Living Life In Canada

The world has been changing so rapidly. It is now March 2025 and I tried all the vegan eggnogs in December 2024. It is still snowing in Ottawa so it’s still winter. I don’t know if these businesses will still have the same drinks next year and thought about not posting this because it’s so late but I still want to showcase these businesses. They may not have eggnog latte’s anymore but they have other seasonal drinks.   The drink that inspired this post was a vegan eggnog latte from Les Moulins La Fayette Hintonburg. This is one of my favourite cafes in Ottawa they have amazing vegan sandwiches and even some vegan bakery items. Until I saw the sign outside last year I didn’t know they had vegan eggnog. I drank this drink for months last year it but I had forgotten about it. They use a house made syrup that I really enjoyed. Since getting a Nespresso frother I haven’t gone out for coffee as much as I used to. I was reminded about the latte from their Instagram post. I really looked f...

  I had stars that were going to expire so I decided to try the new refresher. I have seen some reviews of people that love it and others of people that hate it. It’s often sold out but I was in a location where they had it.  I am not really a fan of pineapple flavours. I like other refreshers from Starbucks and I love passion fruit so thought it might be good. There are options to add coconut milk or lemonade. I always get coconut milk in my coffee but I don’t like it in refreshers and I always like lemonade. The drink at first seemed okay but it had a strange bitter aftertaste after each sip. I am not sure the addition of the lemonade made it like that but my mom and I both didn’t like it. It was drinkable but not something I would order again. I will stick to the the Mango Dragon Fruit refresher as my go to refresher from Starbucks.  Let me know if you have tried it in the comments or on Instagram @livingottawalocal.

This is an update to the post below. I finally tried the sugar cookie latte with almond milk. This is my favourite out of all three that I have tried. I had requested 1 pump of syrup the grande usually comes with 4. It was missing some sweetness but that was my fault I recommend having 3 or 4 pumps of syrup if you try this. The drink was still really good. This is going to be my favourite Starbucks drink while it lasts.    The sugar cookie latte from Starbucks is their first vegan holiday drink. In Canada it comes with Oat Milk and in the US it comes with almond milk in Canada. I don’t like oat milk so I substituted coconut milk.  This drink was good it taste like a perfectly sweetened latte. It has sprinkles on it other than that it didn’t remind me of a cookie at all. I liked it though it had a perfect sweetness to coffee ratio. Since most people will not order their drink with coconut milk I will try it with other plant milk. I tried the sugar cookie latte the way it c...

In a previous post I reviewed the iced apple crisp. Today is a strange weather day it’s sunny and raining at the same time. Cold from the wind and hot from the sun at the same time. It seemed to be a perfect day to try a fall drink released in summer.  I also had stars that were going to expire soon. I would normally order a tall since I was using the stars I got a grande. The only customization I did was request coconut milk. I know it’s not the best for this kind of drink it’s the one I like the most. Otherwise I wanted to try it the way it came.  Previously I had gone shopping with my mom and then decided to walk home. I had a heavy bag of flour to carry on the 1.5 km home. I was hoping that I could sit outside at Starbucks. All the outside tables were taken and inside was efficient with them having a person opening and closing the door and telling you to go pick up your mobile order if it’s there. I’m not comfortable sitting inside anyways but it was definitely an atmosphe...

  There was a time when I drank a Starbucks almost daily. Over the last few years I transitioned to making coffee at home more. The last few months I no longer have to drink coffee daily and only drink it once in awhile as a treat. Sometimes you need a fall drink on a hot summer day to make you feel good.  I knew the Starbucks pumpkin spice latte would be released today August 24. When I was looking to see what variation of drinks are available this year I found they now have Apple Crisp flavoured drinks this year.  I did some research to find out if it is vegan as far as I can tell from the ingredients it is vegan. I also read some reviews that said it’s good for people who find pumpkin spice too sweet. I do find the pumpkin spice to sweet.  The reviews also said the hot version is better than the iced. It’s a really hot day so I went with the iced I also substituted coconut milk. I was looking forward to a spicy apple flavoured drink. The first sip had a really nic...