Christmas season? When isn’t it Christmas season is the better question: the stores start putting their decorations up in September (true story! they started in the end of September this year!) and have their projections made long before Halloween. This means that The Season is now Halloween to New Year’s Day – people will bitch and moan about “how things were different when!” and fight it in their own homes, but it’s already a fact. Besides, who can withstand the marketing machines of American retailers? I know can’t. And I know for a fact that everyone of you out there has at least one Ronco “As Seen On TV” product somewhere in your house right now! I’m even willing to give you 100 to 1 odds that it has got something to do with exercise. We’re all victims of the Marketing Machines – besides, Ronco products make a shit load of sense on the TV shopping channels at 3:30am.
Anyway, I digress – it’s the most wonderful time of the year, o my Bean Heads! The “Sweet Spot” of Starbucks’ product line up has begun. See, after Halloween, the start up their holiday drinks campaign. This means that the Christmas Blend (regular coffee) is back to be brewed in the stores as well as a take-away of whole or ground beans. That’s bully for the regular coffee drink, but that’s gets me going in the mornings.
The Egg Nog Latte is back – this comes around every year and smells great but never has enough egg nog taste in it, so no big thing here. However, there’s also the Gingerbread Latte. This started last year and has returned to us – it’s mostly given flavor by the syrup stuffs, but it still tastes pretty freakin’ good. They also add a bit of real cinnamon and nutmeg to it, so it’s not all artificial. This year they also added something new: the Peppermint Mocha Latte. I think this is taking the place of the Cinnamon Spice Latte of last year, but I’ve seen that in some of the other stores… the Peppermint is just a new thing for them, either way. Tis good too: it’s what’s currently in the Rants mug… got a little bit of zip to it because the Peppermint stuff is sorta different than the usual Mint syrup they use. They also have the Caramel Apple Cider still on the menu board. No caffeine, but it ends up tasting like a caramel apple, so it’s got its benefits!
I warned you people that I was a slave to the Bean, so all of this babble shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone… the fact that I’m a Starbucks shareholder and helping to shamelessly promote a company’s products is a totally different matter!