i finally gave in to the sandwich board outside starbucks yesterday, the bright red one that announced, “christmas drinks are here!”. the larger-than-life pictures of creme brulee frappucino and mint mocha frappucino looked most enticing, but two weeks after the sign appeared i still hadn’t ventured in because not being a great fan of minted whatever, and feeling somewhat dubious about the potential egginess of a creme brulee-flavoured coffee, what i really wanted was a gingerbread latte.

still, i thought i should give the creme brulee a try, for the cause, and so a bit tentatively, i trundled (with pram) up to the counter and ordered one. a small one. just in case.

but because i am not so good with prolonged eye contact, immedately after placing my order i cast my gaze down to the counter… and saw a laminated poster of three christmas drinks. they did have the gingerbread after all.

“oh! you have the gingerbread!” i exclaimed.
“yes,” said the countergirl.
“um. oh. i’ll have that one then. i actually did want the gingerbread.”
“that’s cool. do you still want just a tall one?”

[ i find only one thing ridiculous about starbucks, and it is that the small drink is called “tall”, because apparently an espresso is counted as “short”, so. let’s not even talk about “grande” or “venti”. ]

i was impressed at the quick-thinkingness of the countergirl. there was no reason for her not to think that since i had actually really wanted the gingerbread frappucino, i would now order a bucket of it. but, no, thank you.

however, since i was with child, and had to keep said child away from my whipped cream, and feed her her hot chocolate from a spoon, and sneak some reads of my 50c newspaper, and make sure she wasn’t eating the red crayon there in the sunny starbucks courtyard, i was somewhat distracted, and will no doubt have to return another day and give it another go.