iced coffee or milkshake?

i've honestly never really been much of a coffee drinker.  while people in college drank coffee to cure hang overs and get to class, i avoided the beverage all together.  even when i started working, except for the occasional starbucks gingerbread lattes (i mean c'mon, who can resist those things?), i pretty much stayed away and liked to consider myself a "tea girl." 

eventually, however, i ended up meeting someone in new york who got me into this fad of having an iced coffee with a banana in the morning for breakfast and i was hooked.  iced coffee has since become a weakness for me and when the weather warmed up this past weekend indicating summer around the corner, my habitual craving kicked in.  unfortunately, when i went to a shop here and ordered what was listed on the menu as an "iced coffee," i didn't quite get what i expected.

laura's long black on the left, my "iced coffee" on the right

when my order came out, it looked more like one of those crazy huge frappuccino things people who don't actually like coffee but want to feel like they are a part of the coffee drinking population order.  sure, the bottom half of the cup was filled with what i would consider an iced coffee, but the top half had not only whip cream with chocolate and cinnamon powder with coffee bean garnish, but a scoop of ice cream.

so here i was, the girl who ordered muesli and yogurt with fresh fruit for breakfast and basically a coffee milkshake to drink at like 9 am.  it tasted like a dd's coffee coolatta and was de-li-cious, but iced coffee lovers coming to NZ be warned before you go casually ordering iced coffees at authentic cafes.  not to sound too american, but unless it's dessert time or you're wanting a mid afternoon snack, see if you can find a starbucks instead.