Caramel Macchiato

Today I had a caramel macchiato.

I was provoked into a Starbucks trip, and I have mixed feelings about Starbucks.  On the one hand, they have a shiny app for the iPhone, and this alone renders me as wide-eyed and senseless as the lobotomized version of Babydoll at the end of Sucker Punch.  Besides doing a whole bunch of neat stuff from store locating to general tag scanning, the app stores your registered Starbucks gift cards so you can have the barista scan your phone like a pretentious yuppie, which I rather enjoy.  The whole franchise is actually fairly shiny and fun, which makes me pay a lot more for a cup of coffee than I ordinarily would like.

On the other hand, all I drink is black coffee and straight tea, which is a lot cheaper if I just brew it at home.  So, whenever I go to Starbucks, I feel some pressure to get a fancy drink in order to make the trip make sense, except that's illogical because I'm spending even more money to get something I don't like very much.  Ingredients are generally not meant to be mixed.

Did I mention I dislike caramel?  Part of my dislike of caramel is the confusion over its pronunciation, but mostly it's the fact that I actually don't like the taste.  Or the stickiness.

Anyway, today's trip was one where I felt extra pressure to get a fancy drink, because I wasn't meeting anyone with whom I do not live.  We were actively leaving the house to go purchase caffeinated beverages, when we possess a Keurig with many K-cups, and a tea kettle with two fancy boxes full of tea.  The caramel macchiato was at, or near, the top left of the fancy-drinks list, but that's not why I chose it.  I chose it because it is mentioned in a song that is in the movie Sweet Home Alabama, starring Reese Witherspoon, and I love Reese Witherspoon.  So that's what I ordered.

Have you ever had one of these?  It tastes like being in an airport.  Or perhaps on an airplane, definitely a flight where the sun is up but you still have the scratchy blue blanket and white pillow.  This is not altogether unpleasant, but I never want to drink another.