MAYBE you like to keep it simple and resist becoming one of those “I’ll have a half-soy non-fat de-caf organic iced vanilla frappuccino extra hot with foam” kind of people. For everyone else, it will soon be pumpkin spice latte day.

 

Excuse me?

The pumpkin spice latte is a seasonal release at High Street global coffee giant Starbucks, described as their "signature espresso and steamed milk, with the celebrated flavour combination of pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove”. Customers are advised to “enjoy it topped with whipped cream and real pumpkin-pie spices”.

 

It’s an autumnal menu addition?

It’s supposed to be, traditionally added on to the menu as the leaves change colour and Halloween seems like it’s just around the corner. This autumn will also see the release of Starbucks’ apple crisp macchiato, offering “layered flavours of apple and brown sugar meld like the filling of a gooey apple pie”.

 

However?

Parts of the UK are still clinging on with white knuckles to ‘summer’, experiencing a mini heatwave that makes one think more of cool drinks than hot toddies. Regardless, the pumpkin spice latte is here already in some Starbucks outlets and if your local branch isn’t offering it yet, then it’s just a matter of days in what is the earliest launch of the annual seasonal drink yet.

 

Other brands are…

…of course, available and coffee stores countrywide will likely soon get in on the flavoured latte act.

 

You know, back in the day, a cup of coffee used to just be a cup of coffee?

Remember the simplicity of that old Nescafe ad where Sharon Maughan knocks Anthony Head's door and says she's just moved in next door and is hosting a dinner party and has run out of coffee, and he gives her his jar of Nescafe Gold Blend? Simpler times.

 

In 2021?

Many take delight in manufacturing coffee orders of such astonishing detail they sound like shopping lists for Sharon Maughan’s dinner party. One went viral earlier this year after the barista said it almost made him “wanna quit my job”. 

 

What did it entail?

The LA barista, Josie Morales, posted online about the order he had received in May, with 13 personal modifications - a revelation that lost him his job. The customer ordered a "venti caramel crunch frappe” with five bananas, and other requests ranging from heavy cream, extra caramel crunch, one pump of honey blend, extra cinnamon dolloped on top, extra whip and seven pumps of dark caramel sauce. Other put-upon baristas then shared their own extravagant order experiences online, revealing the phenomenon is widespread as everyone demands the coffees of their dreams.

 

Coffee can now actually be used to label you?

So it seems. As you indulge in your caffeine allowance, be aware that in US politics in particular, phrases like “latte liberal” get thrown around, saying it applies to"a financially comfortable person who claims to support liberal causes, then acts completely different.”