Christmas in July - Sticky Toffee Pudding
Description
HOW WE GOT HERE | Near the end of every calendar year, we release what is perhaps our most anticipated, most beloved menu offering: the Holiday Blend. It is a big, warm, liquid hug to our family who has supported us for years, and it's also an enthusiastic high five to the new friends we've met along the way. We love that blend, and we love the folks who enjoy it with us even more.
Well, we know all too well that we can't just go back to December anytime we want. With temperatures in the 90s and the UV index turning a shade of reddish-purple, it's pretty clear we won't be decking the halls anytime soon. But. What we can do is have a little fun in the middle of this cruel summer. So, we're bringing back some of those beloved holiday flavors for you to enjoy from the comfort of any number of beachfront destinations this year. Merry Christmas (in July), ya filthy animals.
HOW WE DID IT | For this year's version, we opted for some inspiration from across the pond, a delightfully messy British dessert often enjoyed around the holidays: sticky toffee pudding. Not to be confused with the oft sung-of figgy pudding, sticky toffee pudding was popularized in Cumbria, England and features a spiced sponge cake (usually containing finely chopped dates) covered in a decadent toffee sauce. To recreate the flavors in this delightful dessert, we blended three coffees from some of our favorite producers throughout Colombia:
50% Julio Madrid - Toffee
40% Wilton Benitez - Red Bourbon
10% Andres Cardona - Purple Honey
Making up half the blend, Julio's Toffee co-ferment (which actually used bananas during fermentation) contributes a lot of the big dessert flavors for which we were searching - namely, that delicious toffee sauce. Wilton's Red Bourbon lot gives us all things brown: think brown sugar, brown spices, and dried dates. Finally, we incorporated a dash of Andres Cardona's intensely processed Purple Honey lot to add life, intensity, and a little bit of Christmas cheer (read: booziness) to the cup.
WHAT IT TASTES LIKE | The result is a Christmas in July drop worthy of our wildest dreams. Like the dessert, it's sticky-sweet and decadent, well-suited for mixing with milk or serving alongside your actual desserts (may we recommend the toffee pudding, anyone?). There's plenty of complexity happening in the cup, reminding us of other sips like root beer and cherry liqueur. But, it's still relatively approachable as far as our Future releases go, making it the perfect cup to share with anyone you're meeting at the beach this summer. With notes of cinnamon, brown sugar, and dates, enjoying this coffee in the dead of summer sort of reminds us of seeing snow on the beach - it's weird, but also really beautiful.
