Review: McDonald's Coffee

Raidman has been taking the small person to school in the morning since he went back to work. This has been awesome as we are all likelier to get where we need to be ~on time~ if I'm not making extra stops in the morning.

I am one of those people whose friends tell her to show up 15-30min before they actually want her there, so that she might actually be on time for a change. Yes, I know. Everyone hates people like that, me included, and I am working on it, honest! I'm just, uh, easily distra... ooh, a cloud!

See what I mean?

Anyway...One of his special treats to get her moving in the morning is to occasionally stop at McDonald's on the way to school for cinna... somethings (no clue what these things are called).

Well, J's morning chauffeur threw his back out yesterday; actually, he probably hurt it Monday but yesterday pain went from 3 to 8ish. Out of a desire for something more effective than Doan's and Tiger Balm, he is headed to the doc this morning and asked me to take the little one to school.

I am SO not a morning person.

I told her if she would get up, get dressed, and make her own lunch while I showered and dressed we'd hit Mickey D's. Yes, I checked the lunch to make sure it had decent nutritional value, I'm not a total loser mom.

We went to McD's and I grabbed a latte (sure there were/are 3 cups worth of coffee in the ginormous thermos in my purse, but, well, you can never have too much coffee!) which got me her cinna-thingys for free and grabbed the kid a hot cocoa (in Austin 43 & rainy is COLD ;-) That's when it got weird.

"Whole or nonfat milk" whoa. At a McDonald's?!

"Nonfat."

"Flavored syrup? We have vanilla, sugar free vanilla, caramel, and something-else-Dy-has-already-forgotten"

"Umm...SF Vanilla?"

Bizarre drive-thru experience. I guess that just shows that when I ~do~ go to the overpriced coffee places I always go in...

Even with free cinna thingys I spent almost $6 for a large latte and a small hot chocolate. Yea, I coulda had a Starbucks for that. I am not a SB pimp and don't think their coffee is ~all that~ , but it IS consistent. I can order something at any Starbucks and get coffee that tastes the same in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Temple, Conroe, Brenham, or any of the other locations I visit.

The vanilla was... overpowering. Sickly sweet, and I have a sweet tooth that has paid for several dentists' boats. Everything smelled overpoweringly strong. The cinnamon smell was overwhelming in my little bug, the hot cocoa smelled like a chocolate store, it was all just too much. (or maybe it's that I'm weaning myself off the wicked tobacky plant and CAN smell things now...?)

At any rate... The coffee was pretty strong; I had to add some Splenda when I got to work--the vanilla was sweet, but the coffee wasn't, if that makes sense... It was okay, but if I go back it will only be cuz I'm bribing the kid.

Oh, yea -- they do get kudos for knowing what I meant when I asked for a kid-temp on J's hot chocolate. Minuses for not actually giving us a kid temp hot cocoa, but at least the person inside wearing the head set knew what I wanted...

Overall, not bad, probably better if you aren't doing the diet version, but not stellar, and not an experience to repeat unless it's a choice between McDonald's coffee or scary gas station coffee...