Spirit of Christmas

One of the girls in our teen group mentioned on Sunday how she likes the red mugs that Starbucks bring out for Christmas. I agree.

Fairplay to the design and marketing team of the coffee chain, they do choose good colours. The promotional boards in the store, the cups for sale, the menu board and the paper cups have a red quality to them which just seems very Christmasy - even in early November. I think I would describe the colour as a deep, warm cranberry hue. The cups for take-out also come with a cardboard sleeve in a complementary mint green colour. Add to that the white lettering and I think I can hear jolly old St Nick on his way for a double espresso pick-me-up.

And along with colour change are a few changes to the menu. On offer this time of year is the return of old favourites: Gingerbread latte, Toffee nut latte, and the Eggnog latte which I experienced last year. New this year is the bizarre Creme Bruleé latte - we all know the dangers of the hot coffee lurking under the milky foam of a latte so I sure hope they don't also take a mini blowtorch to the top of this creation. I'll give it a try anyway and report back.

However, one change I noticed was decidedly against the Christmas spirit. More like Scrooge in fact. The price of drinks have gone up!! (Do red cups really cost that much more?)

As I have some readers from different parts of the world I'd like to do a quick comparison to see if this is another case of Rip Off Ireland. My tall latte cost 3 euro. I make the approximate equivalent to be:

US $4.38
UK £2.12

Forget rising oil prices. I can walk to the coffeehouse. But will I be able to afford a drink when I get there?

Please use this little experiment as an excuse to stop what you are doing right now and go out to Starbucks, bask in its redness and attempt to drink a foul sounding coffee - just make a note of the price of a tall latte while you are there, please.