Just one day after Halloween, Starbucks traded in its push on pumpkin-flavored everything for an aggressive campaign chock-full of Christmas cheer. The Thayer Street Starbucks unveiled its red Christmas cups on November 1 and began to feature its winter-inspired beverages, such as the Eggnog Latte, the Peppermint Mocha, and the Gingerbread Latte on its chalkboard behind the bar.

The move by the coffee giant has elicited mixed reactions among Brown students. We went out into the field (read: did our homework at the long, communal table probably inspired by those at Le Pain Quotidien) and observed students as they reacted to the snowflake-slathered cups. Some were elated, exclaiming, “OMG, Christmas!” and even “Ugh, I’ve missed these,” while others were very confused. We understand the excitement surrounding this “push on Christmas,” as one of the baristas explained it, but last time we checked, it’s still fall.

Let’s give Starbucks some credit: last year it aggressively brought the red cups back on October 25, a little less than a week before Halloween. The colored leaves were still on the trees, and the apocalyptic, poorly-timed snowstorm had yet to blanket PVD. ‘Bucks gets points for holding off until after Halloween this year, but November 1 is still too soon—Thanksgiving is still weeks away! We’ve complained about this before—as we do about a lot of things—but our complaints are well-founded: it seems as if fall has been written off completely (we’re mostly upset because some of us haven’t even gone apple picking yet). In the meantime, if you’re in winter denial and think this move is ho-ho-horrible, you probably should just to stick to getting an iced coffee.

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Okay, okay, we get it. You’re thrilled that it’s finally fall. The leaves on the trees are changing colors, the air is getting colder, and your favorite treats are returning to all retail locations. Whether you’re craving candy corn or turkey and stuffing, we know that what really excites you: pumpkin-flavored EVERYTHING.

One of the most popular of pumpkin treats is, without a doubt, the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks. Sure, everyone is crazy about these things, but I didn’t know that people are actually insane when it comes to getting their hands on one of these “sweet, spicy, pumpkiny” treats.

This weekend, the Wall Street Journal published an article about the widespread uproar among patrons who were unable to purchase a Pumpkin Spice Latte, as stores had run out of the pumpkin-flavored syrup. A “pumpkin emergency” was declared in Starbucks stores across the United States, and indeed, by the way these customers have reacted to this shortage, one would think that this “emergency” was on par with a global disaster: One customer tweeted that his “world almost ended this morning when the local Starbucks told me they were out of Pumpkin Spice Latte,” and another claimed that he “just left, depressed.” These fanatics described the latte as tasting “like fall,” and “like a sweet, liquid pumpkin pie,” but they need to relax—in reality, there isn’t any actual pumpkin in that $4.50 Grande Latte they’re craving.

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It’s that time of the year again! The ever-generous Starbucks gods have announced the return of Frappuccino Happy Hour! Today through May 13, you can go to Starbucks any time between 3 and 5 p.m., unabashedly order your favorite Frappuccino drank and get it half off! Just because we’re not middle school preteens who exclusively wear sweatpants and Abercrombie jeans doesn’t mean we can’t indulge in a Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino every once in a while. So leave the SciLi stacks and treat yo’self to a venti. After all, it’s reading period and it’s not going to get much better.

Starbucks is temporarily closed because of maintenance issues(!).

Don’t they know we need our caffeine fix? Actually, they do. The baristas have put black coffee, milk, sugar, and cups outside the door, free for your consumption.

If you need a spot to study or fussier, milkier drinks to swallow your coffee, some quick options include: Tealuxe (no coffee, just tea), Bookstore Cafe, Blue Room (which now makes flavored lattes), and Blue State.

Head into Starbucks on Thayer (or anywhere else) tomorrow or Saturday between the hours of 2 and 5 pm to receive a free “Petite” with the purchase of a drink in honor of their 40th anniversary .  These delicious treats range from Carrot Cake Cupcakes to Red Velvet Whoopie Pies to Cake Pops.

Starbucks’s frothy drinks have recently been injected with an extra shot of holiday spirit.  Their merry cups, which originally made an appearance on November 2, are now being filled with Signature Holiday Drinks and accompanied by Christmas music.  Now that 4 p.m. marks sunset, it’s almost time to whip out our fingerless wool gloves and Russian hats.  As we dip our toes in the pool of holiday spirit and Christmas Cheer, Providence is marking the beginning of the holiday season with its own tradition: outdoor ice skating in Kennedy Plaza.

Saturday November 20th marks the opening of Kennedy Plaza’s ice rink.  Head down there any time after 5 pm, rent some skates, and enjoy! If you don’t want to spend your Saturday night ice skating, you can also go on Sunday from 11am to 10pm. Tickets are $6 for adults and an additional $4 for skate rentals, unless you have your own. Even better, the ice skating rink will be holding College Skate Night every Wednesday from 6pm to 10pm for the reduced price of $3 for admission and $3 for skate rentals, according to their website. They must have heard the news about FishCo.

Just remember to check your pride at the rink gate.  Nothing says winter like able-bodied adults sliding on their stomachs across a pool of solid ice.

Before heading downtown, layer up and bring a few extra dollars for some après-skate hot chocolate!  Even if it turns out you don’t have a future as an Olympic figure skater, at least you can cross this off of your Providence bucket list.

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As if you didn’t already have someone constantly telling you what you are.

Hipster.

Starbucks: Prepsters willing to wait in a line 8 men deep for their “signature” drink. It is a complicated combination of sugar, mocha, less milk, more cream that they started ordering in the 7^th grade. When asked about it, they’re quick to respond, “I always get this drink.” Also can be a businessman talking loudly on the phone taking up couch space.

Blue State, Blue Room and more after the jump…

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“Supersize it!”  The familiar cry of the fast-food-craved college student acts as an ever-present reminder of the constantly expanding get-it-now-get-it-huge industry of meals on the go.  Scavenging to procure the most subsistence for her hard-earned dollars, which, needless to say, come few and far between, the undergraduate’s one reliable ally seems only to be the ever increasing volume-to-dollar ratio of food in America.

And then it spread to coffee.  More specifically, Starbucks.   The national chain is test-marketing a new size, “Trenta,” in Tampa and Phoenix.  The Trenta, descriptively named for the Italian word for thirty, represents a new era of coffee drinking.  No longer do we Starbucks-addicts sip politely on our tall (which, according to our barista friends, is Italian for “small”) mocha cappuccinos.  We need our caffeine and we need it in quantities unimaginable by our lightweight predecessors.  During 9 AM Cog Sci, it’s not enough to simply be swimming in the caffeinated liquid.  We must be drowning in our coffee, for each sip makes last night’s trip to Fish Co. somewhat less regrettable.

And so, Starbucks, we speak to you from our humble New England home.  Bring the Trenta to Providence!  Thirty ounces of coffee?  No problem!  That’s just the morning’s demitasse: bring us 40, bring us 50, for we will never get enough of that tasty, warm goodness.

Anyone perusing the selection at the Blue Room, Meeting Street Cafe, or Blue State this school year may have noticed the caramel waffle cookies with the Van Wafels label. As the Herald reported last semester, two Brown students came together to create the cookies and build the company. While the young entrepreneurs told the Herald last semester that their cookies — stroopwafels — are popular in Amsterdam but rare in the states, the trend has now been picked up by a world-wide coffee shop Goliath. The stroopwafel has traveled as far west in Europe as Sevilla, Spain, where every Starbucks offers a product almost identical to the Van Wafels creation:

If Starbucks on Thayer catches wind of the craze, Van Wafels might be in for some heavy competition.