Christmas isn’t just around the corner anymore, it has already turned onto your road, caught your eye, waved enthusiastically and is beginning to jog right at you.
Not that we would ever want to avoid Christmas, it is our favourite time of year. Of course, one of the most special parts of Christmas is spending time with those you love, showing them how much they mean to you, and taking the opportunity to treat them to something special. It’s no different here at Bridge Coffee Roasters and we knew that this year we really wanted to do something special for our nearest and dearest: coffee.
We all got together and put our minds to what we could do for our coffee to show it how much we love and appreciate it. To bring Christmas to our coffee we couldn’t put it in a Christmas sweater covered in tinsel and flashy lights. We couldn’t buy it new socks or a tie, and we thought that maybe a mug was just a little too on-the-nose. So, we decided that we should give it a couple of extra ingredients to give it some Yule cool.
There are certain flavours which we all associate with Christmas and it wasn’t long before we were all elbows deep in recipes and ingredients, working out how to bring that special festive spirit to our coffees. Undaunted, we turned our minds to arguably the best ingredients for any Christmas: cake and alcohol. Our initial trials of the concept of the Flaming Christmas Pudding Latte resulted in the building being evacuated three times. We could have saved a lot of time if we had checked the recipe for a rather less combustible Christmas Pud Latte which adds equal quantities of almond and cherry syrup to a traditional latte.
Christmas decorations are such a vital and beautiful part of Christmas. I think everybody treasures that perfect childhood memory of driving or walking down a cold, dark winter street with their parents and seeing a beautiful Christmas tree casting a multicoloured reflection through somebody’s front window onto the rain-washed pavement. Captured like a scene from a movie we can all remember our parents turning to each other bathed in the light, looking into each other’s eyes and whispering, “bloody hell, it was only Halloween last week!”
We realised that we couldn’t put a Christmas tree into a cup, but we did find a way to fit in another classic and much more edible decoration without risking a mouthful of pine-needles. Let us present to you the chocolate gingerbread house in a cup! The Gingerbread Mocha is a combination of Sweetbird’s sugar-free gingerbread syrup, Zuma dark hot chocolate, espresso and steamed milk tastes like somebody really has simply dissolved a chocolate gingerbread house into your coffee.
It’s strange how nuts have become so representative of Christmas: usually a string bag of mixed nuts which look about as edible and appetising as a bag of rocks. Without them though, how could there possibly be the annual argument about where the nutcrackers were put away after the preceding year’s celebrations? These family traditions are what make Christmas such a joyful part of our lives. In honour of your Christmas bag of nuts, can we recommend the Toffee Nut Cappuccino? With equal quantities of Sweetbird’s English Toffee Syrup and Hazelnut Syrup with a double espresso and steamed milk: Christmas nuts with just a little sweet indulgence for that true taste of Christmas luxury.
It is important to remember that, unless you are unlucky enough to be the person responsible for the most arduous and stressful job of the year, making Christmas dinner, Christmas is supposed to be a holiday. A holiday that bankrupts you for the next three months; a holiday that forces you to spend extended periods with drunken relatives and a holiday without sun-drenched beaches, but still a holiday. So maybe one of the best things we can do for our most beloved friend, coffee, is give it some time off?
Instead of a coffee, how do you feel about sitting in your kitchen on a dark Christmas evening enjoying a few moments of rare peace and quiet with your hands wrapped around a warm mug of Salted Caramel White Hot Chocolate? Zuma white hot chocolate, Sweetbird salted caramel syrup and steamed milk make for a soothing cuddle in a cup, could there be a better way to end a busy day? Could there be a better way to gather your thoughts and prepare yourself for that Christmas season which is jogging ever faster in your direction?
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