Why This Is My Go-To Starbucks Holiday Drink Order Year After Year

Although I live in New York City, where I am legally mandated to wear black, walk fast, and grouse about my own highly specific notions about what businesses do and do not rightfully vibe in the five boroughs, I do bend the rules now and again. My closet is secretly full of sequins. I once slowed to stroll in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. And there are certain times of year when I cannot seem to resist the siren song of the Starbucks mermaid and must order one of the coffee chain's signature holiday drinks.

The winter holidays ring in my own personal Starbucks season, and the peppermint mocha signals its arrival. Although the titular flavor combination (a mocha with peppermint syrup) is literally available year-round, the green behemoth actually has the nerve to count it among its annual lineup. This is, ironically, more aligned with the NYC, fake-it-til-you-make-it spirit than any other purportedly limited chain offering that comes to mind. And maybe my consumer spending habits are as Pavlovian as anyone's, but something about the marriage of the least artisanal ingredients that I might consume all year just feels like the exact right Q4 pour. At least in the N/A category.

In the verbose tome "In Search of Lost Time," Marcel Proust's unnamed narrator dips a cookie in some tea and just dissolves into nostalgia that would, today, perhaps be parlayed into some corporate fast food chain collaboration. In 1913, the whole bit was allowed to exist just as good copy, and it's endured as an example of how culinary experiences do tap into moments past as though they are unfolding once more, perhaps with the renewed appreciation of hindsight.

Now, my fondness of Starbucks in general is pretty much limited to some pretty niche former cases of nostalgia that would be pointless to detail here, save for this one, perfect holiday drink — this peppermint mocha. I even order it like an idiot: fat-free milk, with whip, that I feel inclined to intone with embarrassment, even as all in the brand's employ have certainly heard worse.

Prepared behind the shop's gleaming, commercial-grade equipment, the quickly dissolving N2O-charged cream, replete with waxy aftertaste, the presence of peppermint that mostly just registers as conceptually cold, and the always at least a little grainy chocolate make for the perfect holiday sip. The minty mocha makes me want to high-kick my way over to Radio City Music Hall, wait all day for a parade, and toast to the unique and fleeting celebrations in my own backyard that can be kind of replicated almost anywhere in the world, but, instead, are best enjoyed during the most wonderful time of the year.