Our mornings are difficult at best, especially during the work week. The unwinding, after dinner part of the day is so far off and the previous day’s unwinding part was often so good that we let it go on a bit later than is good for us. That’s what makes morning a necessary component of the coffee maker part of the day. How anyone can go through the day’s preparation for self and family without resorting to the coffee and its maker is beyond me.

Show me a dissatisfied, frustrated commuter and I’ll show you someone holding a store-bought cup of coffee. As annoying as these people are, try to work up a little sympathy for the poor soul who has groomed, dressed, prepared, traveled to a coffee shop, stood in line (with grumpy people), juggled a hot cup with a newspaper and work papers or whatever, and is now forced to behold the more satisfied people who drank home brewed coffee that surround him.

It’s so much easier to allow the aroma of a brewing cup to accompany the grooming and preparation of the day, to allow the sounds of family to blend with the soothing sounds of coffee dripping into the pot, to allow a few decadent minutes of sitting and sipping before starting off. That’s the way the morning goes when it’s included in the coffee maker part of the day.

Evening time can be a time to enjoy coffee. Many people forget how relaxing a cup of coffee can be. Coffee is more than a morning drink.

And what about the benefits derived from making one’s homecoming an element of the coffee maker part of the day? It’s the empowering part of a frustratingly powerless day at work. You can select exactly the kind of coffee to put into the maker along with the amount. Contrast this with making do with the coffee pot in the break room where the consensus brand of coffee has either run out again or has been sitting for hours scorching on the heating pad. And you pick your own cup instead of using the cheap, disposable one provided by the coffee fund or the dollar store mug you chose to bring to the office because it isn’t nice enough for anyone to steal. And best of all, you and your coffee and your cup settle into whatever chair in the house you feel like using.

It could be the one in front of the TV or the one in the kitchen full of family or the quiet one next to the window in the bedroom. Power is the gift you get from the evening coffee maker part of the day.

Tea is water plus phytochemicals including caffeine, and very little else unless you add a lot of sugar. Both green and black tea come from the same plant, camellia sinensis. To make green tea, the leaves are steamed, rolled and dried. For black tea, the leaves are dried, then fermented and fired.

Both green and black tea contain phytochemicals that have been linked to reduced rates of certain types of cancers. When brewed at normal strength, both contain about half of the caffeine found in a cup of coffee. If caffeine is a concern, de-caffeinated teas are available.

Herbal teas are dried leaves of a wide variety of plants, which you steep in hot water as you would regular tea. They are generally caffeine free. Many claims are made for the phytochemicals found in herbal teas, but all we can safely say is: yes, they do contain phytochemicals, which may be beneficial or harmful, depending on the plant used and the amount you drink. If you have hay fever or other allergies, be aware that herbal teas made from plants in the family you are sensitive to can trigger the same reactions.

Tea appears to be healthful and may contribute phytochemicals to your diet that you would not otherwise get. So enjoy your tea, but remember, what is beneficial in moderation may be harmful in large amounts. That’s true for all foods, not just tea. If you need to drink more than a few cups of a beverage, make it water.