My $100 latte

Latte Venti Pricey
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At Starbucks today I bought a pumpkin praline pecan yada yada latte, an exotic foofy drink.  I don't usually go that fancy, but I was in a good mood and indulged.

I remember my first sip. Nice! I was glad I'd indulged. I took another sip. Quite good!

Then I sat down, pulled out my computer and went to work on my programming project.

Fade out.

Fade in.

It's an hour later. Maybe more. Time vanishes (as do I) when I'm programming. Or blogging. Or other stuff. I've had a win and I want to take a break. I deserve one! I wonder if there's any latte left. I reach out, and lift the cup. Yes! Not much,  but some.

I have another sip.

And it's good!

I walk around, make a phone call and go back to programming.

A while later I take another break, heft the cup and find it's empty.

Later, much later, I consider: one latte. It was 20 oz. It cost $4.00. I enjoyed it. But I only experienced three sips.

What did I pay for?

How big is a sip? Well, of course your mileage varies. Even mine will. It depends on the size of your mouth, the intensity of your thirst , and the temperature of the sippand (the thing you sip) and maybe the phase of the moon.

While I'm writing this I'm sipping another latte and attempting to calibrate. (The things I do for science!) I've had 10 sips so far and I don't think I'm a tenth of the way through the 20 ounces. Small sips, because the latte is pretty hot. So let's make a hot sip = 0.2 oz, and a cold sip = 0.4.

So I experienced 0.8 oz, or 1/50th of my previous latte.

If that 1/50th was worth $4.00 (before blogging) then I should rationally have been willing to pay $100 to experience the entire thing. Or if someone had offered me three sips of their latte (two hot and one cold) for the bargain, discount price of $3.50 I should have jumped at the chance.

Not likely.

One more argument for being more awake, present, mindful.

We give up money and time and other things we value for opportunities to experience pleasurable and interesting things. But having the opportunity to experience them does not mean we actually experience them.

We also need to be present for the experience. If not, we end up paying a higher price for whatever part--if any part at all--we do experience.

In this case, I paid a ridiculously high price. $100 for a latte? Are you kidding me?

Every time I reach for the latte I'm drinking now, I pay attention. Smaller sips. More attention.

I'm determined to get my money's worth.