Christmas Blend: How it all Started
19 Dec 2022
If you ask the Head of Coffee (Dominick Majdandzic aka 'Domtron') for the exact genesis of the Christmas Blend, you may very well get two different stories depending on the time of day. This said, the lofty goal has always been creating a memorable, quality experience, celebrating the most special time of year. In the words of Domtron:
On reflection, it's the same pressure to sculpt the perfect Christmas cup at home with the family that we've channeled into the Christmas blend here at White Horse Coffee. I don't recall the exact date that White Horse started roasting this blend but i do recall our Modus Operandi ("MO") for creating it, “Let's get the two best coffees we tasted from the year and put them together to make something beautiful”. Our first Christmas Blend was a mix of Costa Rica and Ethiopia - a subtle roast. We were pleasantly surprised by all the positive reviews coming from our loving customers. And so it was born. Over the years, we changed the MO of the blend to have a more distinct 'Christmas' flavour: moorish jam and fruit berry characteristics, apple tarts and of course the best ingredient money can buy… CHOCOLATE. Then it came to Christmas blend 2018 - we really hit our straps and found that sprinkle of fairy dust magic! It was a blend of Brazil, Ethiopia, Kenya and Panama. The 2018 blend was heavenly, with so much chocolate and fruit it was like a little Christmas gift in every cup. Truly, mother nature at her best. In the years that followed, we'd been devout in attempting to recreate the 2018 magic, using the same coffees, from the same farms, but this mysterious and dark mistress known as 'coffee' was not producing the same magic.
Enter 2022, and with renewed vigor, the team at White Horse Coffee decided to use the developments of the coffee industry to our advantage. In recent years coffee farmers have been experimenting with fermenting green coffee with fruits to infuse these flavors back into the beans. The outcome? We decided to add a little touch of 'fairy dust' into the mix. Specifically, we added 3% of strawberry-infused Colombian coffee into the Christmas blend for that sprinkle of magic we were so eagerly chasing. We made one final decision moving into this year. We've chosen to roast Christmas blend with a focus on “Milk-first” brewing. The results and feedback have been amazing! For those coffee heads out there, below is the make-up of the 2022 Christmas blend, including the magic 'fairy dust':
So, Domtron, take us through how it all started... DOM: There’s no doubt about it in my mind, Christmas is the most special time of year. Memories of family, of meals at Mum's house, the aromas of spiced hams, fruit mince tarts and of course many many arguments that I'd made the coffee wrong again, and that Uncle such and such doesn't like how i made the coffee...“Let's get the two best coffees we tasted from the year and put them together to make something beautiful!”
On reflection, it's the same pressure to sculpt the perfect Christmas cup at home with the family that we've channeled into the Christmas blend here at White Horse Coffee. I don't recall the exact date that White Horse started roasting this blend but i do recall our Modus Operandi ("MO") for creating it, “Let's get the two best coffees we tasted from the year and put them together to make something beautiful”. Our first Christmas Blend was a mix of Costa Rica and Ethiopia - a subtle roast. We were pleasantly surprised by all the positive reviews coming from our loving customers. And so it was born. Over the years, we changed the MO of the blend to have a more distinct 'Christmas' flavour: moorish jam and fruit berry characteristics, apple tarts and of course the best ingredient money can buy… CHOCOLATE. Then it came to Christmas blend 2018 - we really hit our straps and found that sprinkle of fairy dust magic! It was a blend of Brazil, Ethiopia, Kenya and Panama. The 2018 blend was heavenly, with so much chocolate and fruit it was like a little Christmas gift in every cup. Truly, mother nature at her best. In the years that followed, we'd been devout in attempting to recreate the 2018 magic, using the same coffees, from the same farms, but this mysterious and dark mistress known as 'coffee' was not producing the same magic.
Enter 2022, and with renewed vigor, the team at White Horse Coffee decided to use the developments of the coffee industry to our advantage. In recent years coffee farmers have been experimenting with fermenting green coffee with fruits to infuse these flavors back into the beans. The outcome? We decided to add a little touch of 'fairy dust' into the mix. Specifically, we added 3% of strawberry-infused Colombian coffee into the Christmas blend for that sprinkle of magic we were so eagerly chasing. We made one final decision moving into this year. We've chosen to roast Christmas blend with a focus on “Milk-first” brewing. The results and feedback have been amazing! For those coffee heads out there, below is the make-up of the 2022 Christmas blend, including the magic 'fairy dust':
- Brazil peaberry Pedra Branca natural 25%
- Brazil Ondas da Mantiqueira natural 25%
- Ethiopia Kercho Anderacha washed 30%
- Papua New Guinea Baroida natural 17%
- Colombia (magic Fairy dust) strawberry process 3%
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