Just today, I noticed that people are starting to tweet about Starbucks Christmas Blend in a Blonde Roast profile. And then, in my email, this photo of the new Blonde Roast Christmas Blend just showed up. This sounds really interesting to me. I am definitely game to try it. I would imagine it to be extremely spicy because of the aged Sumatra component, and I can’t quite imagine how that works as a blonde roast.
Have any baristas reading this tried it? It seems as though it is just now beginning to appear in stores. I am so curious to try this. I will try it with an open mind!
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I can’t imagine Christmas Blend as a blonde roast. Isn’t that calling something totally different the one same name? Or is the ‘original’ Christmas Blend being changed..in name at least. (we have seen that happen…… ‘gold coast’…:( i don’t get this…seems they would have to change the name of the original for sure. The one really noticeable thing about (original) Christmas Blend was its spiciness. (to me) How would that work in a ‘blonde roast’. ? This is soooo becoming a company I feel I no longer ‘know’.
I’m beyond excited! I don’t know if the beans have changed in the recipe or not, but I’m very delighted that they keep playing with Blonde roasts throughout the year. It’s better than releasing the core coffees they had developed without touching it for a few years.
We’ll see!
Yes I have tried it. It has notes of brown sugar and cinnamon. As you said yourself there is a spice to it, however I did not find it to be quite as spicy as a cup of traditional Christmas Blend. We paired it with the brown sugar walnut tart and then took a little pumpkin spice and mixed it. It was really good! When paired with the pumpkin spice the coffee had a clove and nutmeg undertone. I will definitely be drinking it all Christmas long.
I can not wait to try it! I have been on vacation or I would let you know if we received it.
Interesting and unexpected. I like the Christmas espresso roast and think it was a good extension to the Christmas blend line. It’ll be interesting to see how this new extension fares.
How are the blonde coffees selling? I had heard Indivisible didn’t do so well, but I’m not sure if it was because it was a blonde roast, a “cause” roast people didn’t invest in or just not very good. Anyone have any thoughts, comments or different observations?
I am a barista in Southern California and I have not seen or heard a peep about Christmas Blend in a Blonde Roast….I am actually a little disappointed that it is not even October and you are already discussing this :-/ I long for red cups and am the first one to be sad when the holiday music goes away, but you are way ahead of the game! I will look away if you post a photo of this year’s holiday cup!
*All in all, I want to raise a white cup, make that a reusable tumbler to you and your blog, Melody! Since I started reading it, I have a renewed appreciation for my job….you awakened the Starbucks siren in me and I now find each shift a little more engaging. I ignore the day to day minutia that seeps into a work day and find myself enjoying the smell of coffee and sharing about it…..thank you!~
Interesting!
@Deborah – Thank you so much for the kind words! I was so curious about the blonde roast Christmas Blend that I couldn’t resist, but I promise, no red cup photos until launch day! Just look away, and pretty soon there will be new articles up and this one will be long buried in a sea of new articles. 🙂
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@Kenzie – Thanks for the review of the new coffee. Traditionally, Christmas Blend is a “post roast” blend, meaning that the aged Sumatra coffee component is roasted separately and then blended in at the end. The aged Sumatra is blended into the blend post roast. What I wonder is if it is now a pre-roast blend – All components treated as a blonde. I imagine that will bring out extremely different flavor notes. Extremely different! I can imagine that blonde aged Sumatra would be a much lighter spice flavor. I am just too curious!
Cannot wait to try it! Thanks for letting us know about it early!
I have not heard nor seen this yet. We have no access to anything Holiday yet at my store. I think it will be interesting to try, probably sell well, but its not for me. I hope they bring back the Christmas Blend Espresso roast!!
@Becca – I am with you too! I hope for Christmas Blend Espresso Roast to come back too. That was amazing.
@SandraT – A month from now, when you do try this, I want to hear what you think. I don’t think Christmas Blend launches until some time in November, so it shocks me that stores are getting their blonde roast Christmas Blend in! I know several stores in Seattle that have it too.
I am excited to try this…I cannot imagine what to expect from this as a blonde roast!
I will be real interested to try the Blond Christmas.
If Starbucks continues their past practice of separately roasting and then blending (I hope), there is an opportunity to create a blond roast that might satisfy this dark/bold drinker.
BTW, I am sitting at my regular Starbucks enjoying some of the best brewed Komodo Dragon that I have had in ages. One of the few remaining experienced Baristas is on duty this morning and the beverage show it.
So, no sooner do I send my last post then the Store Manager sits down to show me the Blond Christmas bag. The beans smell great with none of that sour note so often in lighter roasts that tingles my nose.
Before you know it Starbucks will be sending out the Christmas Roasts in July 😉 .
The real reason the Christmas Roasts are probably starting to show up so early is that the roasting plant and warehouse are already busy with the end of year specialties.
Any Thanksgiving Blend sightings?
Actually, I think the reason they’re shipping it early is because we’re having holiday store meetings in a couple of weeks, and they want us to be able to taste it. I’m only getting one case in my order tomorrow, so I think it’s just for tasting purposes.
We did a coffee tasting of this in my store the day it arrived. First I need to say I hate most blondes, and this one was no different. I wait all year for the christmas blend to come out, so I was up to trying this coffee, despite my hatred for blonde roasts. There was really no noticeable spice notes, unlike the dark roast version, there was some dried fruit tastes, but in the end it tasted like acidic water with hints of fruit. I would not recommend this coffee to anyone other then a diehard blonde fan. While the coffee was bland at best, the aftertaste was a very intense lemony taste that lingered on the tongue for a very long time, and was extremely hard to get out of my mouth.
I disagree with Jake (who I did the tasting with). The beans smelled like cocoa beans, but brewed had some light spice notes and yes a lingering after taste. It was on the opposite spectrum of the Indivisible. I’m an African coffee fanatic and even I had a hard time with the Indivisible. Christmas Blonde was lightly festive, good for social gatherings, mixed tastes and my parents are going to love it. If they keep the Christmas Espresso this year we are going to have an awesome holiday coffee display for sure!
We got this in our order last week, just one case, and I’m so excited to try it! We haven’t had the chance to do a tasting yet but maybe tomorrow?! I also got really excited about the design/font on the bag…but that’s probably just me 😉 I’ll let you know of any yummy pairings
got it as my mark out teehee
I haven’t seen this in my store yet, and I’m not a blonde fan, but I’ll try anything once. Really disappointed to see they’re recycling the Christmas design for a third time. I used to look forward to the red cups and new design. This is a big let down.
Being a Starbucks “Coffee Master” has taught me that every coffee has a certain cooking temperature. If this temperature is exceeded then entire batch is wasted. Being a blonde roast means that is has a lower position on the roasting scale. I tried Christmas BLonde a few days ago and actualluyconducted a coffee tasting. Tastings are able to pair the coffee and truely get to sit down for a second and actually take in all the flavors. This special blend of aged sumatra has a mellow and soft taste on the tip of the tounge but yet some how still packs a punch of caffeine. A little fact is that the lower the coffee is on the roasting scale, meaning the light coffees have the most caffeine. This sounds in accurate but the less that the coffee is roasted(cooked) the higher amount of caffeine it still has in it. I Hope all of you enjoyed this little learning experience. Now im going to go enjoy a slice of pumpkin bread with my christmas blonde! Mmmm
I tried this year’s Christmas Blend for the first time today and was very disappointed. It tasted just like any generic dark roast, Not spicey at all. It didn’t even smell like Christmas blend.
I bought bags of Christmas Blend and Christmas Blend Blond this weekend and I was not a fan of either roast. The blonde didn’t have enough of the Sumatra spiciness to it and the regular Christmas Blend was VERY bland overall. I will stick with Christmas Blend Espresso.