Star Bucks

by Megan Laser

And alas, the holidays are over and baristas around the world are able to take a breath and mumble the words “we did it.” January is rumored to the month where business really slows down and baristas, like myself, are able to finally settle down after the crazy workloads that the holidays brought. But even with business slowing down, Starbucks will always have new drinks, ready and available for you to enjoy.

BWM (Black and White Mocha)

The BWM, also known as the Zebra Mocha, is a common drink where you have a mixture of regular mocha sauce and white chocolate mocha sauce. The drink can be made as either an espresso drink or hot chocolate, filled to the top with steamed milk and topped off with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles. The drink can also come as either an iced drink or a blended frappuccino but nevertheless provides us with that same chocolatey taste that we didn’t realize we were craving all winter.

In my personal experience, the mocha at Starbucks has proven to be too chocolatey and too sweet for my liking. Even with drinks like the Peppermint Mocha, I always felt that the chocolatey taste from mocha was overwhelming. So if I were to customize the drink to my personal experience, I’d take it down a notch with the number of mocha pumps, and increase the amount of white chocolate sauce in the drink. And as always, whipped cream is a no for me.

Rate: 6/10

CSL (Cinnamon Shortbread Latte)

The CSL is a new drink that was released sometime earlier in the month of Jan. It’s made with a shortbread syrup and espresso, filled with steamed milk and topped off with nutmeg and cinnamon powder. This can come as both an iced or blended drink, and even as a hot chocolate.

Yet to try

Now that I’ve gone over the brand new drinks, let’s talk about a few fan favorites.

Honey Citrus Mint Tea

Also known as the cold buster or sick tea, this brewed green tea comes with one tea bag of Jade Citrus Mint tea and another teabag of Peach Tranquility tea. Inside, some customers add either more or less, but the drink comes with two packets of honey, hot water filled ¾ of the way up, and the last quarter is filled with steamed lemonade. This is a very popular drink come winter, due to the fact winter is commonly associated with the term flu season.

Personally, this is probably my favorite tea ever. Drinking sick tea for me always somehow made my throat tickle, even if I wasn’t sick. It made me feel like I was genuinely feeling better, even if the ingredients inside didn’t really do much for me with that. The citrusy flavoring from the lemonade really stands out compared to if this drink were to have just been made with hot water. This is probably one of my favorite drinks, but I strongly recommend it.

Rate: 100/10