Don't try this at home

I currently have a prescription-strength obsession with all things peppermint. I drink more peppermint tea than is probably fair, and I've used my many networking coffee dates of late to drink a peppermint mocha latte or five. Another favorite peppermint drink is a concoction from apres-ski culture known as a "snuggler" (hot cocoa with peppermint schnapps).

I am certainly capable of making peppermint tea at home, and have successfully mixed peppermint schnapps into cocoa with pleasantly delicious and warming results. But as an exercise in will, I am not drinking alcohol for the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so that leaves the schnapps on the shelf for another week.

To feed my peppermint/caffeine addiction this afternoon without leaving the house, I very cleverly mixed peppermint extract into a coffee-milk-cocoa mixture to create what I can only describe as a truly naseous-making beverage. It tastes like the first sip of coffee after brushing your teeth and swishing with mouthwash in the morning, only the mouthwash taste doesn't go away after a moment. It persists.

Yuck.