Starbucks
I love a good Pumpkin Spice Latte as much as the next fall-loving, taste bud-possessing person. There’s simply no drink more satisfying to sip while the fallen leaves crunch beneath the soles of my Ugg boots that the weather finally warrants my wearing.
But it is officially November, and after the long, PSL-filled haze that was October, I’ve grown pumpkin spice-weary. As Halloween fades into a mere memory, Thanksgiving quickly approaches and the ground transforms from piles of leaves into piles of snow, I crave something new.
That’s all about to change on Nov. 12, when Starbucks releases its first new holiday drink in five years: the Chestnut Praline Latte.
The coffee giant has long followed suit with its “holiday classics,” its Gingerbread, Peppermint Mocha and Caramel Brulée lattes making their triumphant annual arrival on the winter menu before I can hang up my Halloween costume. Yet such flavors are forever associated in my subconscious with soothing the December stress of Christmas shopping and finals week. As a result, I’ve long suffered through the coffee no-man’s-land that is November … until now.
This news comes suddenly. Aside from a few generally positive reviews after a test run at select Midwestern locations last year, little is known about this late-autumn newcomer. For us coffee connoisseurs, it’s the closest equivalent to what Beyoncé’s surprise album drop last winter must have been for so many music junkies.
I find myself overwhelmed with questions: Will we casually refer to the drink by abbreviation and hashtag like its pumpkin spice predecessor? Will the CPL actually feature the ingredients it advertises? And, most importantly of all, what could it possibly taste like?
Despite the shadows circling the Chestnut Praline Latte, Starbucks’ storied tradition of perfected seasonal coffee/dessert hybrids is reassurance enough for me. In satisfying my holiday sweet tooth, Starbucks has never steered me wrong. In fact, I often prefer its coffee confections to the sugar cookies and candy canes so many others turn to at this time of the year.
Dunkin’ Donuts, clearly threatened, has released two new seasonal drinks of its own, the snickerdoodle and sugar-cookie lattes, though I imagine they can only be bland and watery in comparison to the gold standard of Starbucks coffee. I refuse to settle.
In the meantime, I wait impatiently for next Wednesday, when I can clutch that signature red cardboard cup and usher in a November with an identity all its own — both pumpkin- and peppermint-free.
