You can only drink one drink for the rest of your life, but it cannot be water. What do you pick?

genesis@kbin.social to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 194 points –

And no "water with a twist of lemon/slice of cucumber" goofs. Water isn't allowed.

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Water is the main component of any and every beverage

Elemental mercury.

though can only be ingested once

Based on the posed question and its limiting conditions, elemental mercury is a correct answer. Pure hydrogen peroxide or isopropyl alcohol would qualify, too.

If you include materials which are liquid outside of "room temperature," things like magma and liquid nitrogen would also be correct answers.

Olive oil?

You wouldn't live long, but compared to the other options you're listing...

Of the liquids you listed, I think the hydrogen peroxide would be the fastest and most flame-filled death, more than the magma.

100% H2O2 is Very much unlike the 3% kind that can be purchased at a store.
It might even explode, I know shipping tanks of it can and I think that's usually under 100%.

Not quite, actually! I mean, it’s not good for you, but once it’s in your digestive tract it mostly passes straight through rather than being absorbed. The vapor over the liquid is more dangerous, but once you’ve swallowed it that’s not a concern.

I appreciate the creativity, but that is not a drink, good sir/madam...

I posit that any substance which can be ingested as a liquid by pouring it from a container into one's mouth (the act of "drinking") is, by definition, a "drink."

Supposedly, gallium is non-toxic, and liquid at body temperature (though not room temperature).

I think you replied to the wrong comment. Mercury is absolutely toxic. There's no safe quantity at all that you can ingest...

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True, but at the same time you know exactly what OP means with this question.

I don't think OP knows what they mean with this question. The top two 'serious' answers are coffee and tea, which is just "hot water with shit mixed in". Anything you drink is water with shit mixed in. Any answer that isn't "water with shit mixed in" means you die, either within months or minutes. Most answers that are "water with shit mixed in" would still kill you fairly quickly if that's all you ever drank.

I think OP knows exactly what they mean, I think if you asked a five year old they’d know what they mean.

Yet for some reason, some people are completely missing the point of a very simple question which boils down to “if you couldn’t drink regular water, what would you have instead”…

That’s not “exactly” what they mean, as the difference between what you think they’re saying and other commenters think is clearly different. Is la croix or bubbly allowed? If not then what about a hard seltzer? If those are allowed then why isn’t lemon water allowed? If those aren’t allowed then where is the line? Gatorade is seltzer water without the bubbles and with electrolytes. It’s clear that OP’s question was not well thought out, hence why so many people here have a problem with it.

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The point of OP's question is clear. He's referring to a drink that has sensory qualities that are clearly distinct from plain water. Water with a spritz of lemon still reads as water. As a loose guideline this is like anything you'd order as "water with x" or "x water", like cucumber water. Coffee clearly doesn't fit into that category, it has sensory qualities that are very different than water with x in it.

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A friend had to read a paper about what people called water vs. how much water made up the substance. So like pond water has less water than tea, we call one water one tea. Truly thrilling research.

do you have a link to the paper? I want to read it

This was a very long time ago; I do not.

I had this argument with my roommate once. It was probably the biggest argument we ever had. IMO, just because it has water in it doesn't mean that the drink is water. Like, some people don't like the taste of water, but that doesn't mean that they don't like milk, which has water in it.

For me a beverage is defined by its flavor, not its components.

They said no goofs like lemon water though. So what’s the line?

i mean lemon water is still called water.

you don’t call apple juice apple water or sprite sprite water. i think the limiter is pretty naturally deferred in the naming of the drinks themselves.

Yeah but this is the same reason Pluto is no longer a planet. Definitions matter, and every single beverage that humans consume is mostly water so, where is the line drawn on saturation of additional components? We need a DEFINITE line. Also I am in the camp that every beverage is “[Additive]-water” and anything that crosses the “not-water” barrier becomes “soup” until it is a baked good or building material.

I purposefully called it lemon water. You could also call it lemonade.

you don’t call apple juice apple water or sprite sprite water.

but you do in other languages. Just because it's hard to find examples in English doesn't mean that the concept is unique.

Examples:

  • Agua de horchata
  • Agua fresca
  • Agua de Jamaica a type of tea
  • people are literally saying coconut water in this thread so idk what you think that is.
  • Agua de Valencia a mimosa style cocktail
  • Uisce beatha literally 'Water of Life' in Irish, it refers to Whiskey
  • Aquavit another spirit that translate... you guessed it.. to Water of Life!
  • Nước Chanh ... i'll let you google this one yourself 😉

In fact if you start looking into the root words of things you'll find 'water' everywhere! Vodka, you guessed it, is based on the root Slavic word 'voda' meaning..... Water!!! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodka

We're just talking about water here. This extends to literally any ingredient in any drink ever. If you start looking at other drinks you start finding strange things like Punch which may be from the Sanskrit for 'five' denoting the five ingredients used in it.

The word punch may be a loanword from Hindi पाँच (pāñć), meaning "five", as the drink was frequently made with five ingredients: alcohol, sugar, juice from either a lime or a lemon, water, and spices.

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EVERY drink is water!

  • Soda is less water and some sugar mixture
  • Juice is less water and some squished fruit
  • Beer is less water and some cooked hops
  • Tea is less water and some leaf infusion
  • Coffee is less water and some roasted bean-juice
  • A martini is even less water with some alcohol and old squished fruit

So DON'T TELL ME WATER ISN'T ALLOWED! Damn, this is making me irrationally angry. Maybe I need some water...

If that's the case, I guess I'll pick kool-aid powder.

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Tea. Iced or hot, black or mint, dash of milk or honey. So many combinations.

Agreed, but in theory you wouldn't be able to add milk (it's a drink after all)

I prefer green tea personally, but recently found some Hawaiian Mamaki Tea, and I'm loving it.

And without water, dude's just sucking leaves.

All normal drinks are just flavored water, so I guess steering fluid?

Sadly all "drinks" are made primarily from water. Otherwise they were called "chews". You living in the US of A by any chance? Unrelated question.

Coconut water fresh from a refrigerated coconut. I would only drink that, even if I didn't have to, if it was cheap enough.

The coconut water drinks at the Asian market are usually pretty good too 🙂

Heavy water.

Isn’t that poisonous in large quantities?

Literally everything drinkable I can think of within the rules of this question(No water) are either outright poisonous or at least(in the case of food oils and certain glycols) would cause diarrhea rapidly accelerating dehydration. At least the poisonous options are quicker.

Whiskey on the rocks.

I can suck the ice cubes during the day, and drink the whiskey at night.

Make it a scotch for me! I don’t even put ice in it. Got a neat little cup that goes in the freezer to chill it.

Why can't people stop being pedants and just answer in the spirit of OP's question 😭

Anyway, I'd pick bubble tea I think. There's a lot of variety and mileage I can get.

Because the question is nonsensical.

How is "water with lemon" any less of a drink then "tea". Question was fine if it just said, what drink other than water. But the addition of calling "water with lemon" goofs is not good question for me. Also ban water!! does OP realises almost all drinks for humans are just water and something else mixed to some degree?

All liquid involves water.

I don't love tea but yeah it would be tea. Iced green tea lemonade, black tea with milk. If literally only one then iced black tea with lemonade, let it get diluted.

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Tea assuming I'm allowed any variant of it, lot of different ways you can have tea to make it taste different, iced/hot probably being the most important in this scenario

If “drinks that contain water” are not allowed, then nothing. I will die of thirst.

Water is in every beverage, this question is unanswerable.

Even without trying to be pedantic, what about Vitamin Water? Cuz my answer would genuinely be tropical citrus vitamin water. I could also do Mountain Dew, which btw contains water.

So the question becomes based on the exclusion of water without additives, which begs the question, why not lemon water then, and what amount of additives qualifies it as 'not water' anymore? If I use lemon extract and sugar does that count as lemonade? If so, why isn't water with lemon extract considered unsweetened lemonade?

If water isn't allowed, what does one drink? Everything we drink has water in it.

No water allowed that essentially excludes all beverage. If i could have anything else, i'd go with at least two kilos of fruit and berries per day, preferably melon, cucumber, oranges, cherries, raspberry (any berry actually...), plume, pear, apricot. And the occasional fish.

Pure ethanol. If I'm gonna die of dehydration I might as well have fun doing it.

Have you tried straight everclear? Having only tried a shot once, I'd put this plan closer to torture than fun lol.

Coffee, black. I’m a regular joe and I like my joe regular.

Tea! Any tea.

If you’re being practical tea makes the most sense as it won’t wear down your tooth enamel or stomach lining or put chemicals in you every day like soda and juice etc… I like Cherry Pepsi but if I drank nothing but that I am positive I’d have ulcers and no teeth after a few years.

Exactly! I do love my fruit juices etc but my teeth would be dead in a month or so. With teas you don’t have that problem 😀

Came back to this comment and saw I had put soda and Kroger’s and could not remember what I had meant to put

OK, well I guess if water isn't allowed at all then I'll have to go with the Dehydrated Water canister from Space Quest 1

Unsweetened soda, like Bubly and that French one I can't spell.

Edit: Or coconut water.

I've heard that you should not drink more than 2 coconuts per day, but I don't know the consequences.

Meh I've been drinking a liter a day of the stuff for years with no problems.

I eat a western diet; it's one of the only convenient ways I can get enough potassium.

Liquid Dihydrogen Monoxide with a few crystaline samples of more Dihydrogen Monoxide

My favourite drink after water (which is genuinely my favourite drink) is coffee. I don't think, however, that I would like to only drink coffee, so I suppose I will have to choose tea. Especially if I can have any variant

If I have to choose specifically then I'll say decaf Yorkshire tea.

Duvel, Belgium's premium beer. Duvel translates to Devil, the beer most preferred by Joe Cocker and the reason he wouldn't return to Belgium because it would be the end of him. Looking back he had a point. (1944-2014)

Pedialite. I know some prefer Liquid IV, but I like that I can get Pedialite anywhere and it’s relatively cheap. I give it to my kids instead of juice. They also have popsicles which is great on those super hot days.

Pedialyte popsicles are also the best hangover cure when you can't even hold down water

Coconut water. So refreshing.

And not that weird packaged coconut water sold in the US that smells and tastes like coconut oil. Actual fresh coconut water is the best.

And here’s the thing - feeling too lazy to drink it? Just put it in an IV. All the hydration and none of the effort.

If we're allowing categories, I'd probably go for smoothies. There's enough variety in them that I wouldn't get bored and it's got a good amount of water in it so I won't die.

Coffee. Coffee is my life blood.

I also choose coffee. I will certainly die but I'll die happy.

You and me both brother. You should see the looks I get sipping coffee while mowing the lawn on a hot summer's day.

Apple juice with a good amount of milk.

wtf

Idk whether I am phrasing it wrongly but you just cut some apple, add some sugar and milk and start the mixer and yeah, the juice will be good.

nah not phrasing it wrong i don’t think! i don’t mean to hate. i’ve never heard of that before and would never have thought to add those ingredients together but i’m sure it’s good if made properly

Yeah they are actually good. There are lots of videos on YouTube for making that.

when i was a kid, milk and apple juice were my two favorite drinks, so one time, i mixed them. it was a bad time.

Tea

Agreed, basically what I live off anyhow. But then it is leaf water, so unsure if the rules would allow!

I'd say Coke Zero, but technically this is just a "water with some chemicals in it" goof, and therefore not allowed.

Birch sap is my first thought, but I might get tired of the sweet. Some kind of tea then, maybe rooibos. It's sweet or savoury as the occasion demands.

Rooibos all the way baby. I have a rooibos cambrick every night and green tea every morning.

Birch sap is a great idea, but as a sole drink I think the manganese poisoning might get to you before the sweetness.

TIL that's a thing you have to worry about. It has 52% of your daily value per 100 grams, according to Wikipedia. It looks like we're pretty well adapted to clear excess amounts out, though, so maybe it's fine?

Are we assuming the drink magically has no calories or other negative effects?

I'd choose white wine if it doesn't get me drunk (and as long as it still tastes good and not shitty like alcohol free wine. And also as long as there's no social repercussions from drinking wine all day.)

If the drink keeps all it's normal properties then I'd choose green tea.

Man, it had want to be a HUGE drink! What happens if I run out?!

It has to be refreshing, not too sweet. Because you'd need to drink a lot every day to stay alive, off the top of my head rice water sounds like an ideal drink, I love the flavor and it has less sugar than horchata, you don't want to have to stuff yourself with sugar every day when you're thirsty.
Another possibility is hibiscus water. Again - if I could regulate the sugar levels it would be a way to go.

Some herbal tea. Mint would probably be best. It's what I drink most of the time anyway.

Decaf tea. Though that's just water with a sprinkle of leaves. Not so different from a twist of lemon or a slice of cucumber.

Is aforementioned drink free for life too? Because there's this whiskey distillery just up the road from me and they make a black tea infused whiskey that I wouldn't mind.

Go big or go home, I say. Pappy Van Winkle for the rest of my days.

milk i guess but my breath would stink

Barley Tea. Sure it has water, but what drink doesn't? (Also I feel like my days would be heavily numbered if I don't drink any water for the rest of my life.)

Coca Cola. I love it, but I try not to drink it too much. A nice iced can of Coke every now and then.

Cactus cooler.

It's an orange pineapple carbonated beverage that if you can find is such a happy experience.

I've been drinking brewed cacao (Cacao beans roasted, ground, and brewed like coffee) almost every day lately. So that.

I'll take the large glass of Poison. 1 glass is more than a lifetime supply.

The only thing that is more water than water, Cors light. But now, really I'd prefer to drink my own piss, since coincidentally enough, Cors Light is also one of the few liquid that is more piss than piss.

Tea. There's a lot of room for variation anyway.

My heart says unsweetened black iced tea, but after a bout of kidney stones I guess I'd have to go with an iced herbal tea. Maybe something minty.

Wait what why would unsweetened black iced tea be bad for kidney stones??

Unfortunately black tea is high in oxalate, which in excess amounts can cause calcium-oxalate stones (the most common type of kidney stones). It's recommended that kidney stoners keep their daily oxalate intake below 50mg, and a cup of black tea can have up to 15mg.

Oh man, that's a dilemma. I've had a kidney stone, so I know that they are agony. But I'm English! I can't just not drink tea!

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How different from water does it have to be? Just not in the title?

Because both something like sparkling water and juice are basically water.

But I already pretty much only drink sparkling water so I'll pick that one if it's allowed (if the spirit of your question is "no flat water").

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Bud light. It’s basically alcoholic water.

Maybe truly hard seltzer since it tastes better.

And no "water with a twist of lemon/slice of cucumber" goofs. Water isn't allowed.

No sugar, no proteins?

Tap water has minerals.

Sweet Tea

I already drink it everyday anyway so things wouldn't change much for me.

Monster Ultra Zero. Idgaf about caffeine or aspartame or if it gives you energy or not, I just like how it tastes. I’d love a caffeine-free version that I could drink without worrying about dosage too much, but hey… we all gotta die sometime.

SoBe Citrus Energy. Sadly it's important to find anymore. Nobody seems to distribute it anywhere near northern IL or southern WI anymore.

Probably hydrogen molecules fused with oxygen with another hydrogen

7UP Free but not the new one they've recently changed it to, the proper one. I miss it so much 😭

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Honeybush tea. It's an herbal tea from South Africa that tastes like honey..

If the drink is free, Arizona black and white iced tea. If not, iced coffee with a bit of honey and non dairy creamer

I would say milk, but I'd die pretty fast because I just cannot drink enough milk in a day to count for all the water I need, and the excess calcium/whatever would probably be very bad for me.

Maybe there's a type of non-caffeinated tea that gets the job done? Does that count as being cute?

People need water, this is not going to go well.

Irohas Melon Cream Soda. Long since discontinued Japanese seasonal item from about five years ago. Others come close, none are as good.

Does this drink based magic, by chance, make refined sugars less problematic? I really want to say wild cherry pepsi but I drink a lot over the course of a day and I don't think my body will cope well with that much fructose.

If I want to live to see the age of 50 I think I'll go with cranberry pomegranate tea.

I think the rest of my life would not last long after consuming that one drink... so I'll go for a Lagavullin plx