forget about pumpkin spice

You know the pumpkin spice craze has gone a little too far when there are pumpkin spice Oreos and pumpkin spice condoms.

Nabisco hopping on the pumpkin spice bandwagon

what next? cranberry flavored with UTI protection? (you heard it here first!)

Enough, already. I've had it with the pumpkin spice craze, and don't need to be a sucker for Starbucks' or anyone else's marketing. Fall is in the crisp, cooler air, not in an overpriced, fattening coffee drink. A venti (20 oz.) Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte has 470 calories, 140 calories from fat, and contains no pumpkin whatsoever. Several years ago, a friend who worked at Starbucks had a large jug of the pumpkin spice. It was pasty, processed and orangey-brown-- disgusting. I deserve a better fall coffee drink. We all do.

The other day I discovered Marley Coffee beans, and this morning was thinking of having a cup with a little brown sugar. Sadly, I didn't have any brown sugar, but I did have molasses. So I added a little molasses and milk. Voila, the solution for a fall coffee drink that doesn't include the words pumpkin or spice. A tablespoon of molasses has 58 calories, and there are 31 calories in a quarter cup of 2% milk. If I wanted to get fancy, I could easily make it into a latte using my trusty Bodum milk frother. Would I sprinkle the top with pumpkin spice? Probably not, but maybe some good cocoa powder. Such a rebel!

So there you have it, Marley Coffee with molasses and milk. Something a little different, with an equally rich but far less obvious fall flavor. Now why didn't Starbucks think of that?