It's late. 11:23 p.m. by the clock on my cable box. I probably won't fall asleep for another two hours. I blame the coffee. I like coffee. I drink a cup in the morning before I leave for work. I'll have a couple more throughout the day. If I'm feeling up for it, I'll walk over to one of the two Starbucks within strolling distance of the KMOV studios. The baristas at both locations all know me. Some know my name. Others simply know me by my usual coffee drink. I kind of prefer it that way.

Ok, the buzz seems to be subsiding. Let's see if I can keep this flowing.

Where were we? Oh... the baristas who don't know me by name know me by the drink I love to order. It's a special treat I allow myself from time to time -- especially on stressful days. Little did I know that this guilty pleasure would eventually cause your friendly neighborhood investigative reporter even more stress.

The pleasure of which I speak?

The mocha valencia. Nonfat. Grande.

Delightful.

For the uninitiated, the mocha valencia is your standard Starbucks mocha coffee drink with the added goodness of a shot of the orange-flavored valencia syrup. Because the syrup pushes the drink's sweetness level into rock candy territory, the baristas add a THIRD shot of espresso into the mix to tone down the sugary madness.

So the drink is not only a chocolate-orange taste sensation, it is also jam-packed with the nerve-jittering goodness I so desperately need at about 3 p.m. It also induces me to type hypenated words.

So where does the stress come in? Right when ther barista squirts in the valencia syrup, that's where!

Over the last couple months, the baristas in my usual haunts have warned me the valencia syrup was "going away." They told me to drink up while I can because one day soon, the orange flavor syrup will be gone from my customization options.

Time after time, I ordered my beverage -- holding my breath the syrup would still be there. It felt like I was playing Russian roulette with a revolver full of espresso beans. Instead of the click of an empty chamber, my salvation was the "squisht, squisht, squisht" of the valencia pump.

Then the day came.

"Sorry, we don't have that anymore," the barista said curtly from across the bar.

My heart sank.

It was a new barista -- someone who did not know this was MY drink. MY special treat. MY fuel.

I'd like to think if this were a barista who knew me, he would have broken the news to me a little more gently.

Later in the week, I tried again at the 'Bucks on Hanley in Clayton.

Again, disappointment.

Tuesday, I stopped in a Starbucks while doing some work in Springfield, IL. Thankfully, this location still had a half-full pump of the translucent orange liquor. The barista whipped one up and passed it across the bar with a friendly warning.

"You better enjoy these while you can," he smiled. "The valencia is going away soon."

I pleaded with him for a reason why.

He had none, but offered this as consolation.

"I work at the store downtown and I've stashed away a whole case of the stuff," he said. "We'll have it for a while."

A fat lot of good that does me... 100 miles away in St. Louis.

Desperate for an answer, I headed to the Starbucks website and searched out the section for media inquiries.

If valencia was going away, at least I should know why.

I filled out the blanks in the little form one by one.

When prompted for my "Inquiry:" I typed "About a discontinued product -- valencia flavor syrup."

Then I hit send.

What happens next?

We'll cover that on Monday.

See you then.