Love the Flava'

"Is the chai sweetened?" I ask the girl behind the counter.

She is puzzled for a second, not like now, as she adjusts her spiky pink ponytail and betrays her roommate's reality TV addiction while the guy with red dreadlocks and an officer's cap outdoes hers with an even more shameful tale of someone else's affection for "Flava' of Love" repeats.

I think she wants to give me the right answer, which brews inside her for a bit until she comes out with this:

"No, it's not sweetened. I mean, we don't add any sweetener to it, but it has a natural sweetness. It's not very sweet." So I order it.

It tastes like ice cream.