Banana Chocolate Blend Disaster

For those of you who don't know, I frequent Starbucks on a fairly regular basis. They recently built one at our local Smith's Marketplace. Yea! The girls like the chocolate milk and I like the hot cocoa. Because we can't go anywhere without being stopped, we make friends with cashiers and storeworkers fairly easily. (The girls can really turn on the charm.) One of our recent acquaintences/friends is a woman named Marie who works at the new Smith's Marketplace Starbucks. She thinks the girls are fabulous and often gives us free cookies (which the girls don't really like) and the other day she gave us a whole handful of coupons for Starbucks new drink line: The Orange Mango Viviano and Banana Chocolate Viviano. Great! Free Drinks!
I don't like banana's but who doesn't like a wannabe chocolate shake, I asked myself? The girls will most definately drink this drink. Wrong!!!!

Today I used two of the free coupons for the Banana Chocolate Viviano which is a "freshly prepared drink with a whole banana, bittersweet cocoa, 2% milk, whey protein, fiber powder, and ice". Sounds good right? Well, it's not. It has potential, but it was simply not as sweet as the chocolate milk the girls have gotten too accustomed to drinking. We had a viviano revolt--Sophie was the worst. She refused to drink hers and promptly suggested that we turn around and for the chocolate milk. Tears were shed. In order to show her that it was really tasty and she really would like it, I had to drink several sips. I thought I was going to throw up in my mouth. It was all I could do not to gag! Luke warm with banana! How could this get any worse? After a few more sips Esmé proclaimed, "I tried it and I like it!" (Good for you Es! Most of us with better developed taste buds wouldn't feel quite the same way.)


The worst part of this drink debacle was that the lids of the drink we not secure! Three year olds with chocolate banana vivianos with unsturdy lids? D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R! We made it most of the way home with the drink lids still on, but by the time we reached 9th South...Sophie's little voice said, "Mom, I spilled a little bit." "Uh Oh." "How bad is it?" (Not terrible, but not great--just an outfit change--no harm done to the car.) Esmé made it all the way home without the lid coming off. I pulled into the driveway and jumped out of the car and put the "viviyucko" into the drink holder on her door. Mistake! As I was cleaning Sophie up, Esmé kicked her banana chocolate blend out on the driveway. Most normal drinks with sturdy lids would have survived the short fall without any problem--but not this shody product. So, Marie, thanks but no thanks on the new free Viviano drinks. Anyone want our extra coupons?