Booked and Busy

coffee. books. shopping. life.

I used to start each day with no less than four shots of espresso. 

If I’m making coffee at home—which had turned into a rarity until recently, I can drink an entire French press full of coffee by myself; every coffee mug I own is at least 15 oz.

I had gotten out of the habit of making coffee at home and gotten into the habit of going through the Starbucks drive thru every day and with that came four shots of Blonde espresso with some kind of flavor and a splash of oatmilk. 

I’m not going to Starbucks anymore, and I haven’t been in a while. 

Instead, I have been finding ways to create my favorite flavors of iced coffee at home, and y’all, I’m definitely a pro at this right now. 

It should be said that questionable politics of their founder and former CEO aside, Starbucks is a sugar dealer. They aren’t selling coffee; they are selling diabetes. 

I had already started paying closer attention to the amount of sugar in their drinks

Y’all. That new holiday gingerbread chai latte drink, as it comes in a grande cup, has 52 grams of sugar. 52 GRAMS OF SUGAR in a 16 oz drink. 

Everybody gon die. I was flabbergasted when I saw that.

It was confirmation of something I read on a Reddit thread: Starbucks isn’t in the coffee business; they are in the sugar business. That information was posted by a barista and confirmed by multiple people who were also current or former baristas. 

They are literally peddling sugar. It’s kind of crazy when you think about it. Every single one of their drinks is based around a ton of sugar in various forms, and people lap that shit up every single day, probably not even fully aware of how much sugar they are ingesting.  

Because I have to keep an eye on my sugar intake, I am hyper-aware of how much sugar is in everything. The higher the number of sugar grams and carbs, the worse my blood sugar spike will be. I’m always looking for ways to minimize the impact of sugar and carbs on my bloodstream. I’ve learned a lot of useful information and helpful hacks by following both Glucose Goddess and Long.Live.Ann on Instagram, and through the genius of the previously mentioned themacrobarista, I’ve figured out ways to have the flavors I want in my coffee drinks without all the carbs and sugar. 

So you should see me doing Girl Math every single day as I  configure my homemade iced coffee drinks. 

Torani has all kinds of sugar-free flavored syrups for coffee (and water as I’ve learned from WaterTok), and I’ve been able to find a good many of them at Smart & Final. 

Those combined with the Califia Farms Oatmilk creamer (they have various flavors. Currently, I’m on the seasonal Caramel Apple Crumble) as well as either the Califia Farms Cold Brew Blonde Roast or the original Califia Farms Iced Coffee make up the perfect iced coffee for me each day. 

I already had the 24 oz iced drink tumblers with straws on deck, so I’m definitely getting two ventis for the price of one grande out of every bottle.

We got Starbucks at home.

I don’t miss Starbucks

I realized the other day that I don’t miss Starbucks at all. Their espresso is actually pretty fucking MID. 

I miss the people. 

The location I frequented is full of friendly baristas who were always happy to see me, remembered my name, and remembered what I like and don’t like with my drink. 

They know I’m a writer, and they always ask me what I’m working on. They tell me the things they have going on outside of that drive thru. We bonded. I tipped heavily, and most times the tip was bigger than the cost of the drink

That said, I miss the days when I used to walk from my house to Javista and sit outside on their patio sipping a delicious latte and reading or writing or just people watching. I crave that experience again, and I am on the hunt for similar places near and around where I live that offer that kind of vibe. 

Until then, I’ll keep making these iced coffees at home and spending the extra money I’m saving on more books.

@thejournalista#stitch with @Susi Storytime #storytime #backintheday #highschoolstories

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Books!

In between writing opinion and commentary columns for everyone, I’ve been on a reading streak. 

I set a goal in late September to read 14 books by year’s end, and I’ve already surpassed that. 

I finished “Demon’s Dream” by elle kayson yesterday, and I have not stopped thinking about it since I finished. It was such a perfect, slow burn romance. 

To be specific, it is an “urban romance,” and it embodied every bit of that label in all the best ways. 

The book is 750 pages, and as one of my favorite Black #booktok girlies, adrienne, said of it in her review, not a word was wasted. We needed all 750 of those pages and then some. 

@thejournalistaDemon's Dream is my latest 5-star read. #booktok #blackbooktok #demonsdream #urbanromance #urbanromancebooks

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I’m so tempted to start it all over again so I can savor it some more. It was that good. 

I started one of elle kayson’s other books last night, and it’s a recommendation from another of my booktok faves, Divine. 

If you know me, you know I love me a sensitive thug; I myself am a sensitive thug, and there are some sensitive ass thugs in these books. Get into it.

Reading is inspiration

All this reading definitely has me in my writing bag. 

In addition to the writing I do for work, I have been sketching out scenes and dialogue and bits and pieces for my own creative writing, and it feels good to have those juices flowing again. 

Writing is supposed to be a daily practice for me, but lately it has been feeling a lot more like work, so I have been finding ways to adjust because I don’t want the one thing I have loved doing my entire life to become a chore I abhor.

Gratitude

Thanksgiving 2023 is one for the books. 

My aunt and uncle hosted at their home in South Central, and I just want to say, I love my Black-ass family. 

I said grace before the meal, and it was short, sweet, Black, and to the point, but it expressed everything I felt in that moment, and it was praised by my family, so I know I did right. That made me feel good too. 

I spent Friday with my mama, and she is every bit my grandmother’s daughter. 

I never realized just how much I look like her until I sat staring at the selfies we took that afternoon. As people in my comments said, I literally stole her entire face. 

I’m grateful we had that time together. We needed it, and it was a beautiful way to end my week. 

Now it’s Sunday, and I’m smoking a joint, writing on my laptop, and listening to October London (which, why didn’t any of you bitches tell me about him?). I’m going to do laundry, some light housekeeping, and prepare/plan for the week ahead.

What y’all doing?

Miscellaneous

• I don’t know what you’ve seen of my writing lately, but here’s some stuff that dropped recently:

  • Cassie sued Diddy, accusing him of, among other things, sexual assault.For theGrio, I wrote about how this should be the opening to the much needed #MeToo reckoning for hip-hop.

  • I also wrote about words that seem to consistently trigger (some) white people. 

  • There was also the one about these ridiculous and toxic dating and relationship conversations.

  • Lori Harvey putting niggas on the clock when she dates them seems to have the Future/Drake/Kevin Samuels hive in a tizzy. 

  • St Louis rapper Sexyy Red seems to be a polarizing topic for some. 

  • Keith Lee showed the world how Atlanta restaurants work, and Black Twitter had a time with it.

  • People who put sugar on their grits confuse me. 

  • I am a candy corn evangelist. 

  • Beyoncé is the most powerful Black woman in the world. 

• Speaking of Diddy, he and Aaron Hall need to be under the jail. I have more to say about this, but I need to gather my thoughts. 

• Watching the varied responses to these lawsuits against Diddy has been interesting. We have a lot of rape apologists among us, that is for sure. 

  • Like, how do you come out and openl say you feel like there should be a time limit before a woman can come forward and tell the story of her assault? What are you afraid is going to come out about you? 

• It’s beyond time for me to take these braids out, but guess what, Stink?

Anyway, I hope y’all have a good Sunday, however that manifests for you.