Now that the leaves have fallen and the sun is setting at 4 p.m., a cozy fall drink is a necessity in fighting that looming seasonal depression. That’s how I settled on reviewing this week’s classic Sink-nature drink — the Cinny Vanilly.
The name Cinny Vanilly makes me want to twirl around my living room with Milli Vanilli’s “Blame It On the Rain” blasting in the background. The fun in saying the name made me fall in love with this drink before I even took my first sip.
My introduction to a Wednesday night at The Sink started off with a bang, literally. While the barista was making my drinks, a glass Pyrex measuring cup fell off their brand new espresso machine and shattered across the ground.
Despite this incident, one worker made my two drinks in an impressive four minutes and 21 seconds — a time shorter than the entire “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You” music video — while the other employee cleaned up almost all of the glass.
Through either my own forgetfulness or a mix-up due to this eventful drink-making process, both versions of my drink were made with whole milk, leaving heat level as the only variable between the two.
Upon first sip, the foam of the warm Cinny Vanilly transported me back to giggling in my grandma’s kitchen after getting a whipped cream mustache from her homemade hot chocolate on a snowy winter day. The heat brought a richness in the vanilla flavor and added a smokiness to the cinnamon, which created an almost mocha-like taste. The drink was heavy but presented distinct flavors, like a night sky on a clear day.
But if the hot drink was a dark sky full of stars, the iced version was a sunny day. I could see myself sitting on a porch swing, listening to the birds chirp, basking in the warm sunshine of a brisk fall morning with an iced Cinny Vanilly in hand. This drink was much lighter and the milk had more of a presence, causing a subtlety in the sweet cinnamon and vanilla notes.
These two drinks connect with different sides of myself. If I want to jump into a pile of leaves, have a dance party or wear a beautiful pair of big red boots, I’ll reach for the warm and whimsical Cinny Vanilly. But if reading a book, knitting a scarf or baking some cookies sound more appealing, the cool and calm concoction would be a better fit.
The nostalgia induced by this Cinny Vanilly is making me time-travel back to high school English, where I used alliteration in every other sentence. Stay tuned for next week’s review of The Sink’s ominous option — the Oblivion.
Always brewing the best reviews,
Dylan Fee
