Starbucks

The Starbucks Frappuccinos are generally too sweet for my liking, so I always tweak the recipe when I place the order. (Yes, I am one of THOSE customers…). Today’s recipe went like this:

Venti green tea Frappuccino, soymilk, light ice, no syrup.

It was good. I accepted the whipped cream on top, which is not—as some might smirk—really a contradiction since I select soymilk not because I am totally lactose intolerant, but because milk makes me drowsy. Ever since my sister informed me that the whipped cream is prepared fresh to order, I have rarely been able to decline!

All in all, today’s recipe was pretty good. To be honest, I do not consider this green tea Frappuccino to be so much a glass of tea as a frozen green confection. I often request extra matcha, but the first time I did that, I was unaware that they use a sweetened matcha powder, not straight-up matcha. This meant that I completely cancelled out my reduction of syrup by amping up the matcha. Now I know that each scoop of matcha contains 25 calories = pretty much sugar calories… Needless to say, doubling the matcha in one of these beverages is going to significantly increase the calories and sweetness as well!

Since I ordered my green shake so late in the day, I did not request any extra matcha whatsoever. Hoping to get some sleep tonight!

I’m not a big fan of Earl Grey on its own, but ordered this with a shot of hazelnut syrup and it was nice! Kind of tasted like marshmallow.

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, MY UK TELEVISION DEBUT IS CURRENTLY AIRING and you can also see it on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HAYf_QJw2g

You can see my fat face from about 6 seconds in on the right. Lordy.

fabulous!!!

so i’ve had this twice already in the last few days & i remember first trying it way back in November (?) at a Barnes & Noble, where i was fortuitously seated near a shelf full of Harney & Sons sachet tins (actually, i’m not so sure it was ‘fortuitous’ since i sat myself…but there weren’t many other options.) it was then that i made my first purchase of their tea: Green tea with Thai flavors (the post-Bangkok era).

as for the frap, it was pretty sweet (not at all a bad thing in my book) so i am always sure to order it without syrup or whipped cream. it’s simply scrumptious and a total dessert and/or meal made with just a few scoops of the powder & prepared hot as a latte with 3/4 water & 1/4 soy milk. freaking delicious. need to try this iced!

I’m in Montreal guys! I immediately got off the very full plane and headed to get this tea. This has become a bit of a habit when I have stopovers in Montreal, which is nearly every summer.

I’m not usually a Starbucks fan, but this is the one treat I allow myself. It’s a nice pick me up after the somewhat long flight. I’ve got about an hour and a half to kill before my flight home. Home, eeee! Even though I’ll only be there for about 7 hours, I’m so excited.

P.S. The paper and presentation I saved for the flights, well I finished the paper within the first hour and got two chapters of studying done for medical evolution. Productivity for the win.

So good.

So sweet.

So good, though.

In other news, I think it might be illegal to eat this much, even in the south.

I wanted something creamy and delicious, but wasn’t in the mood for coffee. This was delicious and really hot the spot for something on the go. YUM!

I just came back from a club meeting and I walked to the copy and mail center to mail my friend her tea and the guy who helped me out told me he was a tea drinker! Yeah I kinda put it in the wrong envelope so he had to open it up and put it in the correct one.
Well since I was just a building away from Starbucks, I decided to do a Starbucks run :)
I’ve actually never gad this tea before. I’ve only ever had the Chai tea latte and the green tea looked… A bit too green and offputting to me? Let it be known, I’ve never had matcha before so the greenest tea I’ve ever had was just any regular old green tea.
But this is actually pretty good! I got it with light whip cuz I didn’t know if a lot of whip would ruin it.
Definitely tastes green, a bit sweet to my liking. Next time I order I’ll probably tweak it up a bit :)

I had another one of these today: grande, soy milk, extra hot with whip. It tasted better in one of the big cream-colored mugs than in a paper cup. Still pretty much a meal replacement. There is definitely not enough caffeine in this concoction, but I do like the level of spices.

There is a big dose of pepper—very obviously—but lots of other stuff as well, including cardamom and ginger, two of my favorite spices. Chocolate Chai Tea Latte is pretty good, if evaluated as a dessert, which is what it really is.

I enjoyed a Tazo Chocolate Tea Latte at Starbucks today. Mine was a grande with soymilk, whipped cream, extra hot. It was quite tasty, with a potent dose of spices, but more of a dessert than a drink. The last time I had one of these, I forgot to request soy milk, and I felt a bit groggy after drinking it. Today’s was much better, although I’m not sure what rating to give it, since it was really a meal replacement beverage, not so much a tea…

We stopped at Starbucks today to get breakfast before the kids’ Kung Fu classes so I decided to try one of these. I got mine with nonfat milk.

I haven’t had chai in what seems like forever and I forgot how enjoyable it can be. This went surprisingly well with my spinach wrap, and after I’d eaten I continued sipping on this contentedly.

I’d only ever had the regular Starbucks chai before, not the chocolate. The chocolate is quite nice. The spices still come through nicely. I got mostly cardamom and some cinnamon, some clove and ginger, not much pepper all, and no anise. That was all fine with me as it’s the cardamom that I really love the most. I wouldn’t have liked this if it had been heavy on the anise. Licorice is a really tricky flavor for me and it has to hit me just right. Most of the time it doesn’t.

If I don’t get coffee at Starbucks next time, I’ll be getting this. I’m also now primed to break out my own chai stash and start cooking.

But this gets extra points because I didn’t have to slave over a hot stove. ;-)

So- I only go to Starbucks when I’m meeting this one friend of mine.

She’s a coworker who was my mentor at work for the past year, and it became our thing, monthly ‘mentor’ sessions that turned into ‘vent’ sessions. I remember when I first started working with her that I felt we were such a terrible fit for each other – I couldn’t do anything right and she just seemed so different from me, so loud and outspoken.

Then my first year ended, that whole official mentor relationship ended…and we still do our meetings and just talk.

So I had this tea yesterday and it was good, but I can’t really tell you much about it because I didn’t drink it with the intent of paying attention to it. It was more sweet than spicy, and I have better chai’s in my cupboard at home. But it was tea, on a cold morning, and I’ll take it.

Always a favorite when at Starbucks

I’ve never tried a chai tea before. I absolutely love it!! It has a very smooth taste with a bite of spices. I am very pleased.

Mmmmm hello Chai! I love you.

This was a morning treat today and it was excellent. No water and extra hot. Delish. Not like the Oprah one… ew.

Please don’t get rid of it Starbucks, you will lose me as a customer.

Another yum. In office days make me splurge. Extra hot, whole milk, no water. I regretted it after I had it though. So much sugar!!!

Mmmm, racked up a free drink with Starbucks and decided to run to Starbucks quickly on my break. Ended up ordering a vente even though I’ll never drink the whole thing (something about it being free I guess.)

Extra Hot, No water.

Simply delicious, although I find as I am eating less and less sugar, that it is a big sweet now for my tastes.

My go to latte. There was a time when I had this daily as part of my morning routine. Then I bought a house and that got expensive. Then I started working from home and had no need to set foot out anywhere. That’s when I bought a Breville Tea Maker and lets just say I’ve saved quite a bit from not buying these. I feel they are pricey for what it is. Standard from Starbucks: water, milk and the syrup they use. Don’t get this confused with the TAZO stuff they sell in cartons in stores. Starbucks get it from concentrate so it’s better. I’ve bought the mix and it’s a watery version, so I ditched the idea of trying to recreate these from home.

My standard is: Tall TAZO Chai latte, Extra Hot, no water, whole milk, easy foam. There was a time when Starbucks use to use whole milk as their standard milk and I prefer the creamy texture it brings. I also don’t shy away from fat in what I eat. Sugar is the thing you need to be leery of (and this drink has plenty in it.)

I had a Venti of this last evening after going to Barnes and Noble. Note* There was a Starbucks in Barnes and Noble, which does not take your loaded card or earn you stars, and there was a Starbucks across the street. I chose the later, nothing against the first, but Starbucks needs to fix this. **I recently realized that I do not receive credit when I buy TWO or MORE drinks on ONE transaction, soooo-ring them up seperately. I bought 4 drinks last night, and that adds up, Starbucks needs to fix this too. I have told them of both of these concerns, and they were very nice and responsive, we shall see if it changes.

This latte was just as described, chocolate and chai mixed together. I personally did not feel that the chocolate was over powering. I thought the combo was well done. Seeing that it was a powder, actually surprised me because the taste did not lend to that at all. I thoroughly enjoyed this latte.

It has been unseasonably cold lately (maybe that should be unreasonably cold). Green Tea Frappe just didn’t seem like the best idea today :( Come on spring. Someone mentioned Chocolate Chai recently so I thought why not? I kind of liked it and kind of not. It starts out heavily nutmeg/allspice? flavored then mid sip the cocoa kicks in. The two flavors don’t exactly mix but I am ok with that. The result is closer to pumpkin pie than many of the pumpkin teas I have tried. My biggest issue is this is just too sweet. This coming from the guy that sweetens everything. It is a concentrate mix so there is no adjusting that the barista can make. I used to buy a can mix at Sam’s Club called Mystic Chai that was just as sweet. I always wished it came unsweetened. Same here. Not gonna replace my frap!

I got this at Starbucks during my lunch break today and was pretty disappointed. The matcha tasted overly seaweedy and artificial to me. Now, I love roasted Japanese green teas that taste slightly seaweedy/fishy in a nice, roasted sort of way. This, however, seemed like a weirdly artificial, overly sweet, fresh seaweed. I’m not sure that this is making any sense, but bottom line, will not be ordering again.