Ironraven & Mr. Badger,

If you look at my original post, the comparison is between hot coffee/tea & cold soda/juice, the inference being that soda/juice is full of sugar (calories), and coffee/tea is not.

The heat in this case is the energy provided by the calories, not the actual temperature of the liquid. I believe the example given in the article states that the human body is made up of 15 liters of water, if you dump one liter of water heated to the normal temp of coffee or tea, it will only raise the temp of the bodies fluid by 3/10 of one degree.

I fully agree that all things being equal if the choice is b/t a hot beverage or a cold one, in cold weather the hot one always wins out.