Courtesy of Coffee Bean

I have never felt so passionately about a coffee drink than I have this holiday season. Contrary to my complexion, I do not like PSLs, but I do love all things holiday-adjacent, so I’ve always been determined to find a holiday drink that would fill me with the warm feeling of roasting chestnuts and eating excessive amounts of mashed potatoes.

Since working at the Calle Real Center, I have traded over my affiliation from Starbucks to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and I have never been happier in my life. In my hometown, we didn’t have CB&TL, so I was deprived of my apparent life force: the Espresso Cream Latte. I dare you to try it this holiday season.

The drink has severely depleted my bank account and has probably tripled my caffeine intake, but I can’t get enough of it. It tastes just like liquefied coffee ice cream hand-strained by the gods themselves. I’m not joking with you when I say that if I was stranded on an island and could only have one food item, it would 100 percent be the Espresso Cream Latte.

The drink comes both hot and as the original Ice Blended variety, and it’s perfection either way. A combination of sweet cream and an inviting shot of espresso topped with whipped cream, dark chocolate and crystal coffee bits invigorates my deepest desires.

I assume that after my obsessive raving you’re either completely enamored or repulsed by even the thought of this drink. For your sake, I hope it’s the former and that you get your butt over there ASAP.

Alas, good things must come to an end, and eventually my beverage soulmate will disappear into a corporate recipe book that will haunt me until next holiday season. I demand a petition to make the drink a permanent fixture on their menu. I beg you, Coffee Bean corporate heads, don’t take my sunshine.