A cookie is a sometimes food

And according to the coffee shop in the subway station I frequent twice daily, doughnuts are "America'a perfect anytime treat!" Disturbing...

Although not a fan of the reformed Cookie Monster, like most working Americans I can't really function with out my morning cup o' joe. But with all the coffee shops springing up around the country (even though Starbucks will be closing 600 of theirs in the metro Boston area) come even more ways to name the beverage. Sometimes, if I haven't said at least eight descriptive phrases I feel as though I've forgotten to specify part of my order.

As a Bostonian, the most ubiquitous coffee joint is DDs, a.k.a. Dunkin Donuts, or just Dunkin. America runs on Dunkin, but Boston would shrivel up and die without it. Regular "coffee", even "iced coffee" seems like it should be simple enough to order but now every morning I'm presented with a barrage of questions:

"Cream and sugar?"
"Just milk, please"

"Milk? Skim Milk?"
"Uh, skim, I guess"

"Equal? Sweet and Low? Splenda?"
"Splenda?"

"How many?"
"Two? Is that the right answer? Do I win?"

Trying to remember this fast-paced verbal duet has taken some time. But after 7 months of living here, I can finally walk in and order a "Medium iced coffee with skim milk and two splenda. Please." Now that I've conquered this first round of questioning, they bring up more possibilities.

"Would you like to add flavor?"

WHAT!? Sure enough, Dunkin has no fewer than nine flavors you can add to your coffee, for free! And, I recently discovered, you can mix up to three flavors. This means there are

flavor possibilities at my fingertips. And what better way to document my thoughts and feelings on these flavors than to share them with the internet. Don't get too excited (or groan)... I will only be starting with the original nine flavors:

Look forward to the first flavor's report sometime next week: Blueberry...