Excavations of Claymore: Caramello

After a fortnight of coffee overkill, I opted for the caffeine-free caramel steamer this week. I was pleasantly - no, fabulously - surprised. I expected it to taste rather bland (as hot milk tends to after much nomming of espresso), but at the suggestion of the bar-dude I got like five flavor shots in it and it was anything but bland, while simultaneously keeping its distance from that sketchy realm of sickly-sweet.

It was a happy drink. You can create any number of complicated flavor ratios at a ghetto basement coffee joint like Claymore, but in the end sometimes the pure and simple things are the most delicious.

The Caramello was like a flashback to the best Halloween you ever had without actually containing small children as an ingredient (which new Hershey's commercials unmask as the secret to Hershey's goodness. Yes, you've seen them on TV. The chocolate bar melts to reveal small children dancing while singing "I'll stop the world and melt with you..." And then they turn back into a solid chocolate bar, which viewers are now expected to leave the comfort of their sofas to go purchase. Sick, I tell you.)

So, back to the Caramello. Five stars, hands down. Go try one today.