Day 2: The Peppermint Mocha Spectrum

I was very anti-Starbucks for a very long time.  I wanted my beans to come from a local independent coffee shop.  There is a coffee house on Hillsborough Street that I spent a lot of time in during those college and post college years.  I can still smell the place and when I go home, a lot of the same customers are sitting in their same seats.  My husband always got a drink card, sometimes two, in his stocking for his morning iced King latte.

Then we moved away from Raleigh.  While we were anti-Starbucks, we were coffee addicts. Guess what was right near our house? I mean really, guess what is right near anywhere? Actually, there were two of them-one on each end of the block. Starbucks had to become our new favorite. Either that or brew at home.

Starbucks must have a drink formula.  I can order a skinny vanilla latte in any Starbucks anywhere and it tastes exactly the same. At other places the quality of the drink depended on anything from who was working the espresso machine to what time of day you ordered your drink.

What I love about Starbucks is that every year they bust out the holiday drinks:
Gingerbread, Eggnog, and my liquid crack: PEPPERMINT MOCHA.

You can smell it when you walk in the shop with its pretty colors and mugs.  They play music that must do something to make you want to order a pricey drink. You know the sound of the chocolate pump, the frothing milk, the espresso being packed for the brew-tamping for the baristas out there reading this.  Then they give you this chocolate peppermint delight in a beautiful paper cup that is bad for the environment but has a wonderful quote or holiday design and message on it.

I could easily drink three of those divine drinks a day during the holidays.  They remind me of dipping peppermint sticks in hot chocolate. Only they are better than candy canes melting away in microwaved Swiss Miss.  They are thick and evenly smooth as only a Starbucks employee has been trained to serve you.  The problem?  They aren't helpful to the twenty-five pounds and counting I have lost since I started running again.

Peppermint Mochas, like other things in my life these days, come on a spectrum.

At one end: You have a tall (12oz) nonfat peppermint mocha without any whipped cream.  This is 250 calories, which is still a bit much.  At the other end: a VENTI (20oz) whole milk peppermint mocha smothered with whipped cream and little chocolate shavings.  Close your eyes if you don't want to know, but it's 520 calories.  I can visualize every anorexic I've ever known running out the Starbucks pretty glass door right now screaming she gained half a pound just inhaling the air.

So, what to do other than order one of their herbal teas? Pick and choose off their spectrum!  Mess around with your size, your milk, and skip the whipped cream whenever possible. Decide if you want to eat less that day to allow your holiday treat.

My children and I just finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory together.  One of the best descriptions in the book is Charlie eating his birthday chocolate bar.  That is all he gets for his birthday-one chocolate bar.  First, he stares at it for a few days and doesn't touch it.  THEN he peels back one corner and nibbles on the chocolate bit by bit. He only takes enough chocolate each day to let the flavor cover his tongue.  He makes that birthday chocolate last a month.  My children have no clue how good they have it sometimes I swear.

I believe in the "Charlie Approach" when you buy the full blown Peppermint Mocha. Go for a ten mile training run, then order the 520 calorie baby.  Sip on it all day long-and then eat some carrot sticks for dinner.


The season comes just once a year, right?