One rockin' beverage

This is an iced version of the drink I've been enjoying all week: two shots of espresso, over ice, with an equal amount of milk. I call it the Don't-Put-Too-Much-Milk-in-My-Latte Latte*.

A friend I'll call Sally Ann Cavanaugh once shared her Starbucks Shakedown order. She has named it the Poor Man's Iced Latte, and you get one by ordering espresso shots over ice (and thereby paying only for the espresso) and then filling up with milk at the fixin's bar. It's genius, no? Or to quote my favorite VeggieTales song, "I like it. It's sneaky. And it just...might...work!"

What I like most about Sally Ann's scheme is that it gives you control over the amount of milk that infiltrates your espresso. Once the espresso hits ice it dilutes a lot - so adding too much milk just masks the shot. This is fine when the shot wasn't so great to begin with, but if you've got great espresso, you want to taste it.

But back to the ice. ICE! I don't know who's reading from where but people in Chicago are SURLY about the summer weather we had. I think it's because our winter was so long and so totally horrid that we felt entitled to a nice, long, hot summer. Summer was nice and long enough, but not so hot (the Lake is still chilly, I hear) as to thaw people out. Anyway, today it's hot enough for an iced latte (ok, two iced lattes and a doppio this morning - I didn't sleep enough last night!) - a lovely little summer sayonara.


* Bossy coffee orders are so, so played, that said...my all-time favorite comes from someone who might not even recognize it as her own: Don't Stir My Mocha. Sound familiar to any of you?