You know Christmas is fast approaching when supermarkets start playing Christmas carol muzak over your head, and when they start restocking shelves with red and white candy canes, boxes of Christmas-tree shaped butter shortbread cookies, pictures of winter scenes and reindeer, and Santa Claus.
You also know Christmas is fast approaching when Starbucks rolls out their Peppermint Mocha, Gingerbread Latte and their Toffee Nut Latte in their outlets worldwide.
I've always had a penchant for their (instore) Toffee Nut Latte.
When it started I don't really remember.
But it might have been more than a decade ago when I decided to close off a somewhat confusing year with one of their three signature Christmas lattes.
Since then I've had their Toffee Nut Latte from time to time.
One thing I've never been able to do, however, is to bring to-go cups of this beverage home for Friends and Family,
Doesn't matter that there's an outlet near my home- I've done the calculations- no matter how fast I try, those cups of steaming hot lattes will turn cold by the time I get there.
To be honest it kind of bothered me.
Like, was there no other way?
Was there no other way for a person to enjoy a cup of this seasonal beverage without having to pay an in-person visit to the store?
What if there were a fan who liked this drink but for reasons one way or another could not make their way to the physical store?
What, then, of them?
Were they to be denied the privilege of enjoying a hot Toffee Nut Latte (only once a year) because there wasnt a store close by or that they couldn't make their way to the nearest one?
I know it's peculiar but something never really sat right with me.
But I didn't put much thought into it.
Because, hey, what was I supposed to do?
Write to Starbucks Singapore?
Write to Starbucks Seattle?
Post on their social media page?
So I put it out of my mind.
Then Covid came.
It was one of the most challenging- if not worst- times for the entertainment and the F&B industry.
People who were used to eating out now found themselves having to either eat in open spaces, or at home.
And people who were used to grabbing a cuppa at their favorite coffee place now found themselves having to decide whether to risk catching the virus and make a quick run down, or forgoing the trip out and tossing a pellet into the coffee machine at home.
There were decisions.
Very impromptu ones even.
For two whole years in this country, no one knew just when the Prime Minister would call for a special press conference, and no one knew just what those (new) guidelines would be.
Every press announcement sent F&B Operations scuttling back to their spreadsheets to make (yet another) new set of arrangements for (yet another) new set of dine-in regulations.
It was a very confusing time for just about everybody.
Some days saw groups of five being permitted.
Other days saw that number whacked down to three and two.
Formal large-table restaurants lamented, smaller restaurants grumbled, then everyone got to work rearranging their tables once again to fit the permitted group size within the standard meter-wide spacing in between you and I.
I actually assumed that a place like Starbucks was not going to be affected.
But HQ back in Seattle weren't taking any chances.
Lockdown or no lockdown, no one in the world was going to miss out on their annual offerings of Christmas drinks, so they convened, signed the proposal, and the motions began to roll.
I don't know which month it was they made the decision (maybe they already had this protocol all the while) but Christmas 2020 came, and these little boxes debuted on supermarket shelves for the very first time.
You can imagine my immense delight.
If you happened to be in Cold Storage around Christmas season 2020 and saw someone squealing like a little girl in front of all these pretty red little boxes, that was probably me.
I've bought the Instant versions of the Toffee Nut Latte ever since.
I'll be buying them again this year.
They're a grat reminder (in October!) that the end of year is coming upon us, and we can choose to end the year in quiet pensiveness, or with great (coffee-styled) joy.
It's not only the color of box that I love.
I love the taste, and fragrance of the latte itself too.
Sure, she's not as thick, or rich, as the in-store Toffee Nut Latte that they do, but I love her flavors enough, and I wouldn't mind buying the Gingerbread Latte or the Peppermint Mocha- if they retailed them on supermarket shelves too.