A few weeks ago I walked into a coffee shop and asked for my usual order – Rosemary Lavender Iced Latte, please.
Normally I’m a make-it-at-home, french press, drink-it-black kinda girl, but in my (infrequent) coffee shop stops, I order a latte with no added flavors, usually they are too sweet for my taste. However, when I was visiting from Alaska, a few years back, I discovered Coffee Cottage’s Rosemary-Lavender syrup was exactly right for me, and I’ve ordered it every time I’ve had occasion since. Apparently those occasions have always been in the summer…..
We don’t have that anymore, said the girl at the counter. We have Cardamon-Clove.
Wait, What?!?
I looked back out the door that I’d just walked through — hot temperatures and a smoky haze on the other side(wildfires were burning across the state). I looked down – short sleeves and sandal feet. I looked across the counter at the girl who stood waiting for my order.
Who decided it was fall?!?
It had been an upside down, spin-me-around summer, full of challenge and heartache, but day after day after day I woke to warm, blue-sky sunshine, for which I was very glad. When things are hard, I prefer sunshine and rosemary-lavender.
It is true, I wasn’t looking forward to the clouds and rain that I know come with a typical Oregon fall, but my boys wouldn’t be back in school for a couple more weeks, and it would be hopefully longer still till the fall rains set in. I was not thinking about fall at all. Until, here I was suddenly and unexpectedly confronted with a fact of the changing season.
Change the flavor, change the season.
I felt the weight of choice. I had stopped at the coffee shop on my way to the coast. I’d come in specifically for the Rosemary-Lavender, I didn’t actually care about the coffee at that moment. I could walk away. Or I could order a regular iced latte and go back out to the car and carry on, though not with the taste of summer, I’d imagined. Or…..
Yeah. Okay. Cardamom – Clove. I’ll try.
Iced? or hot? she wanted to know.
Oh my goodness, I said. There’s more?
I chose hot.
And slid sideways into fall.
I went looking for a picture for this post and came up with this shot of my coffee date(s) – his brother over there in the book stacks – that summer I discovered the Coffee Cottage Rosemary-Lavendar : 2016.
