remind me of the “old days”. Doc’s orders to keep sugar input low, y’know. But I am not unknown to have MY Yeti along for a drive, full of hot black java. The chai thing is kind of interesting, though… If Mrs. DUB6 is along, she’ll gladly sip on a heavily iced pink lemonade.
Long road trips it’s coke. Top down on hot sunny days, I might open a bottle of water.
Mountain Dew Zero, in a cup with ice and a straw for road trips. No drinks around town.
Coffee on the work trip. I would say commute but it’s only 10 miles
Water on a longer haul
I do lament the lack of cupholders in most of my cars
That comment about the “commute” is kinda funny to me. I wonder how far one has to travel to and from work to consider themselves “commuting”? Maybe that’s a subject for a future column question, Sajeev?
I think that question needs to turn into an email! pistonslap@hagerty.com
Great question. I grew up in Traverse City when no one “Commuted”, they just drove or walked to work. My father had to drive clear across town having to negotiate a grand total of five traffic lights.
Now I’m in a suburb of Chicago and most everyone either works from home or “commutes” an average of 30min to work.
On my last job, my commute was a bit less than two miles. Barely enough for the heater to start warming the truck in cold weather. My boss had a shorter one.
Milk. Especially buttermilk. And then not finish it and spill half of it and let it soak into the carpet, and then park the car in the sun. MMMMM.
Sajeev… where is Mom’s recipe? Why didn’t you post it? Maybe there is a tariff on it.
Hmm, maybe I can whip up a new article in which to publish it!
I would be interested in the chai recipe as well. Sounds like a good drink regardless of location.
Oh wow…okay maybe someone can come up with a Piston Slap question that involves Mom’s chai?
pistonslap@hagerty.com
I don’t have favorite drinks in the car. It’s going to be whatever I came with from the restaurant I went to. Otherwise I don’t usually bring much of anything to drink or eat while I’m driving.
Ther are no cup holders in my ’87 Bertone X-1/9, so when I’m cruising with the top off and having a cigar, I take along a Diet Coke in a plastic bottle with a screw-on cap. It fits snuggly behind the passenger seat with little chance of spillage.
A Slurpee!
None! My 1983 BMW 633CSi has no cup holders and I do not allow food or drink to be consumed in it. Stopping to eat/drink is perfectly OK.
My ’79 280 SL doesn’t have cupholders either (none of the R107s did). I think the Germans back then thought you should be focusing on driving, not eating or drinking. Those old guys would be aghast at what people do while driving now days. Of course, every Mercedes I’ve ever seen has an ashtray and lighter, still do.
A Tim Horton Ice Cap with a shot of vanilla bean.
Now you’re talking (without the vanilla bean) or a good old “double double”
I was an interiors engineer at Ford when the cupholder craze started in the early / mid 90’s. Every cupholder had to have some sort of elaborate push-push mechanism that had to support a big gulp cantilevered off of the instrument panel. Also had to pass the Coke test where it remain functional after you spilled the sticky concoction into the mechanism. Took about ten years of warranty to get the program folks to agree that simple molded-in spaces in the console was the way to go.