chantico: eh

A friend told me I had to RUN NOT WALK down to Starbucks and try this new chocolate drink called Chantico. In no uncertain terms RUN NOT WALK. BEST STUFF EVER she raved.

Chantico is really thick, really rich, hot chocolate. It is basically hot dark chocolate syrup in a 6 oz cup. It is also, according to the Starbucks web site, 390 calories and 21 grams of fat of hot chocolate in a 6oz cup. For $2.75 no less.

400 calories could actually be forgiven if Chantico were to die for, if it were the kind of drink that makes one swoon, the kind of drink that you say OK, I’ll just not eat today and work out extra hard to make up for it. Is it that good? Alas: not so good. Like most things at Starbucks, the theory is good and the execution is least common denominator. Chantico is really dense and rich and sweet and really chocolately; so much so that its difficult to finish even the small cup of it. But the chocolate is boring. Its a single-note chocolate, a boring flat chocolate, an ordinary mediocre chocolate. It makes the Chantico all sweet and all rich and no depth. But then, of course, its Starbucks. No Depth is pretty much the corporate mission statement.

What it really needs is COFFEE.