A slow-steeped custom blend of Starbucks Cold Brew coffee accented with vanilla and topped with a delicate float of house-made vanilla sweet cream that cascades throughout the cup. It’s over-the-top and super-smooth.

If you have a problem with just the cold brew – I might never order just the plain cold brew as it is their black coffee with ice. After Starbucks’ Cold Brew first launched at Starbucks, they talked a big game about how it would be iced coffee but more. It however will taste like a good premium black coffee over ice. Then they started experimenting with, releasing a variety of new Cold Brew versions one of which is the Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew. The vanilla cream adds just the right amount of punch, without stepping all over the flavor of the cold brew underneath.

You should watch your barista make it. The way the cream is splashed in and mixed with a little shake is weirdly magical. The cream seeps into every corner of the drink and just kind of stays mixed in there. Anyways, if you like the taste of coffee with it’s bitterness you will love this. a smooth coffee experience tinged with a some acidity at the tail end. You’re not going to get the harsher, bitter or charred notes that sometimes accompanies their brew. The combination of vanilla and cream also rounded out the citrus-y end note. The coffee flavor is strong and, unlike a lot of their syrup-flavored drinks, it’s very much the star rather than a bit player.

8.5 outta 10 for me!

A delicious caffeinated white chocolate and coffee frozen drink that’s made for hot & humid days like today. I found myself craving a cold beverage at noon and I hopped onto my Zomato app and checked out the frappes available at the nearest Starbucks. I have had almost all but 2 and the other is a green matcha tea frappe so I thought, let’s try this one first. White chocolate Frappuccino® Roast coffee, milk and ice get together for what might be the best thing that happens to you all day. Oh, and there’s whipped cream on top.

What’s in it: Ice, milk, coffee Frappuccino syrup, whipped cream, coffee, white chocolate mocha sauce.
How much caffeine: 65 milligrams for a tall. Mine was a grande.

Ok as I said this is a heaven sent on a hot and humid day. As all cold frappes as but I digress. It isn’t going to be my favourite one from Starbucks but I do want to tell you that if, like me, you do not mind getting your white mocha on once in a while (I’m a sucker for regular milk chocolate and dark chocolate) then you will enjoy this one. It’s got everything going for it.

Once I got it delivered to my apartment I put it in the fridge for a little while. Like 2 hours almost. White chocolate is a popular flavor at Starbucks and shows up in 17 popular drinks. Post a disappointing lunch, I was waiting until I needed a pick me up and then, pausing my work, I went to the fridge to get the cup. And it was well worth the wait. Starbucks uses white chocolate mocha sauce (shortened to white mocha) to make their hot and iced white chocolate drinks. There’s no coffee or caffeine in the white mocha sauce and it tastes like sweet milk, like sweetened condensed milk. It’s an 8.5 outta 10 from me!

Starbuck’s Toffee Nut Crunch Frappuccino -Shots of rich espresso dance together with the heart-warming flavours of buttery toffee, which are delicately balanced by flavours of toasted nuts. The crescendo is a crown of whipped cream peak sprinkled in a sweet, crunchy topping. Blended with milk and ice for the perfect summer sips. This beverage is vegan friendly when enjoyed with oat, almond or soy milk and plant-based whipped cream. Vegan customers are advised to omit the Crunch topping as it contains traces of dairy.

Ok so this is one of the items from the famous coffeeshop chain’s Winter season menu. Although winter isn’t a big thing here – I live in a tropical state – that’s no excuse to not try the winter special drinks from Starbucks. I had planned to get a frappe on Thursday but I pushed it to the weekend since I had a doctor’s appointment and some blood tests set for Friday. So this Sunday afternoon I thought that I would order one of the winter special and this particular drink caught my eye. Ordered it on Swiggy and waited for the 30 minutes it took to have them deliver it to me.

I sat back in my chair and put the drink next to my laptop. Mandatory photo taken, I take my first sip through the straw. A customary swirl of whipped cream is topped with a sprinkle of toffee nut bits – possibly best describable as a crunchy, buttery, a bit nutty and a bold toffee taste. The sprinkled bits add the ‘crunch’ to toffee nut crunch after mixing the concoction. It has a sweet scent of toffee that reminds me of my childhood. Buttery toffee with a light note of nuttiness, blended together with coffee. It wasn’t too cold and also gave me the feeling of cozyness. I got the grande this time and I think going forward I might stick to it. Since I only order like one coffee from Starbucks a month, I usually go for the venti but hey this one was delicious and satisfying. An 8 outta 10.

Cappuccino Fun Facts: Capuccino was invented in Italy. It was first patented by a man named Luigi Bezzera in 1901. It is a derived from the Italian word “cappuccio,” which means “hood.”

• November 8th is National Cappuccino Day.
• During World War II cappuccino machines were improved and many restaurants began serving the beverage.
• In Italy, cappuccino is traditionally consumed once a day with breakfast.
• The top layer of the foam is where you usually encounter the strong flavors giving a special taste to cappuccino. Ginger, cinnamon and cocoa in powder form, are the most popular choices.
• The steamed foam served with cappuccino serves as an insulator and allows the liquid to retain its heat for a longer period of time.
• Cappuccino is rumored to have been named after Marco d’Aviano: a friar who led the resistance to the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683.
• The first use of cappuccino in English is recorded in 1948 in a work about San Francisco.
• In Italy, the average barista is 48 years old.
• Kopi Luwak is considered to be the rarest and most expensive coffee in the world. It is grown in Indonesia, and is about 50 dollars a cup, or 400 dollars a pound.

Congratulations to me! I have now completed 3 weeks without any sugar added. I have also not had any milk or cream added to my coffee in these past 3 weeks. I used to think that this was impossible for me to drink as even if the sugar is less in my cup of coffee I would find it difficult to drink. But all that has changed and now, I do not mind drinking my black coffee without sugar. Some people have said that drinking black coffee without sugar is “Savage” but I say, hey it’s not that bad.

I haven’t even added any stevia to the coffee, even though I bought some and it is lying in my cupboard. I bought the stevia since I thought it might be difficult to get through sugarless coffee but I haven’t added any once. I think I will keep the stevia for coffee that I buy from cafes and I also want to try some iced coffee and iced without sugar and with me adding the stevia to it. That would be interesting to try out. So I am looking at getting some great coffee from Cafe Coffee Day, Costa Coffee & Starbucks but the ones without whipping cream and without sugar added. The cold ones all come with sugar/sweetner mixed so I can’t choose those.

I might not even go back to adding actual sugar to my coffee in the future. Well never say never but I don’t feel that it is necessary anymore. HoweverI do have a sweet tooth and hence I am not ruling it out. Let’s see!

1. Join a rewards program from your favourite coffeeshop chain to get free drinks. Tim Hortons, Starbucks etc have their own reward program either on their app or website, choose a rewards level, start earning points and redeem those points for your favourite beverages, baked goods or food.

2. Look out for discounted cards that any of the coffeeshops have on sale in their website or in store. It’s basically a gift card for less than its face value, and you’ll get more for your money at your coffeeshop. Great way to save some dollars.

3. Or you can make it at home. Indulge in a pumpkin spice latte any time you like with this great do-it-yourself recipe that I had posted here on my blog.

4. Find alternate cafes where they might charge you a little less but the taste will still be the same. Maybe the ingredients aren’t as rich as the ones at the big chains but I bet you they will still taste as delicious if not more.

5. There are several Pumpkin spice flavoured creamers you can buy year round to add to your coffee at home. This list will give you an idea of which ones to buy.

Prompt from 200 Fall Blog Post Ideas That Will Make You Delighted To Be Writing

British coffeehouse chain Costa Coffee has has a small footprint in the Indian landscape and have had an outlet in Lulu Mall located in Cochin since 2015. Overpriced for sure and with a more bitter taste than giants Starbucks or Indian chain Cafe Coffee Day, Costa coffees were something I had only when I went to the mall.

Since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, I have ordered a few coffees and frappes via either Swiggy or Zomato to quench my premium coffee thirst. Usually it is Starbucks or CCD. I think I have only ordered a latte from Costa Coffee once but I have been hearing about their Frostinos line which I had never tried before. Frostinos are a range of creamy iced drinks for utter indulgence. Available in 6 delicious flavours they are sure to be a hit of they already aren’t.

Double Chocolate Cookie, Vanilla Frostino, Coffee Frostino, Caramel Latte Frostino & Strawberry Cream Frostino are other options but the one I chose was the Belgian Chocolate Frostino: Belgian chocolate sauce blended with fresh milk and ice, finished with an extra swirl of sauce and fresh cream. Nice and thick and not too sweet – that was something I liked as it wasn’t an overdose of sugar. It has the bitterness of coffee with some sweetness of the Belgian chocolate. With lots of chocolate chips and cream. It’s really good!