Beverage

The word drink is primarily a verb, meaning to ingest liquids.

As a noun, it refers to the liquid thus ingested. It is often used in a narrower sense to refer to alcoholic beverages (as both a verb and a noun). Drink is also slang for a body of water, such as an ocean or a water hazard on a golf course (e.g. "He hit that one into the drink."). To drink in is also used metaphorically, as in to drink in the scenery.

A beverage is a drink specifically prepared for human consumption. Beverages almost always largely consist of water. These include:

• Water, from the tap or from a bottle
• Juice (e.g. fruit juices and vegetable juices, which may be fresh or made from a concentrate)
• Soft drinks
  • Aguas frescas
  • Lemonade
  • Orange drink
  • Carbonated drinks (generally called sodas in the Eastern United States, pop in the Midwestern U.S., cokes in the Southern U.S., pop or fizzy drinks in the United Kingdom, and minerals in Ireland), including just carbonated water
    • Cola
    • Ginger ale
    • Irn Bru
    • Root beer, Sarsaparilla
    • Cream soda
    • Dandelion and burdock
  • Squash, a fruit-flavoured syrup diluted with water.
• Sports drinks
• Infusions
  • Coffee
  • Tea
• Dairy drinks, for example milk, yogurt drink, chocolate milk, milkshake, egg nog
  • Almond milk, Horchata
• Alcoholic beverages
• Cocktails - mixed drinks
• Hot beverages, for example coffee, tea, hot chocolate, hot cider, cappuccino
• Pearl milk tea, a.k.a. Bubble Tea, is a Chinese tea drink popular in many parts of the world.

Some substances may either be called food or drink, and accordingly be eaten with a spoon or drunk, depending on solid ingredients in it and on how thick it is, and on preference:

• Soup
• Yogurt

Hot beverages and hot food can cause scalding when drunk or eaten too quickly, and when spilled. See also McDonald's coffee case.

See also

Wikibooks Cookbook has more about this subject:

Beverages

• drinking
• food
• vacuum flask
• List of cocktails