<p>Getting CLOSER to that time of year when warm drinks sound lovely, but cold drinks have made a decent appearance too at local shops.</p>
<p>Once every couple of weeks I meet a friend at one of the random shops around here. I’m not a huge coffee drinker in general but enjoy some of the coffee “mixes”. </p>
<p>Do you have a coffee house top 3?</p>
<p>My current top 3 choices:
Starbucks Vanilla Bean Frappucino
Local shop’s frozen Matcha (omg, so good!)
Chai Latte (my good old standard, can’t miss drink!)</p>
<p>In the fall, hot apple cider is sure to be in my hand. </p>
<p>If Starbucks offered it all the time, I’d drink their Casa Cielo by the gallon. Unfortunately, their most common brew is that mediocre Pike Place.</p>
<p>Hi five on the chai latte, lilmom. At the Houston Center Starbucks, the baristas know me by name, and my name is “grande non-fat no-water chai.”</p>
<p>They have a concentrated Tazo chai that they use. It’s pretty potent, and they add a splash of water to avoid overspicing the yuppie palate. When I found out about the fact that they dilute the tea, I started asking for no-water so it’d bring out the spices a little more.</p>
<p>So it’s just the liquid chai concentrate and steamed milk; yup.</p>
<p>I go low cal at Starbucks. Green tea shaken lemonade with one splenda and no syrup. I hate their syrup. It adds sooo many hidden calories.
One of the few things I miss about the East coast is DD coffee.
We have it in the supermarket but it isn’t the same.</p>
<p>Almond Joy Mocha latte (have always had it hot but tried it iced for the 1st time last week, yum)</p>
<p>Chocolate Covered Cherry Latte</p>
<p>Iced Chai (they make it with milk and a concentrated mix and add some stuff)</p>
<p>Only drink I ever did not enjoy there was a coffee mixed with the Chai syrup mix - like coffee, like chai, the 2 together was undrinkable (to me).</p>
<p>Lol, I have not tried any of these with exception of Garland’s coffee choice sans Splenda.</p>
<p>I make my K-cup coffee at home in my Keurig, which I love, and we have our coffee delivered monthly to save costs (much too expensive in the grocery store).</p>
<p>I work next door to Starbucks. We actually share a wall where our back rooms adjoin. We joke about putting in a pass-through door.</p>
<p>Grande NON FAT Caramel Macciato – or sometimes a Grande White Mocha. In the summer, late afternoon, TREAT RECEIPT TIME, Mocha Frappachino, no whip. Or perhaps a non fat vanilla latte.</p>
<p>I know this has been said before, and I know I should just suck it up, but as a lover of language, I just can’t get beyond the “tall, venti, grande” concept.</p>
<p>Pick a language, Starbucks. And tall =/= small!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I haven’t found a coffee house I’m crazy about. The Starbucks blend is ok but very caffeinated, I tend to get the shakes with anything but a small.</p>
<p>So I usually carry a homebrewed in the AM, and bring my own tea to work.</p>
<p>Well, shoot, I use the Tazo chai myself! I often buy the 3 pack at Costco and it lasts forever cause yes, it’s potent. I mix mine with skim milk, but they must do something else to it (blend it) that makes it better than when I make mine.</p>