So you finally get yourself out of bed after hitting the snooze button for the seventeenth time (it would have been eighteen, had your spouse not kicked you in the shin). Then, assuming you haven’t stopped to check your email en-route*, you head straight to the kitchen to ruffle through your tea collection. It’s time to decide what to drink.

And that’s when it happens. That dreaded all-important first decision of the day.

Black or oolong? Hot or iced? Or do I really need a swift caffeine jolt to really get me going , in which case there’s always that trusty pouch of Ethiopian coffee. But then I have to grind the beans, and that’s a bit of a chore. But then again, what’s worse – grinding beans or boiling water? The choices torment – almost mock you, causing you to wonder why you ever woke up in the first place.

Now’s the time to head back to your computer, fire up that browser, and let Google Trends tell you whether its cool or uncool to be drinking iced tea in San Francisco in September. Or whether Oregonians tend to prefer a good oolong to a black.

Here are some screen shots of a few trends I spotted (click the image to see the full report). You can try some of your own (you’re not restricted to only two choices) and drill down by region or month.

1. Coffee vs. Tea

2. Iced vs. Hot

3. Black vs. Oolong

Very cool. Hopefully all this will lead to a happier morning. Unless your shin really hurts. In which case, you’re out of luck. And you also have to decide whether you feel like being trendy or not. Decisions, decisions.

*I confess.

[hat tip]