Awhile back, I tried Starbucks VIA Ready Brew, both dry, and wet, and panned it as Skanka. Well, I’m a bit more open-minded… and since the official launch, I’ve grown quite fond of the little packets of instant coffee. VIA can’t beat fresh brewed coffee, but in places where you can’t get to a Starbucks, like work, camping, or Bradford, PA, VIA works quite well. If you have access to hot water, although it works well in cold water too, then you can set up your very own Office Starbucks coffee Station.

• Go to any Starbucks and pick up a 12-pack of Starbucks Via Ready Brew, I like Columbia, it’s a nice medium roast.
• Ask your barista for 12 short cups. Short is the 8oz cups that they don’t advertise, but have available in abundance.
• Also, ask your barista for the bag of napkins, stir sticks, and sugar packets that come with the Coffee Traveler.
• For $10 (they will give you the cups and goodie pack for free if you are nice about it), you have all the stuff to keep your Starbucks addiction at bay while at work. Life is too short for bad coffee.
• I’m sorry, there is no way to get a badass Starbucks “flower” arrangement like the one I have. It was made by a very talented barista in Buffalo, NY.  I think he only made 3. I’ve had it for a couple years and it has lasted wonderfully.
• If you are able, get a carafe and fill it with hot water and keep it close (the water should stay hot all day), and if you plan on sharing your VIA, you can also get a cold cup from your barista filled with chilly moo, to cream it up.

It was bound to happen…. Starbucks VIA Ready Brew is coffee on the run. Just add hot water for “rich, flavorful Starbucks® coffee in an instant.” Maybe its just me, but I immediately wondered if VIA could be ingested like a BC powder. Well, duh, you can, but would you want to? here are the results…

Part one of the homo-ness that has come to be expected of me and exerted upon my work population, almost per request, is my addiction to overpriced Starbucks items. I understand Starbucks does not neccesarily scream “fag!” but when you have a custom Starbucks flower arrangement, the rest falls into place. Made by someone I knew who combined his servitude to the *bucks with his previous career as a flower arranger, he only made a few of these to auction off. Mine was a “gift.” The Starbucks Advent Calendar just seemed so commercially ridiculous and expensive that I had to have it. I go to a different staff member each day to let them open and take the truffle inside.

Every season the mug of choice changes, and always from Starbucks. The mainstay mug is a 20oz paper cup replica, with my favorite drink recipe scribbled on the side. I had a bright summer mug, but one morning got the best of me before i could get my coffee and the mug shattered. I died a bit on the inside.

Right now, I’m rockin the peppermint shorty. For Christ’s sakes its only 16 ounces small and yet the cafeteria lady still bitches about how it holds a half pot of coffee… I’ve warned her I will break out the 24 ounce if she keeps it up.

Now, if you look closely in that last picture, you notice that the actual coffee I drink? Its from Wilson farms. Its all about apearances, darling.