Christmastime at Starbucks

It certainly doesn't feel like the holidays until I've ordered a holiday beverage from Starbucks. This year, Starbucks unveiled their holiday cups and beverages on November 2, just about a week earlier than last year. So by this notion, does that mean the holiday season officially starts in November now? Cool. I'm down with this.

Surprise, surprise all your favorite holiday beverages are back this year! Starbucks is currently offering: Chestnut Praline Latte, Caramel Brulée Latte, Peppermint Mocha Latte, Toasted White Chocolate Mocha Latte, Eggnog Latte, Gingerbread Latte and Snickerdoodle Hot Chocolate. Like always, you can get any of those drinks hot, iced, or as a frappuccino. However, I'm not too sure how the Snickerdoodle Hot Chocolate would be cold.

To celebrate the release of the holiday beverages and to kick off the holiday season, Starbucks gave away a free red reusable cup to anyone who purchased a holiday beverage on November 2. As you can suspect, every store ran out of these cups within two hours of starting the promotion.

Anyone who received the red cup and brings it back to Starbucks to use and order a holiday beverage will receive 50 cents off their purchase. This promotion will be going on up until the New Year. Also, the 50 cent discount off the holiday beverage with the red cup is only good after 2PM. But if you still bring in a cup to reuse before 2 PM, you still will get 10 cents off your purchase.

If you missed out on the promotion, Starbucks has holiday themed reusable cups that you can purchase. But instead of the 50 cent discount, you will most likely receive the standard 10 cent discount. Unless you can find the exact cup that was given out for free then maybe some baristas will honor the discount. The reusable cups make a great gift for your coffee loving friends and family members this holiday season.

A new beverage was just added to the menu this past week, the Juniper Latte. The latte has a pine-like flavor, with delightful citrus overtones. If you're interested in a more savory latte this holiday beverage might be for you. But for me, it's gonna be a no. I think I'm going to stick with my favorite, the Chestnut Praline Latte.

Also going on right now is the Starbucks For Life Game! If you go to the website Starbucks For Life and login, you will see an amount of game pieces. Every time you make a purchase with your Starbucks card you earn a game piece. But there is a cap at only earning two pieces per day. Each piece will have some sort of token that can fall into one of the following prizes: Starbucks for Life, Starbucks for a Year, Starbucks for Six Months, Starbucks for Three Months, Starbucks for a Month, 1000 Bonus Stars, 500 Bonus Stars, 250 Bonus Stars, and 125 Bonus Stars. Each prize has three slots, get all three tokens for one of the prizes and you win! If you get three duplicate tokens that will turn into one new play. If you're lucky, one token might be an instant win prize! Instant prizes could be anything from a coupon for a free tumbler/mug to a free pastry.

And there you have it! Good luck to everyone playing Starbucks for Life this year, may we all win something! Now you tell me, did you get lucky and get one of the free reusable cups from Starbucks this year? What holiday beverage from Starbucks is your favorite? Let me know! Until tomorrow.