12 Coffees of Christmas

Happy Holidays and Welcome to the first of 12 postings in my new series: 12 Coffees of Christmas, a different coffee shop and a unique holiday coffee special over the next 12 days. These are my first “official reviews” here at MyCoffeePro.com and I hope you find them informative and useful.

I’m not entirely sure how this idea popped into my head, but once it did, I was counting down the days until I got to start it. Last year I wrote up 12 Coupons for Christmas over at my AimItMedia.com website.

For those of you who’ve not read my “About” page, I’ve been in the coffee industry full-time for 13+ years and in the industry generally for over 20 … which just so happens to be more than 1/2 my life. I know from experience that my taste profiles are usually spot-on through feedback of master roasters at various cupping sessions I’ve participated in over these many years.

Note: My personal palette does tend to lean towards smooth and mellow, yet earthy with a hint of smoky … meaning I usually love Indonesian coffee, Sumatra in particular and so that should be taken into account when reading my reviews. To date, Boulangerie from Caffe Calabria, which is a blend of Indonesian and Central American (partially French Roasted), is my absolute favorite coffee blend.

In the interest of full disclosure, I worked for 6 years at Caffe Calabria before starting my independent coffee consultant & design career.

I’d also like to note that these first reviews focus on Holiday Coffee Specials and therefore can’t be taken as a review on the shops in general or the quality of their espresso, drinks and other offerings. Since I’m aware that this might be viewed as unfair reviews since the drinks are only seasonal, I have decided to re-review each shop as soon as possible and rate them on their straight espresso, a cappuccino, and a regular coffee.

I also don’t want a confusing mess of ratings on this site so I use the standard characteristics used in coffee cuppings for all drinks. Other ratings are set with a basic 5 star setting with more stars being better.

Do you have a favorite Holiday Coffee Special you’d like to review? Send it to me and maybe I’ll post them.

So here’s the list of “12 Coffees of Christmas” reviews:

For the First Coffee of Christmas my barista made for me … A Gingerbread Cookie Latte from the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

For the Second Coffee of Christmas my barista made for me … A Pumpkin Pie Latte from Filter Coffee House.

For the Third Coffee of Christmas my barista made for me … A Peppermint Mocha from Caffe Calabria.

For the Fourth Coffee of Christmas my barista made for me … An Eggnog Latte from Peet’s Coffee & Tea.

For the Fifth Coffee of Christmas my barista made for me … A Peppermint Moca from Letty’s Bean Shack.

For the Sixth Coffee of Christmas my barista made for me … A Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks.

For the Seventh Coffee of Christmas my barista made for me … A Vanilla Latte from Chocolat.

For the Eighth Coffee of Christmas my barista made for me … A Peppermint Mocha from Kona Coffee.

For the Ninth Coffee of Christmas my barista made for me … A Recession Peppermint Mocha from MyCoffeePro’s Café.

For the Tenth Coffee of Christmas my barista made for me … A Brown Sugar & Cinnamon White Chocolate Mocha from Claire de Lune.

For the Eleventh Coffee of Christmas my barista made for me … An Eggnog Latte from Caffe Carpe Diem.

For the Twelfth Coffee of Christmas my barista made for me … A Large Drip Coffee form Kohana Coffee.

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