#pumpkin spice flavored coffee beans

[brewedbalanceroasters]

Embrace Pumpkin spice flavored coffee beans from Brewed Balance Roasters

Savor the essence of autumn with Brewed Balance Roasters' Pumpkin spice flavored coffee beans. This rich, medium-roast coffee combines the warm, comforting aroma of pumpkin pie with bright acidity, offering a delightful, full-bodied coffee experience. Made from 100% organic beans farmed sustainably, our Pumpkin Spice beans are freshly roasted to order, perfect for cozy fall mornings or anytime you crave the quintessential taste of the season.

[higherrealmswellness]

Higher Realms Fresh Roasted Coffee☕️

A symphony of natural flavors dances upon your palate, as delicate whispers of pumpkin, graceful swirls of cinnamon, and the embracing embrace of nutmeg unite in perfect harmony.☕️

Elevate Your Morning! https://higherrealms.store/products/pumpkin-spice

[multifandom-pleasures]

shadow x reader

you walked into shadow staring intently at the coffee machine set inside the kitchenette of robotnik’s ship. he’d been recently freed from his cryogenic chamber and was growing accustomed to the more modern life; considering the time he was last roaming was 50 odd so years ago; and figuring out the functions of everything onboard. he always bragged of his power and intelligence, so it was quite humorous to see him grumbling to himself as he attempted to figure out the little machine that sat atop the counter.

“ figured it out yet? “ you called to him from the doorframe, the only signal that he heard you was a small twitch from his ear. after a beat of silence he spoke.

“ how long have you stood there for. “

“ long enough. “ he seemed annoyed at that, shoulders hunching for a moment before he crossed his arms and turned to face you, his constant face of stoicism remaining.

“ I have not. “ he admitted, looking like the statement didn’t affect him - even though you knew he knew that you’d seen him glaring at the coffee machine. a smile twitched at the corner of your lip as you made your way over to him.

“ have you ever even had coffee? “ you asked as you slipped beside him to open up a cabinet, stretching for a mug that lay on the shelf.

“ no, but it’s tempted me. dr. robotnik - “ he paused and grimaced, “ gerald, my creator, would drink it often when doing tasks and experiments on the ark. he would not let me try it. “

“ what, he said no and you listened? “ you teased, and he frowned at you, looking somewhat sheepish. it was silly through other’s eyes, “ well, anyways, I’ll show you how it works. wanna try a flavor or just plain coffee? “

“ flavors? “ shadow seemed intrigued, watching as you pulled over a little pod carousel. you couldn’t help but laugh a bit at the way he peered over your shoulder to examine the selection, which caused him to promptly step aside.

“ yeah - there’s like.. caramel, vanilla, hazelnut, toffee nut, pumpkin spice.. and then just regular one without any flavor. robotnik likes that one. it’s gross. “ shadow gave you a pointed look and reached to nab a pod from the holder, giving it to you. you judged him silently for the selection, but obeyed and popped open the top.

“ you put this little pod in here, and then close it. “ you explained your actions as you did them, and then grabbed the mug to put into the slotted section in the machine, “ then, these buttons up top are for the size cup. always just pick the middle one, all our mugs are the same. “ you could feel the hedgehog’s body heat returning close beside you as he watched you, looking too intensely considering the fact it was just coffee, “ then, you press this big button and it’ll do the rest on its own. “

you stepped back as the machine began to make a subtle sound, and coffee began to drip into the cup. you looked over to shadow and smiled smugly.

“ can the ultimate life form handle that next time? “ he huffed at you, throwing a glare before his focus returned to the machine before you, watching the steady stream and the scent of roasted coffee beans beginning to fill the room.

“ and it stops on its own? “ you nod, and he looked slightly impressed. you both stood in somewhat comfortable silence as the machine worked, and as the final drips settled into the mug, you motioned for him to grab onto it.

“ it’s hot though, so careful - don’t burn yourself. “ shadow scoffed as his gloved hand reached for the ceramic.

“ I think I can manage it. “ he replied, bringing the mug up to his face in order to sniff, and when he seemed pleased at the aroma he sipped. you noticed his eye twitch slightly, and he turned away as he swallowed down the liquid. when he faced you again you held a smirk, raising a brow, “ shut up. “

you both moved to the little dining table - two chairs, one for each of you. there was never any need for more as it was only you and robotnik who ever used the kitchen. shadow had allowed his drink to cool down considerably before attempting another sip, and you watched as his eyes slid closed and a soft little hum rise from his throat. when he opened his eyes again, you gave him a smile.

“ like it? “

“ it’s.. pleasant. bitter but, not unbearably so. “ he replied, lifting the mug once more to drink from it. he nodded and sighed, “ yes, I like it. “ you gave a small, triumphed cheer as you rose from your seat.

“ great! now we can spend our morning making coffee together. “ you padded your way to make your own cup of coffee, unaware of the steely, red eyes following your movements, “ maybe I can get you to try the other flavors - they’re definitely better than just plain black y’know. and there’s soooo many.. “

too enraptured in your talking and moving, you didn’t catch the glimpse of a smile shadow wore, sitting patiently awaiting for you as he continued to sip from his mug.

[vivaciousdomo]

Vegan BG3

I've been doing a vegan play through of BG3. Like, I'm still a durge, and evil, but I try not to kill animals, and I don't consume meat or cheese. Is anyone else doing this? Any mods to add more vegan items? Also, am I missing the beans? Ye olde europe would have eaten a bunch of beans, right? How do I get protein if no beans?

List of Vegan Foods

apple/half eaten apple

bagel

baguette

banana (how is this in in europe?)

bread/stale bread

cabbage

carrot

courgette

fragrant fungus stew

garlic

glow cap mushroom

good berry

grapes (green/purple)

gruel

horseradish

kiwi

lemon

lettuce

mushroom soup

onion

onion soup

orange

pale mint

pear

potato/boiled potato

potato porridge

pumpkin soup

pumpkin

raspberry

red pepper

sourdough bread

split pea soup

sun melon/half a sun melon

sweet potato

vegetable broth

walnut

(I accidentally ate the supply pack, but it has cured meats in it and "smells distinctly of smoked ham", so I won't make that mistake again. Let's just say Lae'zel ate them 🤷 Also can't eat the berry tart because it's got butter in it.)

Maybe Vegan?

biscuit (seems to be an oatmeal raisin which can be made vegan)

everything soup (description is "named for the halfling tradition of frantically raiding the pantry or garden upon the unexpected arrival of a guest")

puff pastry braid (unsure if butter was used here)

sunflower seed bun (unsure if has butter)

treacle tart (maybe butter?)

Drinks

amnian dessert wine

arkhen's hoard (wine?)

ashaba dusk (wine)

baldur's grape (wine)

blackstaff

barrel-aged callidyrran (…whisky? rum?)

carafe of wine

chultan fireswill (wine)

common table wine

eigersstor noblerot (??? probably vegan?)

esmeltar red

highsun liqueur

ithbank (wine)

mermaid whiskey

mug of beer/pitcher of beer

plum fizz (wine?)

port sherry

rolling deck rum

tyche pink (rose?)

wine (regular wine???)

Non alcoholic drinks

the water from the well outside the Hag's house (can't bottle and carry in your pack though and maybe has dead human bodies given the smell 🤔)

health potions? (can't long rest with them tho :<)

tea

coffee

I'll update this if/when I find other vegan foods and drinks, for your RP pleasure.

I'd also be so down to try and make a vegan bg3 cookbook. I know the lady with the big pot of gruel says she can't find salt easily, so maybe easy on the salt, but we have garlic and onion, so we have at least some flavor 🤔 oh, and there's a red pepper, so we can have some spice, maybe. brb, starting a Vegan Baldur's Gate 3 cookbook?

[evenmyhivemindisempty]

Oh! How about the Boyd characters and their orders at the coffee shop? Keep up the good work, these are so fun!

Steve Murphy: Ironically enough, an americano (yes, Javi teases him about it). It’s strong, and it tastes great with a cigarette.

Donald Pierce: He likes his drinks extra sweet and extra caffeinated. His favorite is a vanilla mocha with a shot of espresso.

Cap Hatfield: He’s not fancy, he’ll just use whatever coffee beans are around and a tin cup. A cube of sugar and some milk adds a lot for him, though. Modern Cap really likes a nice cappuccino.

Clement Mansell: He *can* do espresso shots, but he likes to be obnoxious with it. He’ll order a venti latte with oat milk, half shot espresso, two pumps lavender syrup. 170 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Corinthian: The Corinthian actually usually just orders green tea, but once in a while he’ll get an iced pumpkin spice latte.

Eli Klaber: He’s getting a mint hot chocolate!

Ty Shaw: He doesn’t get them often at all, but Ty actually really likes the Frappuccino flavors that Starbucks has. The caramel one is his favorite. Most of the time, Ty’s getting his caffeine fix from Red Bull though.

Quinn McKenna: Drip coffee. No cream, no sugar.

[redd956]

Do you have any ideas on how to come up with fictional vegetables, resource plants, or livestock? I keep coming up with fruit since I can’t really think of any ways of making a vegetable interesting or unique to a setting. The only resource plants I can think of is one that gives cotton and livestock has me stumped.

(Context: My world is full of rabbit-human hybrids that are omnivorous but mainly eat plant food, meat is usually eaten during special events. I want to focus on a world reliant on different crops for food and resources. There’s different biomes like a wooded area, an almost volcanic area, a snowy area, and a naturally occurring magic area.)

Yes, I do!!!

A lot of fruits and vegetables themselves are very similar in growth and function, the main difference being fruits come from fruiting bodies while vegetables are just part of the plant. That's when we get that weird middle group like corn, tomatoes, and eggplants.

But there's a lot of aspects to vegetables that make them unique, with lots of worldbuilding room

Everything is Edible

Creative juices flowing questions... (I'm also grouping grains and vegetables together btw)

What parts of the plants are primarily consumed? The stalks, leaves, roots, bulbs, flowers, tubers? (carrots are roots? Guess I learn something new everyday)

How is the edible part extracted from the plant? What does the plant look like in a crop field? How do people know when it's ready?

Does the vegetable need to go through a preparation process before being eaten? (Crushed, cleaning, cut open)

Does the plant have edible leaves, bean pods, kernels, nuts, oats? Does it have multiple uses? Does it produce more than one edible factor?

Is it harvest from the ground, water pools, trees? How tall is the plant?

How does it spread/reproduce? (flowers, potato eyes, seeds)

Usage & Flavor

Is the vegetable eating directly, usually added to something else, used as a spice? What does it taste like? (earthy, bitter, tangy, sour)

Is it used to make something else that's edible/used in cooking? (Oils, beers, yeasts, flavorings)

Are there non food related uses? (Medicinal, potion brewing, material)

Gourds (fruits but equally fun)

My family fries/grills the blossoms on pumpkins & zucchinis, and I couldn't stop thinking about that so here's some bonus rounds

How do people break into the hard casings to reach the edible parts? Is anything does with the hard casings? What funky shapes are the gourds?

What's inside? What does it look like? Tastes? Seeds? Other uses?

Does it have any decorative uses? Any holiday relation?

Tea & Coffee

What kind of drinks can be made from plants? What extra benefits and effects does it have? Any magical properties? Any recreational properties?

How is the plant extracted? How is it prepared into a drink?

Anything culturally significant?

What does the brew look like? How strong is the smell?

Environmental Factors

What vegetables survive in dry or unforgiving environments? How important are these two the people who live there? What were to happen if harvest failed?

Any diseases or bugs that affect produce? How do farmers protect their crops these? Any animals or technology help in the harvesting process?

How does temperature and rain effect the produce? Anything grow underneath the snow? Soil? Water? Underground? (Huge fan of snowy plants in worldbuilding)

How does the vegetable itself try to protect itself? (cactus needles, thorns, caffeine, poison)

[gallawitchxx]

weekly tag wednesday 🤘🏼

i was tagged by some cutie patooties (@deedala @creepkinginc @energievie @crossmydna @sleepyfacetoughguy @transmickey & @metalheadmickey) to play a new version of an old favorite! let's do it! 🖤

- - - - -

name: bee 🐝

age: thirty-five minus four 🙃

favorite color: turquoise ✨

what emoji best describes your current mood? 🗣

what season is it where you are right now? well, it's technically fall, but i'm in socal now, the land of eternal sunlight... so naturally it's 100 degrees F here today ☀️

were you up before or after the sun this morning? before, i think! 💤

are you currently in possession of a pumpkin? i am not 😔

do you prefer to carve or paint your jack-o-lanterns? carve! but it's been a million years since i've done it! 🎃

do you have a favorite pumpkin-spice flavored treat? If so, what is it? every year, i make my wife a pumpkin roll. it has cream cheese frosting enveloped in pumpkin cake & it's both beautiful & delicious! (maybe i'll make one this weekend!) 😋

what's your favorite season and what's your favorite pie that you associate with it? ooooh summer & key lime pie! 😎

we're having a pot-luck, what are you going to bring? i'm bringing a cowboy caviar, which is a corn salad/dip with black beans, peppers, onions, avocados, tomatoes & some other goodies! it's delicious, you'll love it! 🤠

it's chilly outside and you need a hot drink in your hands, what are you drinking? brewed coffee or a latte with oat milk ☕️

will you be wearing a costume for Halloween? Is it ready? yes hahahaha my wife told me that she wants to be alex & henry from rwrb, which was the LAST thing i was expecting & yet it's every dream of mine come true. stay tuned! 🇺🇸 🇬🇧

finally, what's something you've made or done recently that you're proud of? i whipped up a new creative proposal for work in a short amount of time & i'm quite happy with it & hopeful for its future. if you have any fingers to cross or well wishes to toss my way, please say a little spell for my new baby 😌

- - - - -

tagging @whatwouldmickeydo @howlinchickhowl @whatthebodygraspsnot @gardenerian @heymrspatel @deathclassic @francesrose3 @rereadanon @sickness-health-all-that-shit @lupeloto & @scurvgirl if you wanna play!! if not, i'm (with consent) smooching your nose! 💋

[mahimahi713]

Sam loves coffee. Yes she’s that bitch where she has all the gadgets and stuff to make a good cup of coffee. She grinds beans herself and owns a few coffee making items, electronic and non electronic. Yes, she’s a coffee snob. But she doesn’t look down on others preferences. To each their own. She enjoys it black. Coldbrew is her favorite, but if she’s having it hit, it has to be HOT. She does occasionally enjoy things like cold foam, sweetened creamers like vanilla (simple ones), but she is also a huge mocha fan. She loves chocolate and coffee together. Just as long as she can still taste the coffee. She equates coffee with a meal (pretty much breakfast) and will refuse to touch the kind of coffee Tucker drinks or anything like Frappuccinos. If it’s essentially dessert in a cup, she doesn’t want it .

Tucker will only drink coffee if there a lot of flavored creamer and lots of sugar. The boy has a sweet tooth that would put children who would eat candy as a meal to shame. He loves pumpkin spice more than then white ladies who are mocked for liking it. He loves Frappuccino’s and all those finicky drinks baristas hate. He loves seasonal and new creamer flavors. Unlike Danny and Sam, he could never have coffee as a Mel.

Danny is more like Sam, but he values convenience. He prefers to buy the ready made stuff, the cold brew concentrates and bottled ones and canned ones. He values convenience. While all three enjoy energy drinks, Danny loves them most and would take them over coffee. He like Sam, sees coffee or an energy drink as a meal.

[lantur]

I love days like today that feel like a day on easy mode.

woke up earlier than usual, feeling tired. I made a latte that woke me right up - pumpkin spice flavored coffee, vanilla flavoring, cinnamon, and milk. I'm normally not a coffee person, but two teaspoons of brown sugar + the vanilla and cinnamon cut the bitterness of the coffee.

good weights workout at the gym fueled by caffeine and kpop, and hit 50 pounds/22 kg on my bench press!

had a bunch of positive interactions at work with people who were appreciative of my efforts, and I felt like I helped people with different problems. :)

made delicious crispy sweet potato and black bean tacos for dinner

played a board game (Terraforming Mars) with Derek tonight after dinner

got plenty of cuddles with Westin ❤️

[redactedreverie]

Redacted Character & Listener Headcanons

Coffee Orders Edition

Headcanons below the cut cuz it felt like it took up too much space without one.

Davey and Sweetheart both get hot black coffee exclusively and because of that reason they’re kind of coffee snobs because black coffee is “intolerable” if the beans are good quality.

Asher gets the flavored lattes. Think the pumpkin spice latte or pistachio latte. Doesn’t matter if it’s hot or iced, he just wants those sweet random flavors.

Milo is relatively no frills and just gets a flat white or just straight up espresso shots depending on how much of a boost he needs.

Angel is a sugar fiend and being so means she’s a Frappuccino girly. If for some reason she gets something else it can only be the overly sweet iced coffees from fast food drive thrus.

Babe isn’t really a coffee drinker but she is a serious matcha lover. The only thing that changes about her order is the temperature but the drink itself is always a matcha latte with soy milk. (Babe is definitely lactose intolerant but the kind that actually adjusts their diet accordingly so they don’t suffer)

Sam is also a black coffee drinker but he’s not grouped with David and Sweetheart because he doesn’t even remotely care about “the quality of no damn beans”. It can be from a coffee shop or a gas station, it truly makes no difference to him.

Now Darlin is a different breed entirely when it comes to this because she has no regular order. She thrives on the chaos of the unknown and tries to never order the same drink twice.

[brewedbalanceroasters]

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[higherrealmswellness]

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Receive free shipping at check out on our 12oz-1LB and 10% off our 5LB-12LB options. No coupon code or subscription needed!

Offer is only valid until the end of August, so don't wait!

Elevate Your Morning! https://higherrealms.store/products/pumpkin-spice

[call-me-copycat]

oh I didn’t know you were a cheese monger!

That I am! Not official yet (need to take the training course), but I've been working as one for about 8/9 months so I've gained a bit of knowledge :⁠-⁠)

This wasn't my dream job or anything, it's really just something I signed up for since I need a way to save for college, but it's a fun job so I don't think I'd want to leave it soon (unfortunately will have to eventually)

To answer your next ask about cheese facts, I have to admit I only really know what to say when people ask me questions about cheese, so I'll try to find random tidbits of what I can remember:

All of our cheese is imported from all over the globe (so we're a pretty expensive shop >⁠.⁠<)

There are certain ways to cut certain cheeses. Like "pie cut" (horizontally), "Cake cut" (circular ones like you'd cut a cake), "mountain cut" (huge triangular ones cut into a specific arrangement for their size, too intricate to describe), "barrel cut" (for cylindrical shaped cheese)

Harder/Longer aged cheeses are easier on the stomachs of lactose intolerant people (as I've learned myself)

There are lots of sweet cheeses (We had a pumpkin spice Bellavitano which was paired with this sweet oat cracker and apricot jam and it tasted similar to cheesecake)

Some of them lose flavor and color the older they get (probably common knowledge, but an example of this would be our Port Salut - It tastes really good and tangy when fresh cut but tastes plain when old, exactly like yogurt)

Mold spores can't penetrate most cheeses, so it's common practice to cut off some small mold bits on the harder cheeses (sounds gross, I know)

Blue cheese can mold. But with the mold you don't want to eat.

There are lots of Bellavitanos. Tons. Garlic and Herb, chili lime, pumpkin spice, bourbon, espresso (covered in ground coffee beans), Merlot (wine soaked), etc. We're still getting new ones currently

Bellavitanos "cry" when you cut them :⁠-⁠( [moisture seeps from small holes and they get slimy fast and I don't like it the slightest]

Real Parmiano Reggiano apparently "tastes a bit like pineapple" (I've tried it, I don't think it does)

Some of our cheeses are comically large. I'm very small and get paid to heft around ~30lb wheels of cheese to cut daily (not all the time - I'm infamous for avoiding them actually)

If you've ever seen those videos where people take a huge half wheel of cheese and scrape off the melted portion onto some food, it's most likely raclette cheese

Tried to think of some more but that's all that came to my mind right now ‎(´-ᴗ-⸝⸝ก) A lot of it wasn't official as I'm still learning a lot, but it's stuff that I've discovered while working there

I do not like the one rule we have where we have to eventually know what all the cheeses taste like, which means whenever we're cutting something and our manager finds out we don't know what it tastes like then we're forced to try a sample (·︿· `)

A lot of the time I do not like it! (⁠ ⁠･ั⁠﹏⁠･ั⁠)

I hope you're doing well! It's nice hearing from you! (〃´∀`)

[death-or-exile]

I put in a preorder for this.... very curious as to how good it could possibly be but game to try!

To be honest, I feel like I encounter a lot of folks that headcanon like...Crane as someone with an affinity for pumpkin spice coffee and things, but in my mind, I find it difficult to link him with flavored coffee.

In fact, I'm of two minds: on the one hand, I can imagine him getting really into a well crafted cup of coffee; I'm picturing him with a siphon coffee maker that he takes great pleasure displaying around home and office, really taking the time to coax the best flavor out of the beans; maybe it being like, a rare moment of quiet contemplation.

But then I'm also like -- no way, this man absolutely drinks whatever coffee is around indiscriminately; he's the guy still working at 1:30 AM, drinking the absolute swill at the bottom of the coffee pot that tastes burnt.

[roseytoesy]

updated voreville vibe flavor list!

updated the thing I did for the discord server! lots of new friends and cool people!

Adam: marshmallow. Soft boi. Sweet so very sweet (also might be savory, flaky, buttery goodness like a yummy biscuit)

Cyber: graham cracker. Sweet but not overwhelmingly so. Can be good by themselves or with others. 

Cj: jam puffs, Victorian-era treat that’s sweet yet unique and fun to make.

Cecil: raspberry brownies. The closest thing I can think of to an anxious treat. Treat with kindness.

Darling: black bean brownies. unexpected but super cool and chill. sweet and slightly bitter with their more chaotic side.

Fish: creamy scrambled egg. Savory but light and versatile.

Fluff: I'm getting the vibes of a spiced drink, like a nice apple cider or like a nonalcoholic spiced rum.

Griff: mango/pineapple salsa. Spicy and sweet. Ready to fight god to protect. 

Jack: pumpkin bread with buttercream spread. spooky month loving for the pumpkin and added buttercream because they are pretty sweet and cool!

spinch: dark chocolate and mint (sometimes rather bitter but refreshing)

purple cat: coffee cake with gold (excitable and fun, also the gold because of their main blorbo midas)

Lexi: cream cheese and crackers. Sweet savory mix.

Lucky: aggressive spicy. Spicy taco chicken vibes. Can go with lots of stuff.

Lizard: medium steak. Tough on the outside but very soft inside. Savory but very heavy meat flavor. Too much iron from eating knives >:c

Medium-sized snack: milk chocolate everyone likes chocolate and they get eaten a lot as soon as they show themselves. 

Medli: pina colata. Refreshing and sweet, tropical vibes!

Mystic: vanilla ice cream at parties. Ready for anything and goes with just about everything! Melts easily ;)

Naess: Grybukai cookies! (Mushroom cookies!) very unique spice flavor to the soft cookies. Unique but fun and makes you smile with every bite!

Nebby: Baklava. Layered sweetness and a perfect mix of flavors. Super sweet, like overwhelmingly sweet! Also somewhat foreign but in a welcoming way!

Nooby: some kind of crazy food mix. like french fries and ice cream, you don't expect them to ever mix. and the experience is odd and chaotic but not as bad as you thought.

Novorehere: rainbow sherbet. Chaotic good dessert.

Penlo: vanilla cake. Supportive sweetness. Goes with lots of different things!

Red: cinnamon bun, churros, or horchata. Very nice flavor and the spice makes people want more!

Rosey: strawberry. Sweet and refreshing almost everyone likes strawberries!

Tero: creme brulee, a sweet but not overly so dessert with a tough, hardened exterior but a sweet, creamy, and soft inside. complex and looked over at times due to its complexity.

Umbreon: KitKat. fun candy that many know and can enjoy with a sweet wafer and chocolate.

Vore-toast: homemade Carmel. Can be very sweet or very salty depending. A very overpowering flavor when with others.

Vaeh: some sort of vegetable that people have a range of emotions about. Maybe mushrooms or olives? many like it and some hate it, some could be neutral.

[tswiftcore]

Taylor Swift Interview - Marie Claire - June, 2009

Taylor Swift loves a lot of things, but maybe nothing quite so much at this moment as her new Prevost tour bus. "It's amazing!" she says, bounding through the backstage labyrinth of the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California, where she'll be performing tonight — long Goldilocks curls bouncing behind her as she goes. "My mom and I just redid the whole thing. Come see!"

Inside, the bus is a lush girly fantasy in chocolate brown and peacock blue, complete with a tufted brown velvet couch and pearly blonde laminated wood paneling, an electric fireplace ("Because I'm always freezing!"), a big champagne marble bathroom, and a Star Trac treadmill that folds up like a Murphy bed. "We bought the old bus from Cher," explains Swift's mom, Andrea, who goes on every tour, watching from the sidelines, keen-eyed and silent as an eagle. "So it was all black and gothic." For the new bus, she says, "We wanted to brighten things up."

In Swift's bedroom, a big turquoise satin jewelry box has the word Barbie written across it in rhinestones, and Swift's first two multiplatinum albums shine above her silky, pillow-piled turquoise-and-brown bed like twin full moons. A sign over the door reads Never, Never, Never Give Up in curling bronze script.

"Did you have that made?" I ask her.

"No. I got it from T.J. Maxx," chirps Swift, who may be the world's least snobbish pop princess. In Taylor Swift's world (or "Taylor Nation," as fans call it), Urban Outfitters T-shirts and $900 Christian Louboutin stilettos are embraced with equal fervor. All the crew members are presented with cakes on their birthdays and serenaded by Swift herself. And everyone — literally everyone — is greeted with a hug and an enormous smile. It's kind of like meeting Mickey at Disney World. The weeping 8-year-old fan in a pink cowboy hat gets a hug. The mayor of Fresno gets a hug. Even the sweaty, walrus-shaped teenage boy with the slightly crazed glint in his eye gets a hug — though when he starts pawing Swift and kissing her all over her face, two beefy security guys step in and carry him off. "It scares the daylights out of me when she goes around hugging everybody," says Scott Borchetta, who signed Swift to his then-newborn record label, Big Machine, in 2005. "I have to turn my head when she does it during the concerts. But you couldn't stop her if you tried; she's just a born hugger."

Swift's gasping love for most things she sets eyes on (Starbucks coffee, low-fat strawberry Pop-Tarts, and members of the band Def Leppard included) might get old quickly if it weren't accompanied by a big winking dose of sass that gives her a Tinker Bell-ish quality. At 20, she is tall and skinny as a string bean, with long, gangly white arms and a plump, angelic face. Her eyes are blue as forget-me-nots, with a slightly Asian tilt and thick curling lashes that she flirts with expertly and shamelessly, like Scarlett O'Hara.

Though Swift was born in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, and lived there until she was 14, there is a specifically Southern flavor to much of her appeal. She loves flouncy miniskirts and candy-colored strapless dresses and halo-style headbands with silk flowers sewn on. She says "Y'all" and "Thay-nk ewe!" She prays. She bakes. (When she's home in Nashville, she regularly delivers homemade pumpkin-spice cookies with cream cheese frosting to the construction guys working on her new condo.) But there's a clear-eyed, laser-focus quality to Swift's attention, too — you sense there's a mighty brain ticking beneath all those blonde curls. "I love having a goal, feeling like I'm on a mission," says Swift. "I love trying to beat what I've done so far."

At the moment, that's a tall order. Swift's second album, Fearless, was the best-selling album of any genre in 2009. An addictive confection of country/pop love songs, Fearless stole the hearts of little girls and not-so-little girls all over America, sitting at number one on the Billboard Top 200 for 11 weeks, which is longer than any other album in the last decade. Come awards time, Swift took home four Grammys (including Best Album of the Year) and the MTV Moonman for Best Female Video (aka The Kanye Incident) — along with a truckload of other trophies, including the CMA award for Entertainer of the Year in 2009. Tickets for Swift's recent concert at L.A.'s Staples Center sold out in two minutes. Last year, she earned $18 million from albums and touring alone.

Suddenly, Taylor Swift is an enormous star. Like, the kind of star people have started comparing to Michael Jackson and Madonna. The kind of star who tours with nine buses and several purple trucks that have her face plastered on the side. The kind of star about whom Borchetta says, "Look, if she can produce a superior third album, one that's as big as the last two ... well, when's the last time somebody did that?"

Fresno is an interesting place to see Swift perform. Basically, the whole town has gone bananas over her — including the mayor, who has officially proclaimed today "Taylor Swift Day." (In part, this may be an attempt to distract residents from the fact that Fresno was recently rated the number one Drunkest City in America by Men's Health magazine, but still ...) A dusty farm town in the middle of California, Fresno is the land of monster trucks and short-haired, churchgoing ladies in ruffled homemade aprons and Easy Spirit shoes who sell their crafts at the Big Hat Days festival in neighboring Clovis. Swift, who does not drink or swear or flash cleavage, is huge here.

Outside the Save Mart Center, near the herd of Taylor Swift tour buses, a local radio station has set up its own bus and is broadcasting live all afternoon from a big loudspeaker. What seems like thousands of little girls and teenage girls and middle-aged girls are milling about in the parking lot — some dressed in homemade versions of the oversize "Junior Jewels" T-shirt and black nerd glasses that Swift wears in her "You Belong With Me" video — carrying huge "Taylor" signs and screaming "Taylor!" from time to time.

"I like her because she's young and pretty and she writes stuff we can relate to," says pretty, freckle-faced Caroline Meyers, whose mother has driven her and her best friend, Lexi Kraft, here 240 miles from Colusa, California. Both girls are 17. Both are wearing T-shirts that say "I drive by my ex-boyfriend's house too!" — something Swift admitted to doing in a CMT interview. "She's a good role model," adds Kraft. "Also, she's really pretty."

Swift has performed in Fresno before — but never like this. The first time she played here, in 2006, it was at Cali's Frozen Custard Creamery out on Blackstone Avenue. Swift, then 16, was in town for a promotional radio tour. She and her band stopped off for frozen yogurt and ended up playing an impromptu concert. The second time was two years ago, when she opened for Rascal Flatts. So when Swift appears later in the afternoon for a meet-and-greet backstage with the various radio people of Fresno and says, "I can't tell y'all how long I have been waiting for this night!", you actually believe her.

For Swift, performing seems not so much a profession as a calling. Like being a nun or a Jedi Knight. It's the only thing she's ever wanted to do, at all. Ever. "I have been singing randomly, obsessively, obnoxiously for as long as I can remember," says Swift, who grew up on an idyllic Christmas-tree farm in rural Pennsylvania with her own pony. The oldest child of well-to-do parents (her father, Scott, is a stockbroker; her mother, Andrea, quit her job as a mutual fund marketing executive to raise Swift and Swift's little brother, Austin), Swift insists that although her parents believed in her completely, the burning need to sing in public was entirely her own. "My parents have videos of me on the beach at, like, 3," she continues, "going up to people and singing Lion King songs for them. I was literally going from towel to towel, saying, 'Hi, I'm Taylor. I'm going to sing I Just Can't Wait to Be King for you now.'"

We're sitting on the couch in her backstage dressing room, which she shares with her brunette backup singer, Liz Huett, and her redheaded fiddle player, Caitlin Evanson, who are also two of her best friends. They both feature prominently in the homemade videos that Swift posts regularly for fans on the taylor swift website and Facebook, and they flank Swift like handmaidens. A big rack of bright, silky dresses stands against one wall; a forest of Louboutins is spread out over the floor. A giant soda from In-n-Out Burger sits melting on the coffee table.

"It's very Taylor to want to share her dressing room," Swift's publicist, Paula Erickson, said earlier. "She just likes having her friends around." And while that's true, it's worth noting that toward the end of every concert, Evanson and Swift have a spectacular, hair-thrashing drumming battle on two big steel garbage cans during the song "Should've Said No." (Swift always wins.)

It's about 5:30 in the afternoon, and Swift has just finished her preconcert rehearsal. She does not seem nervous at all. In fact, she seems downright relaxed. Dressed in a loose gray miniskirt and black Rag & Bone dance shoes with patent leather tips, she has been trying to explain to me what it's like to be born with such an intense sense of destiny, and how completely it has defined and driven her life so far. "It's literally all I've ever dreamed of," she says.

By the time she was 10, the details of Swift's future had begun to fall into place. She knew she wanted to be a country singer. She knew she needed to go to Nashville to make it happen. She'd discovered karaoke and was teaching herself to sing like Faith Hill and the Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain. She had taken to performing at any event she could find, including garden clubs and Boy Scout meetings, which made her seriously unpopular at school. Swift didn't care. She was on a mission. "I knew that everything I wanted to happen could happen in Nashville," she says. "So it became my number one goal to get there somehow."