Literally Latte

Our cafeteria has a little Starbucks kiosk. I'm not quite sure how it works in terms of who, if anyone, is making a profit off it. The prices are really cheap so I'm thinking it's just that we're buying stuff from Starbucks and reselling it here.

My work friend and I decided during lunch that we'd get ourselves some white chocolate lattes as an afternoon snack. Oh let me correct myself, they call them white chocolate raspberry lattes here since they're copying off Dunkin Donuts.

So we headed on down at around 2:45 or so for our treats. We stood around chitchatting with the cateria lady as she made our lattes. She made my friend's first and I realized there was something kind of wrong. It was pink. Bright pink. I asked my friend about that and she said it was probably just the "upper layer". I was doubtful but kept playing along. The lady makes mine and it too is bright pink. Like milk with strawberry Quick. I take a sip and it tastes nice. A sweet milky flavor. A part of my sleep deprived mind is trying to tell me that no matter how much milk or raspberry syrup you put in coffee it will NOT turn out bright pink. But I was so tired that I was willing to suspend disbelief so that I could enjoy my long awaited treat. Once we get away from the lady's earshot I tell my friend my suspicions that she didn't put any coffee in our lattes. My friend thinks she saw her putting it in. I didn't press it further but when we got off the elevator I took a detour to our coffee station and made a cup of coffee and brought an empty cup with me. When I got back to my office I combined the two and sure enough I got the trusty brownish color I was looking for all along.

Now here's what it says on the Starbucks site:
"A delightfully sweet, creamy combination of coffee, milk and white chocolate syrup, blended with ice and topped with whipped cream (optional)."

Ok, I know that the word "latte" means milk in Italian, but in English it means "strong espresso coffee with a topping of frothed steamed milk" (from www.dictionary.com). Has anyone else ever had a latte without the coffee??

Only my company would offer Starbucks without the coffee . . .