My first pumpkin spice latte of 2023

I’ve heard that you’re meant to include interesting seasonal content on a blog and it doesn’t get much more seasonal than a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte. Everyone knows that as soon as the PSL comes out you’re allowed to start wearing tights and humming Jingle Bells under your breath.

September 1st then, and off we went to the Starbucks drive-thru. I used to believe that my role as ‘parent’ would be pretty much done by the time my kids turned 18, but here they are, now 21 and 28, and neither of them can drive, so anything that involves driving through something is still my parental responsibility.

‘Bee says we can drive through Starbucks tomorrow for pumpkin spice lattes,’ Belle informed me last night.

‘That’s generous of her,’ I said, or something equally sarcastic. In Bee’s defence, I imagine what she actually said was much more along the lines of ‘ask mum if she’ll drive us through Starbucks’ and something got lost in translation. The sarcasm wasn’t even warranted as I didn’t mind at all – who doesn’t like a little autumnal themed Friday evening excursion? I’ve been on a strict budget lately as apparently everything in the world now costs a million pounds, and it turns out that when you do stuff less, it becomes more exciting, so that’s one perk at least of being Quite Poor.*

I picked up baby Joey from nursery, (the ‘baby’ who is now four years old and about to start school and WEAR A TIE of all things), and then Bee from work, and we set off. The seasonal tension in the car was palpable. All talk was of the pumpkin spice. I was ready to pull over and start Googling pumpkin patches so that we could recreate this epic pumpkin based scene.

I’m going to be straight with you here. As excited as I was for the outing and the autumn vibes, I was in two minds about the actual pumpkin spice latte. The last couple of years I’ve found it a little heavy on the spice and not really NICE, which does take the edge of the whole thing. I was putting on a brave face though. A little too brave probably, verging on manic.

What I hadn’t realised though was that they create a new blend every year, (reliably informed by Bee, ex-Starbucks employee), and I have GOOD NEWS! This year they’ve made whoever was in charge of cinnamon have a little sit down instead with a glass of water and the result is delicious! Smooth and pumpkiny. I genuinely enjoyed it and am looking forward to another one. Oh how wonderful to be 45 years old and so easily pleased.

Here I am with my PSL to prove it:

I know it’s not a VERY interesting story but I don’t get out much nowadays what with the budgeting and the perimenopause, and I’ve been happily single for three years now so I haven’t even got that to complain about. At least now I know I can safely add Starbucks to my rota of outings.

The end.

 

*And yes, I know it’s all relative, privilege etc. I’m not that poor, but honestly, being a single parent with four greedy pets, living on one less-than-reliable income is not easy. If you want to buy me my next pumpkin spice latte you can do that here.