Beyond the basic drinks
A personal guide to local festive favorites to try something new this season
Imagine yourself standing in line at a coffee shop on a chilly day, gazing at the flavorful menu items listed without a clue what to purchase. This is the coffee lover’s consistent dilemma: to be daring and try something or stay with the always faithful house coffee or favorite fallback (fill in the blank) drink.
Savory — Several local vendors around Lynchburg sell fall variations of flavored coffees and teas. Photo credit: Amber Tiller
For anyone wanting to go beyond the basic drinks such as the Starbucks Peppermint Mochas and Pumpkin Spice Lattes and be adventurous, here are some local suggestions for branching out.
The White Hart in downtown Lynchburg offers several tempting new drinks.
The White Hart’s flavored lattes can all be purchased for $4.00. The Pumpkin Pie Latte contains hints of hazelnut and nutmeg. Their Caramel Dirty Chai is a chai latte with two shots of espresso and a swirl of caramel sauce. White Hart also offers a House Mocha, called the White Hart Snow.
Another favorite Liberty student haunt, the Muse, does honor the pumpkin cravings of autumn by mixing pumpkin flavor into their chai latte for $3.73, as well as mixing it with vanilla in the Harvest Latte for $3.68.
Also available at the Muse are a spiced white mocha — the Stardust Mocha for $4.49 — and a Wicked Apple Cider for $2.57, which includes caramel, whipped cream and pumpkin.
If perhaps you are not a coffee enthusiast, do not despair of our lovely Lynchburg city and what it has to offer. A few blocks down from the White Hart lies Cao Artisan Chocolates.
Besides chocolate truffles, chocolate cake and chocolate fondue (all made from their hand-crafted chocolate), Cao makes incredible hot cocoa and a European sipping chocolate that comes in several flavors, including Aztec Spice and Lavender, each for $3.50.
Fair warning though: Cao’s sipping chocolate and handmade truffles ranging anywhere from $8-$24 are absolutely irresistible, and you may find yourself out of next semester’s tuition money before you know what hit you.
If you can already feel the shrinking of your wallet and the looming presence of school bills coming in with the cold weather, go grab a cup of locally made apple cider for $1.50 at the Farm Basket on Langhorne Road or a coffee for $1.45 from the Drowsy Poet, located in Givens Books on Lakeside Drive. Either one will cost you less than half of what a fancy Starbucks latte would.
If the weather is too wet or icy to drive in, there’s a practical and convenient solution. Fix yourself a cup of homemade chai, cocoa, or spiced cider from a favorite recipe online.
Picking up the necessary ingredients from an online recipe next time you and your roommate go for a grocery run can make several servings of these seasonal drinks, and can be cheaper in the long run.
As you make it through these last four weeks of class (yes, you read that correctly), keep warm and motivated with a cup of your favorite festive fall beverage.
Delello is a feature reporter.