The poor woman's latte.

Doing my part to cut back in the wake of the economic crisis, I made a conscious decision to order a cheaper drink at Starbucks today. (Some people hate Starbucks. I personally like it.) I don't go out for coffee every day, but maybe once or twice a week.

Here's the back story: Mr.P is not supposed to have caffeine, it messes with his heart and makes him dizzy. Since I do not want him to experience this, I've agreed to switch to decaf at home. Sure, it tastes the same, but trust me, decaf is not caf. I like the little "pick me up" I get from a good cup of coffee. I'm always consciously aware of the fact that my morning coffee is decaf. You know how some people will set their clocks ahead 10 minutes so that they'll avoid being late? Yeah, that doesn't work for me, because otherwise I stare at the clock and think, "I've still got 10 more minutes." The same with the coffee, my brain can't be tricked into thinking my coffee is caffeinated.

Anyway, so since I am used to drinking 2 cups of decaf in the morning, some days by 2 or 3 PM I need a little pick me up that only caffeine will bring. But in the afternoon I tend to prefer the taste of a latte over more black coffee (too much acid or something..makes my stomach hurt). My latte drink of choice is a triple tall soy latte. It's kind of a crime how much money it costs for said beverage, about $4.40 to be exact. They charge the base price, plus .55 cents for each of the two additional shots of espresso, and then another .40 cents for the soy milk. 12oz of delicious soy coffee goodness...

So today I ordered a venti soy misto. This drink consists of 10oz of brewed coffee, with 10oz of steamed soy milk combined. It is not quite the same taste as a latte, but close. Plus, with the strong brewed coffee it delivers the same amount of caffeine as 3 shots of espresso. The venti soy misto costs exactly half the price of the triple tall soy latte (only $2.20) and you get nearly twice the volume of drink.