The Carmen Miranda

Remember that Portuguese-Brazilian phenom Carmen Miranda with that big fruit-stuffed thing on her head? Let's pick up on the fruit theme. Starbucks has 3 regularly available fruit syrups. So I shot the moon with them all in a non-fat misto (my very first misto).

One pump each of orange, raspberry, and melon and I really liked it. The orange and raspberry combined to give a subtle chocolate flavor. I'm not sure I picked up the taste of the melon so much. I only wish they had all the flavors from Carmen's headdress. I will order this again, perhaps in a latte next time.

Americano the proper way, and a revelation

Yet another Americano drink. I apologize up front for my obsession. But there is a notable twist with this one. While visiting family in Amherst we popped into a classy-but-hip coffee shop. There I found an unexpected treat. The menu actually listed their preparations as containing ristretto shots. Wow. I seldom find coffee shops that even know what they are, much less advertise them front and center. Naturally with such a uncommon offering I had to go pure yet again and have a ristretto-based Americano with extra room. It was the closest drink I have had to a long black since New Zealand. Awesome. The crema was amazingly dense and about a quarter inch thick and it lasted at least half of the way down.

This experience made me realize that all the fancy extras I've tried this month is not doing it for me as much as I had hoped. The simple joy of this drink was evidence of how good well made coffee can be all on its own.

Iced Chai Latte - Yum & What's your donut month

Yes, I do love the Iced Chai Latte at Starbucks; it's great for taking on a walk or just sitting and enjoying.

Right now, I'm at the Starbucks in the Rockville Town Square. A new place opened next door...Fractured Prune - The Donut Shoppe. The name of the place is based on the original shop's land location in Ocean City MD which was formerly owned by a woman named Prunella who competed in men's sports but was often injured.

Anyway, that's not why I'm writing about it. The shop's hook is that it has different donut glazes and toppings that you can mix-and-match, much like your drink at Starbucks or your favorite coffee shop. I had a Chocolate Covered Cherry donut (a cherry glaze with chocolate chips). It was hot dipped and VERY messy but still strangely intringuing. Like the Starbucks - there are pre-named items like the Resse Cup (Peanut butter glaze and chocolate morsels), French Toast (maple glaze, cinnamon sugar) AND the Creamsicle (orange glaze, powdered sugar!). I wonder - How well would a creamsicle donut go with a creamsicle latte? hmmmm.

If you're instinct tells you that it's only good hot...

you probably should follow that instinct. So, I thought I would try an iced latte with a shot of irish cream....Obviously, this is a classic hot coffee drink (alcoholic and sans alcohol). I thought that since I'm obsessed with testing drinks hot and cold that I would try it as a cold drink. BIG mistake - yuck! A simple drink-completely ruined.

I hate to admit this, but I do keep going back to my black unsweetened ice tea and chai lattes in between these "test" drinks. This experiment is expanding my drink list, but I'm finding that my old standards fit my tastes quite well. I realize now that my taste in black ice tea isn't simple either. I have always been picky about my ice tea. I won't drink just anything and will go out of my way to get the ice tea from some place I know does it well (not bitter and fine without sugar). Perhaps, in a future posting I will go into more detail about what I think of ice teas at different establishments. Perhaps some of the contributors (Sarah? :) with more refined tea tastes could post on some of those as well (hot and cold of course).

For now, I'm going to sit back and enjoy my chai latte from Murky, a local coffee joint in Arlington....mmmmmMurky!

Almond Joy

Yeah, you should try this one. Tall non-fat mocha with one-pump coconut, one-pump almond. I might add a second almond as it was perhaps too subtle. This was more like a Mounds. Quite tasty. I have concluded that the coconut flavor is fairly realistic (at least it tastes a lot like the sweetened coconut you get in the candy bars).

Sweet, but not too sweet

Well, if Eric feels that "people are more evolved and have advanced coffee creativity [than me]," then I must be at the amoeba level of coffee ordering evolution.

For all of grad school, James and I spent countless evenings at the Starbucks near our apartment at the time studying...or avoiding studying. I think I only ever ordered one of two drinks: a tall black ice tea unsweetened or a tall vanilla skim latte. I guess you could call it a simple taste....or dull in comparison to the drinks I hope to begin ordering by the end of this month. In recent months I have "expanded" my repertoire of drinks to include skim chai or vanilla chai lattes (hot and iced). I have a long way to go...

Personally, I'm interested in the drinks the group likes most - especially if it is different by
hot or cold drinks. I'm also looking forward to ordering the drink James was told is a French Vanilla latte (a latte with vanilla and hazelnut syrups) as an iced drink. I wasn't that pleased with it as a hot drink, but I'm 1) determined to see if all baristas will recognize the drink and 2) determined to test all drinks hot and cold.

Tonight, I ordered a tall skim latte with one shot each of vanilla and caramel. I thought it would be too sweet, but I liked it more than a regular vanilla latte. Sweet, but not too sweet.

If it's Sunday...

...it's read the Post with a very large coffee. The paper had a lot of interesting stories today so it took longer than normal. Several items to tell friends about.

The coffee was interesting too. Half-caff Americano as the base (still on that theme) but with 2 toffee-nut pumps and a pump of orange. Yep, Orange. I would not use any more orange than that in this mix as it could have led to orange-soda-meets-coffee-roastiness-unpleasantness. But I did like the overall flavor of the ratio. I tried the toffee-nut from Dan's recommendation. I concur that it has great potential. I think I need to experience a pure toffee-nut cup to fully understand the flavor before blending again. I like where this is heading. I also think an orange and vanilla "creamsicle" combo is worth a try.