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.

Once Halloween is over, you know what that means... Christmas is around the corner, because apparently no one really cares about Thanksgiving. Or is Thanksgiving simply just forgotten? Instead, we start playing Christmas music and we break out our ugly sweaters.

And Starbucks is no exception to this rule. 'Tis the season, at least that's what they said on November 1, in a promotional email to celebrate the return of the red cups and holiday beverages.

That's right, the Chestnut Praline, Eggnog, Gingerbread and Caramel Brulée lattes are back!

Of course we know Christmas is on the way, but can we actually get through Thanksgiving first before we start singing Christmas carols and enjoy our favorite holiday beverages. Is that simply too much to ask? Does Halloween not deserve a mourning period? No? We're just going to go straight to Christmas, sorry not sorry Thanksgiving, okay cool.

But the excitement towards the red cups and holiday beverages raises a valid question. Do the actual dates of when the seasons start and finish matter? Or does Starbucks actually determine it? Because I'm pretty sure it wasn't fall yet when the Pumpkin Spice Latte came out, but once it did everyone declared it was fall and headed to their nearest pumpkin patch.

We all throw a fit when the stores put their Christmas decor and items up in advance but no one seems to care that Starbucks holiday beverages were available pretty early this year. Because it is certainly it is not winter yet, but somehow it already feels like it. Is this because of the cooling weather here in Southern California? Or is it all because of the beautiful red cups and the wonderful holiday beverages?

Now assuming that you don't live under a rock, you probably have heard of all the flak that Starbucks is getting because of their red cups. Raise your hand if you are completely sick of this nonsense and could care less about being offended by a red cup. Blah blah war on Christmas. Who cares if your cup doesn't have a snowman or a snowflake on it, move on and enjoy your god damn coffee. This "controversy" does not even matter, especially when there are much more serious things going on in our world today.

What's way more important, is how these cups and drinks have an effect on all of us. For some of us, they show us which season it is and even put us in the holiday spirit. Others love to complain about the cups while others don't see the big deal and hardly care at all.

Personally, I have no idea what makes these red cups so special and such a hot topic but they are. When they first came out, there was a Snapchat Geotag dedicated to the "first red cup." Now there are other Starbucks sponsored Geotags promoting the red cups. Also on Twitter, when the hashtag #RedCup or #RedCups is used a little red cup hashflag appears next to it. Plus we all know that social media is filled with pictures of these cups. And yes, I am guilty of posting a few, but I know most of you have too.

Currently Starbucks has a holiday beverage promotion going on: the Keep The Cheer Going card. If you buy a grande holiday espresso beverage you'll get a sticker for your card. When you get five stickers, you get a grande espresso beverage for free! This promotion started on November 16 and will last until Christmas (December 25). Pretty cool right? I don't know about you, but I plan on taking advantage of this!

Besides all of the promotion and controversy over the red cups, let's not forget the most important part of those cups. The yummy goodness that is inside them. So this season, enjoy a holiday beverage with someone you care about and enjoy the good times. Until next time.