Essay: A New Obsession (or, "The First Hit is On the House.")

OK, so has anyone else out there had the Cinnamon Dolce Latte? I have never been a fan of the hot drink at the Starbucks, but I decided on a cool day to try one after I was sitting at at Barnes and Noble working on my notes for work when the girl came from behind the register with a tray of samples of the CDLs.

"You wanna try our new Lattes? They're really good..." She said to the people three tables over from me.

"Oh, no thanks. We have our drinks already."

"Oh, I know, but this is free, and they're really good....just try it..go ahead."

"Gee, thanks bu-"

"TAKE ONE!"

The people all hurridly grabbed their little paper cups, and as they started to drink them, she told them to stop.

"Wait," she said, "I want us all to do a shot together - let me give one to everyone else first."

The rest of the cafe all looked at one another, pretty much deciding as a group it was better just to take the drinks or get yelled at by the over caffineated woman.

She passed them all around, and after we all had one, stood in front of the cafe entrance, no doubt to make sure she could make sure all of us took our sips, and said, "OK, everyone - on the count of three! ONE! TWO! THREEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

We all drank up, and, to my delight, it was damn good! I started drinking them regularly, then found that the sugar free were slightly better for me, what with me being diabetic and all (Not that ever stopped me from drinking a grande mocha frappucino and ridin out the high....). Two weeks into my new addiction, I was horrifed to find that ALL the local Starbucks ran out of the mix for the sugar free CDLs. HORROR! What was I to do?!? As a compromise, they would offer vanilla CDLs, and had the dolce powder that they would sprinkle on top, but my taste buds would not be decieved....Eventually, I opted to just get the SF vanilla latte, sans powder.

A week and a half later, I found that the Starbucks HAD the SF CDL mix in, so I got one. EW! Too much! Too much! But now I need, I crave the vanilla lattes! I get them all the time. Do I need them? No. Are they good for me? No. But there I sit, at one of five Starbucks in my territory for work, drinkin a latte and working on my shitty laptop for work.

Damn you, Starbucks girl....