Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte

The Pumpkin Spice Latte has returned to Starbucks. The seasonal drink only appears during the fall, and apparently there are people who wait on tenterhooks for it to arrive. Some of these people are celebrities who hang out on Twitter, and who tweet frantically back and forth to each other about whether the PSL has arrived, and if not, when will it, and why can't they get it early since they're all famous and everything? (This would be Mikey Way and Pete Wentz, if anyone cares.)

Unfortunately, I don't really get the Pumpkin Spice Latte Love. It's not a bad drink, with a nice balance of nutmeg and ginger, but it doesn't do much for me. It's too sweet, for starters, and for enders, it's too expensive, especially with the recent price hikes at Starbucks. If I'm going to toss out over four dollars for a Venti, I'll stick with my Venti Caramel Macchiato.

New Starbucks Cups

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a Starbucks fan. Recently, they've come out with two new reusable cups that I really like. (Yes, I'm that pathetic. I'm writing about the CUPS.)

The first is a reusable hot beverage cup. It's easy to use, with a twist-top instead of the flip-tops that are so hard to keep clean. It's also the first reusable cup that they've made in a Venti (as far as I know, anyway, and the barrista at my local Starbucks backed this up). I love my twice-weekly Starbucks fix, but I always feel a little guilty at the waste of the reusable cups. But I also wanted my Venti, and the cups only went to a Grande size. So this was an exciting find. Which should tell you something about the relative level of excitement in my life as a whole.

The other new cup is a reusable cup for cold beverages. With a two-layer, insulated design, this cup looks exactly like the disposable cold beverage cups. The straw is made so it won't fall out of the top of the cup, and it, too, comes in Tall, Grande and Venti sizes.

Starbucks Via

A few months ago, Starbucks ventured into the world of instant coffee. This would seem to fly in the face of everything Starbucks stands for. After all, the quintessential coffeehouse experience involves slow, loving coffee production, ensuring just the right amount of foam on your latte, and a relaxed drinking experience. Instant coffee? That's for people who don't really appreciate the complexity of the coffee experience.

At least it might seem that way for those of us for whom instant coffee means Sanka or Nescafe. Let's face it--that stuff really isn't worth of the name "coffee."

Starbucks Via totally is.

Via is packaged in single-serving portions, 12 to a box. For $9.95 a box, this might seem steep, but that's less than a dollar per cup for coffee that's frankly pretty damn good. The coffee inside isn't the weird, styrofoam-like pellets of many instant coffees, but is "soluble, microground" coffee. It looks like actual coffee grounds, but much finer even than espresso. It dissolves easily in hot water, not leaving lumps like flavored instant coffees (think General Foods International Coffees). Just heat up your water, pour in your coffee and stir, and you've got a cup of java just about as good as the regular drip at Starbucks.