Hi readers! I’m so excited to welcome author Jessica Grey to Austenesque Reviews today! Jessica is one of the fabulous authors in the Holidays with Jane series and I’ve been a big fan of hers since reading her first Austen-Inspired book, Attempting Elizabeth! Today Jessica Grey is here to talk about coffee! 😉 No, actually she is here to talk about Mansfield Perk, this amazing-sounding coffee place I desperately wish was real!
Hello! Happy Almost Halloween! Firstly, let me say a huge thanks to Meredith for having 
me here to guest post about Holidays with Jane: Trick or Sweet! My name is Jessica Grey and I am one of the authors involved in the Holidays with Jane anthology series. Holidays with Jane is a series of six holiday inspired collections. Each collection includes modern adaptations of all six of Jane Austen’s main novels by six different authors. Holidays with Jane: Trick or Sweet is our Halloween collection and we had tons fun incorporating costumes and candy into our reworking of Austen’s stories.
One of the threads that runs through the Holidays with Jane collection is a coffee shop called Mansfield Perk. In our first collection, Christmas Cheer, I adapted Mansfield Park (a novel which I’ve very publicly expressed my angst about), and I set it at the flagship Mansfield Perk in Los Angeles, California. All of my fellow authors have included Mansfield Perks in their stories in the original collection as well as in all of the ones since. It’s become a Holidays with Jane tradition. Mansfield Perk even has its own logo (designed by our fabulous cover designer, Victoria Austen-Young).
For today’s guest post, I wanted to talk a little bit about how Mansfield Perks across the country celebrate Halloween.
First up, there’s the fall drinks (fall is my most favoritest season for coffee flavors!).
1. The PSL. Starbucks doesn’t have the market cornered on the pumpkin spice latte, but at Mansfield Perk this most basic of all fall drinks is called the Universal Truth.
2. My personal favorite fall drink is the chile mocha, it’s just sweet enough but definitely spicy! If you’d like one off the Mansfield Perk menu, you’d need to ask for a Marianne Dashwood. I always get a large.
3. Until my recent obsession with the Marianne Dashwood chile mocha, my go-to fall choice has always been the salted caramel mocha and at Mansfield Perk they’ve named it after my favorite Austen hero: The Captain Wentworth.
In addition to specialty drinks, MP serves up yummy baked goods – mostly involving pumpkin. The pumpkin muffins are definitely a huge hit, and about the size of your face, so there’s plenty to share. You can also get a variety of candy apples, each MP carries their own selection featuring local candies.
But the best part about Halloween is the costumes! If you come in on Halloween in a costume, you get 50% off your drink order…and if you come dressed as an Austen character, your drink is on the house. The flagship Mansfield Perk in Los Angeles has a monthly Austen reading club that meets in costume, and this Halloween policy is in honor of them.
My fellow Holidays with Jane authors and I firmly believe that someday Mansfield Perk will be a REAL place, and we will all meet up and have Austen-themed coffee (or tea!) together. If you were to visit a MP, what would you order? (And feel free to make up your own drinks!) Comment below for a chance to win a paperback copy of Holidays with Jane: Trick or Sweet!
*Some of the drinks mentioned in our stories: Pemberley Whip (frozen blended mocha or caramel), an All Astonishment (three shots of espresso and cream), the Emma Woodhouse (sweet but strong).
Sounds wonderful, Jessica! Mansfield Perk sounds like the most adorable coffee shop ever! We really need to make this happen. I’m torn between the Captain Wentworth or Pemberley Whip…I love flavored coffee! Thanks so much for sharing this post with us today!
Connect with Jessica
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GIVEAWAY TIME!!!
As you read above, Jessica is bringing one lovely paperback copy of Holidays with Jane: Trick or Sweet for me to give away to one lucky winner!!
To enter this giveaway, leave a comment answering Jessica’s question or a comment about the Holidays with Jane series!
- This giveaway is open worldwide. Thank you, Jessica!
- This giveaway ends October 26th!
COMING FRIDAY: My review of Holidays with Jane: Trick or Sweet
Hi Jessica!
I had fun with your guest post because I´m a fan of coffee (and tea, of course) and reading about “Mansfield Perk” makes me wish to have a coffee shop like it near my house!. I hope, as Meredith says, that your “Mansfield Perk” is real some day, soon, with these delicious coffees and muffins. If you let me, I will ask for a “Pemberley whip” because I adore the frozen blended mocha. I´ll have a pumpkin big muffin too and, I´ll go to the coffee shop in a vampire dress (it serves as well as a witch custome only adding a black hat) so I think I´ll have a 50% off my drink order and I´ll try not to fall down in the street with the long skirt of the vampire dress LOL. Thanks for the giveaway!
Teresa, I am most definitely a fan of coffee too and creating my own fictional coffee shop has been way more fun than I anticipated! Thanks for participating in the giveaway!
The Marianne Dashwood sounds like my cuppa 🙂 Had a lot of fun reading this post !
I love, love the chili mocha beyond reason. Thanks for entering!
My favorite gourmet coffee drink is a mocha. I have one of the books in this series, Spring Fever.
I love all variety of mochas! I hope you enjoyed Spring Fever….there was definitely some Mansfield Perk action in that collection as well. Thanks for entering!
Mansfield Perk is an inspired creation. The only drink named in my stories is Dr. Perry’s Detox Tea. You know you trust Dr. Perry for all your detoxing needs.
Dr. Perry Detox Tea is the best!
What fun! I can’t wait to read this series of holiday anthologies and encounter Mansfield Perk. I’m not a coffee drinker, but I do love my hot spiced cider or hot cocoa. I think I’d order a hot spiced cider that maybe we could call Anne’s Fall Fancy? 🙂
Love it! We don’t have an Anne drink yet!
I alternate between hot tea and regular coffee-of-the-day when I go to Mansfield Perk. 😉 But on those special occasions, I’ll splurge and get a white chocolate mocha, also known as a Jane Bennet (sweet and makes everyone happy).
The Captain Wentworth seems really interesting, I just have to try it 🙂
Oh most definitely worth a try 😉 Thanks for entering!
I’ll take a Captain Wentworth to go, thanks 😉
If I ever get to say this in real life, I will consider my life complete. Thanks for entering, Monica!
Hmm, I would order the Lizzie Bennet, hot chocolate with chili!