I found the Equal! (yes affected by my flash again!)
So before I tell you where I found Equal…what did I win for finding it?!
I have been noticing a lot of bloggers have been searching restaurants and coffee shops, high and wide, in the search for Equal Sweetener, but the majority of bloggers could not find equal in their chosen institutions.
Now my Aunts and my mother both believe that if you can’t find something, then put me on the job and I will find it….it may take some time, but I will find it. The most recent thing I’ve found (ironically) are sugar tongs….don’t know what those are? Remember in the days of tea parties, there were mini-tongs to pick up sugar cubes? My Mom was in search of one. I found two – one more modern one with a hinge and a silver antique one. So I don’t want to blow my horn, but ask me to find something and ta-dah you will have it in a matter of months or less!
That’s one reason I took this – because I’m resourceful (seriously – I’m not blowing my own horn, I really am!….most of the time), and because if anyone could find Equal, I could.
It is an interesting task though, because I’ve been trying to change my diet for the last few years to become healthier and healthier – and I only use honey as a sweetener (except when I bake). I personally am a little scared of aspartame, but as someone said to me today, everything is carcinogenic in the end, how anal are you going to be about it? Well, for me, pretty anal. That’s because a lot of what’s wrong with me is due to my diet – and yes, I did an elimination diet to figure this out a few years ago……
Anyways, onto my Equal finding story….
This week was incredibly busy, so I happened to mention to my friend Aeryn that I needed a partner in crime to go searching for Equal. We decided we’d try looking in Starbucks locations – a lot of bloggers had previously done Tim Hortons and had not found Equal – so I upgraded the coffee shop to Starbucks….(guess which one I’m slightly addicted to).
Now, while I was at work, looking forward to our coffee date, Aeryn made her way to a Starbucks location at St Claire and Keele….and decided to look for Equal there for me. She even took photos of the area with the milk and sweeteners for me to see. There was NO EQUAL. So, disappointed, she left and texted me that there was no Equal at the Starbucks she went to. My hopes were dropping fast, but if nothing else, at least I’d have a coffee date with a good friend.
At Starbucks Yonge & Finch (sorry my flash killed the photo) - Equal in the right-most cubby!
So later that day, I met Aeryn at the Starbucks near my apartment, the one at Yonge & Finch. I walked in and, even though I didn’t expect to see anything, headed straight for the area with the milk and sweeteners to check to see if they had Equal. They had it! I was actually very impressed with their sweetener offerings, because I’ve never seen such a varied spread. If they add stevia based sweeteners to the mix, then I believe they’ve covered all their bases – but the point was that I had found the Equal.
This lead to a bit of a quandary though, because I wasn’t sure what to do – they already had Equal so I couldn’t suggest to the manager that they carry it, nor could I say so on the comment card…so I stood like a lost soul until someone behind the counter asked me if I wanted anything. I was deep in thought but didn’t want my typical Caramel Macchiatto, so I ordered a tall, decaf, soy, White Chocolate Mocha with one shot of Pumpkin Spice and pumpkin spice sprinkle on top. (Stop making faces and don’t knock it till u try it!) It’s a drink that a fellow tweep told me to try once – and I made a face and was like “yuck” but surprisingly, it’s quite good!
They're baa-ack - Starbucks awesome warm Christmas-sey drinks
Starbucks Holiday Food Treats!
I guess it was a bit of a strange choice for this time of year though, because Starbucks have started using their red Christmas cups and have started selling their Christmas flavours (like their classic Peppermint Mocha). That got me a bit excited too, for a few reasons – yay, Starbucks have their holiday drinks available again and yay Christmas is so near and biggest YAY of all, I will soon be seeing the Luv Luv!!!!
My drink was perfect because it was freezing that night and the drink was nice and warm and full of chocolate pumpkin spice goodness. Yummies in my tummy that warmed me up too (score in this frigid country)!
And, just to prove how addicted I am, I went to Starbucks today as well.
As you know, I do a part-time cake decorating certificate class on Saturdays – well, there is a Starbucks on the way from the school back to where I’ve parked my car. I was (am?) exhausted today – and am definitely going to be sleeping in tomorrow. I would have come straight home and slept but my good friend wanted me to come to her boyfriend’s surprise birthday party, so I wanted to go to show moral support although I didn’t know anyone there.
Equal in the basket at the Coffee Bar!
So, after my class at Bonnie Gordon, I walked to the Starbucks near Eglinton and Bathurst and I thought, what the hey, I may as well look for Equal there too. And it was there as well (along with the other sweeteners I had seen at Yonge and Finch). The awesome thing was this small Starbucks location had their sweeteners in two areas – one in the area you go for the milk and sweeteners as usual, but also in a basket at the coffee bar! And the little basket had all their sweeteners and a bottle of honey right next to it! I did find though that the Equal in he basket were not displayed as prominently since they sort of were at the bottom….so, just for you, #Equal Canada, I played with the sweeteners in the basket a bit and gave Equal a little bit more noticeable!
This Starbucks also had the Christmas specials up, so of course, I had to try one this time. I tried the Caramel Brulé Latte (of course with soy milk and sans whipped cream – remember I’m dairy free…well supposed to be) which I then promptly managed to splash all over my car dashboard as soon as I got in there *sigh*.
I gotta tell you though, it’s a close second to my favorite warm drink at Starbucks, the infamous Caramel Macchiatto….
Christmas drinks board at Starbucks near Bathurst & Eglinton today!
Oh, and one more thing, since I decided that I should talk to the staff about Equal, I asked the lady behind the cash if she knew if all Starbucks carried Equal – and she said every Starbucks she had been to and worked at carried it – so she assumed so. I thanked her for answering my completely out of the blue question and left her looking slightly confused…(haha).
In the end, I found Equal Sweetener – so now I have yet another reason why you should Starbucks rather than Timmies (No, Starbucks did not pay me to say that!). If you want to learn a bit more about Equal, feel free to take a look at their website, say hi to them on Twitter or leave a message for them and like them on Facebook.
Oh, and just an FYI, although this shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias, all opinions, reviews and experiences that are mentioned here are solely mine and are blatantly honest (as I always tend to be!)
