Coffee habits and the first blast of autumn

The blustery weather inspired me to pick up a hot coffee at the corporate coffee entity that’s on my daily commute. Venti latte, please.

I asked the guy at the window if coffee sales were up now that the weather was turning, and he said things were mixed: Any gains at the drive-up were countered by fewer walk-ups.

But customers were buying their favorite drinks whether it suited the weather or not. One particular customer, for example, was still buying his daily, 6 a.m. iced caramel frappuccino, same as always.

A large man, perchance? Well, yes.

But Starbucks reports that since the chain started using 2 percent milk as the default dairy product in its drinks, waistlines have decreased ever so slightly. Starbucks estimates it saved customers 17 billion calories by swapping 2 percent milk for whole just in the first five months after making the change, and it’ll save us all nearly 5 million pounds of fat annually moving forward.

No, I have no idea how they arrived at those numbers.

Starbucks is stocking the new Wilco CD, by the way (see previous post), although most locally owned record stores have it too, and without any fat content whatsoever.