Everything You Need To Know About Starbucks' Christmas Blend

Peppermint Mocha. Gingerbread Latte. Caramel Brulee Latte. These are just some of the beverages we think of when it comes to the long list of Starbucks' winter seasonal offerings. In the race for yearly seasonal supremacy, Starbucks tends to take the (coffee) cake when it comes to offering cozy and memorable drinks to sip on all season long. However, before these sweet and dreamy coffee beverages graced the Starbucks menu, there was the OG. The original grind. The Starbucks Christmas Blend.

As we float through the holiday season on clouds of comfy sweaters and warm beverages, we must pay homage to the beans that started it all for the coffee behemoth. Before the iconic holiday cups, pumpkin spice lattes, and cranberry bliss bars, the Christmas Blend helped move Starbucks into an entirely new era of its highly caffeinated existence. But you should get the full story before you run to your local Starbucks and pick up a bag of these signature beans. The holidays are all about giving, so why not give yourself the gift of some freshly brewed knowledge?

If you're a frequent visitor of any Starbucks cafe, you more or less know what to expect. For example, no matter the season, Starbucks is serving coffee that fits in with the time of year. However, it wasn't always that way. Back in the mid-'80s, when there were still just five locations, folks could only purchase coffee beans for home-brewing — indeed, there was no brewed coffee on-site. Long wooden counters lined the small but lively shops, with employees scooping coffee beans out of bins and into paper bags to sell to the masses.

While the holiday season is more or less the sweet spot for Starbucks' brews, beverages, and snacks these days, the folks behind these original Starbucks spots didn't even think to offer a holiday coffee until 1984. The company's merchandising manager at the time, Gay Niven, later said in a Starbucks article about this coffee's origins, "I do think that Christmas Blend was a really pivotal moment for Starbucks, where it really hit on something that was like, 'This is really good.'" 

The brand launched the Starbucks Christmas Blend on the day after Thanksgiving, the first of its kind. Starbucks' Christmas Blend was bagged and ready for purchase by the time people were out and about doing their Black Friday shopping. And to go along with the new holiday brew, the stores were decorated — fresh poinsettias and cedar garland lined the shelves, along with gift baskets filled with coffee, tea, and mugs. 

Many flavors of the winter holiday season are pretty obvious — peppermint, gingerbread, and cranberry tend to have a fairly firm grip on our taste buds. However, freshly brewed coffee flavors tend to be more subtle, and the Christmas Blend is no exception.

The original blend was made with beans from Latin America and Indonesia, a blend of coffees resulting in a flavorful, smooth sip. Aged beans from Sumatra were also part of the original blend for a hit of spice to round it all out — and these beans are really the most notable part of the Christmas Blend recipe. After being purchased at the peak of their harvest, the unroasted coffee beans are relocated to rest and age for up to five years in an ideal Singaporean climate. 

However, the Christmas Blend has since evolved, and the one you know today takes its inspiration from the original by including dark-roasted beans from the Asia-Pacific, Colombia, and Guatemala, along with those aged Sumatran beans, as well. Before being blended together, each type of bean is roasted separately, making this a post-roast blend. With notes of chocolate, spice, and spruce, the final result of this renewed Christmas Blend brew is a full-flavored sip.

After the Christmas Blend was first released in November 1984, the demand for the seasonal beans was higher than the team at Starbucks ever imagined. Customers reportedly even lined up around the block to buy bags of the freshly roasted blend. Dave Seymour, who began his Starbucks career at the roasting plant two years prior, worked on a small team that put together the shipping orders during the Christmas Blend rush. "Christmas Blend was our first big hit, so we were sort of guessing on the volume, and we didn't really guess right ... we would get calls for emergency 1,000-pound orders," said Seymour in that same Starbucks piece. "In those days, if we did an emergency order, we could easily package it and deliver it within a couple hours."

Indeed, Seymour recalled receiving countless orders for the new blend — noting that the team would then pack the freshly roasted coffee in 20-pound metal cans to be sent over to the coffee chain's Pike Place Market location. Seymour even claimed that they would still be warm upon delivery, as a result of how fast the team were roasting the beans.

For coffee drinkers who can't imagine walking into their local Starbucks and not ordering a coffee and a nosh, it may seem almost impossible to consider the fact that Starbucks wasn't always slinging freshly brewed coffee beverages. Far from it — as previously mentioned, in the early days, Starbucks was strictly bagging and selling coffee beans. However, Starbucks turned a page on its existence in the coffee zeitgeist in 1987, giving customers the opportunity to order a fresh cup of coffee alongside their freshly roasted beans. As you may have guessed, this option also included brewing up the Christmas Blend.

As the brand continued to grow and change in the late '80s and early '90s, the creator of Starbucks' Espresso Roast, Dave Olsen, was in charge of developing Starbucks' first holiday coffee blend every season. "A nicely composed blend is something that doesn't grow on a single tree," Olsen later explained in that Starbucks post, comparing the process to blending different varieties of wine. Indeed, Olsen's role was to ensure that the final Christmas Blend product every holiday season was flavorful and well-rounded, making for a memorable, festive moment with every sip. "It's a thing unto itself," he added, "and that was the objective every year."

As seasonal coffee trend setters, Starbucks doesn't have just one coffee offering for when the weather gets colder and the need for something cozy to sip on is almost mandatory. As we've now learned, Christmas Blend has been setting the standard for the holiday coffee season for decades, but Starbucks' Holiday Blend is yet another seasonal offering that brings a similar comforting flavor. While these brews are both available during the winter holiday season, the Christmas and Holiday Blends each have their own unique flavor notes that make them special in their own way.

Unlike the Christmas Blend, which is a dark roast, the Holiday Blend is a medium roast for a slightly lighter flavor. The beans are also a different blend than the Christmas variety — roasted Latin American and Sumatran. Finally, the overall taste differs from its Christmas predecessor, with notes of sweet maple and herbs for a sweeter flavor profile.

As for the Christmas Blend, it's now featured in a range of coffee products. In addition to its whole bean, ground, and decaf options, there's also a Christmas Blend Blonde Roast and a Christmas Blend Espresso Roast.

The Christmas Blend may have been the original holiday offering, but it didn't stand alone for long. In 1997, 13 years after the Christmas Blend debuted, Starbucks introduced its first holiday cups. And with reds, blues, greens, and purples, along with artistic, seasonal patterns giving them a gift-wrapped look and feel, this initial line was about as holiday themed as they could get. However, the coffee chain delivered what may be one of its most iconic cups to date two years later: the red holiday cup. With the latter launch, Starbucks fully leaned into offering new holiday traditions for customers to look forward to (nowadays, the chain's taken to announcing entire holiday cup lineups).

Next up? Expanding its seasonal drinks menu. After establishing a beverage research and development team in the late '90s, the Gingerbread Latte made its way to holiday menus in 2000. Once the Peppermint Mocha launched two years later, Starbucks found itself with a hit of a holiday-inspired beverage, and it's remained one of the company's most sought-out seasonal drinks to this day. 

Of course, soon would come the holiday-themed iced coffees, Refreshers, and seasonal treats in a range of sweet and salty offerings. Basically, the Christmas Blend is just one member of the family of seasonal coffees, beverages, and snacks that signify the Starbucks winter holiday season.

Coffee innovation has come a long way, and we're lucky enough to have so much more than the traditional coffee machine brew. Whether you're a pour-over champion or prefer a French press, Starbucks' Christmas Blend can and will answer the call. Generally speaking, outside the coffee mug, coffee can provide an incredible upgrade to many holiday eats. 

For example, chef Mitch Rosenbaum, head chef at Hamlet's Eatery, tells us that he uses the powerful flavor of coffee to enhance smoky flavors for red meat dishes, as well as add depth to elegant sweets. This is where the full-bodied flavor and spice in the Christmas Blend can and will do its best work. Marilyn Schlossbach, a New Jersey-based chef, says that she sees coffee as a flavor gateway because of its bitter and acidic qualities. You can lean on the bitterness and gentle acidity in the Christmas Blend, then, to balance with the sweetness in toffee chocolate chip cookies or chocolate brownies. Or have yourself a morning win with a rich coffee glaze to top morning cinnamon rolls.

For those who are coffee curious when it comes to savory cooking, you're in luck. Using the Christmas Blend in an old-fashioned beef stew or even a German-style pot roast with beer gravy can add depth and complexity to an already rich flavor profile. Grind up your Christmas Blend beans and use the grounds in rubs for a steak with plenty of spice and balanced sweetness, or lean on the rich, chocolatey notes to add full-bodied flavor to a marinade for outstanding grilled ribs.