Halloween snuck up on me this year, as Karin & I had a rare vacation last week hiking around Yosemite. By the way, I think Yosemite may have a park-wide contract with Seattle's Best. I'm not a fan. Anyone want to start a petition to get this national park to carry organic, fair trade coffee instead?

With the arrival of Halloween, we are heading into "specialty drink season" in the coffeehouse business. I think we are trying out two drinks today: a Monster Mocha and a Monster Matcha Mocha. Matcha is the traditional Japanese tea ceremony green tea that is made with crushed leaves that form a dissolving powder instead of leaves to steep. Mixing it with the chocolate creates a kind of chocolate mint flavor. We are employing orange and black sprinkles to dress the drinks up.

If anyone has any favorite seasonal coffee or tea drinks (whether for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas), send your suggestions along and we will think about adding it to our offerings.

Happy Halloween!