Holiday Drinks That Sell: Recipes and Coffee Picks from Our Coffee Team

The holidays are the busiest stretch of the year for most cafés. More foot traffic, more gift shopping, and a lot more people looking for something special in their cup.

On November 12, Bellwether's coffee team went live to plan for it: which coffees to feature, how to name and sell them, and two holiday drinks any café can make with what's already behind the bar. Head Roaster Zoe Gigas and Senior Coffee Advisor Garrett Grubbs built both drinks on camera. The full replay and both recipes are below.

There's no rule book for a holiday coffee

Zoe opened with the point that frees up the whole menu: a holiday coffee is whatever you decide it is. In her experience, customers tend to split two ways. Some want a rich, warming, sit-by-the-fire cup. Others want something bright and festive, closer to cranberry sauce than chocolate.

Either way, the coffee doesn't change. The way you describe it does. A coffee with "spiced orange" on the label can go on your holiday menu as gingerbread. Red currant becomes sugared cranberry. Vanilla becomes vanilla cookie.

“To me, holiday coffees are all in how you market them.”

Zoe Gigas, Head Roaster

The coffee team's holiday picks

For a classic, cozy cup

Mexico Sierra Azul. Zoe's number one pick: chocolate ganache and spiced orange, balanced and layered enough for brewed coffee, espresso and milk drinks. It also comes as Decaf Mexico Sierra Azul (sugarcane process), so you can offer the same holiday coffee by day and as a decaf by night.

For a bright, festive cup

Kenya Riakiberu AB. Red currant, rooibos and a citrus finish. On a holiday menu, Zoe would call it sugared cranberry, vanilla cookie and winter citrus.

Something in between

Sumatra Bahtera Wet-Hulled. Sumatra divides people, but this one is different from what you would expect: more dried fruit, sweet spice and soft vanilla. Zoe compared it to a Fig Newton, or a fruitcake. It's the base for the Mrs. Claus below.

Small lots for gifts and limited retail bags

People spend a little more over the holidays and want something special. These smaller lots work as limited-time retail bags or a pour-over feature:

• Colombia Sebastian Ramirez Pink Bourbon: agave-like sweetness, hibiscus and red fruit.
• Colombia Andrés Martinez Geisha: the showstopper of the lineup.
• Ethiopia Koke Honey: a honey-processed Ethiopian, which is rare.

Zoe's tip for selling them: put one on bar for a few days as a limited-time tasting. People want to taste a coffee before they buy a bag of it.

Recipe: The Bellwether Mint Mocha

A peppermint mocha without flavoring oils. Garrett builds the syrup from a dried mint tea, fresh mint, cocoa, sugar, a touch of molasses and vanilla, and a little espresso. Chocolate and mint go in as one syrup, so there's nothing extra to mix on bar.

“It's not like a perfumed peppermint. It's really something special that's different, and stands out on a menu without being crazy.”

Garrett Grubbs, Senior Coffee Advisor

Build the drink

1. Pull a double shot of espresso. The team used Mexico Sierra Azul at a medium roast.
2. Add 50 g of mint mocha syrup and stir. It sounds like a lot, but much of the weight is cocoa, not sugar, so the drink is sweet without being too sweet.
3. Top with steamed milk.

Mint mocha syrup (makes about 20 drinks)

Ingredients

• 100 g cocoa powder (the team uses Dutch-process)
• 400 g sugar
• 300 g water, for the cocoa
• 1 tbsp (15 ml) molasses
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 tsp (5 ml) espresso
• 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla
• 80 g dried mint leaves
• 400 g water, for the mint tea
• 60 g fresh mint, with stems

Method

1. Make the mint tea. Bring the 400 g of water to a boil and pour it over the dried mint leaves. Steep for 4 minutes. Strain, pressing the leaves to get out as much liquid as you can, and set the tea aside.
2. Bloom the cocoa. Whisk the cocoa powder and the 300 g of water together in a saucepan. Warm it slowly without letting it boil, until it's heated through and there are no clumps left.
3. Sweeten. Add the sugar, salt and molasses. Stir until everything has dissolved and it's hot all the way through, still without boiling.
4. Flavor. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the espresso and vanilla. Let it cool slightly on the counter.
5. Combine. Stir the mint tea into the chocolate syrup until it's fully mixed in.
6. Infuse. Add the fresh mint straight into the syrup. Cover it and leave it in the fridge for 24 hours.
7. Finish. Strain out the fresh mint, and your syrup is ready.

Why it works: the dried mint builds with every sip instead of fading after the first, and the fresh mint keeps it tasting green rather than artificial. Dutch-process cocoa is lower in acidity, so the coffee's own brightness comes through.

Shelf life: with no preservatives, keep it in the fridge and use it within two to three weeks. It's vegan, so it suits customers who skip dairy, and a new batch takes about a day and a half to make. The team suggests making two weeks' worth at a time.

Recipe: The Mrs. Claus

Jonathan Bass of the Bellwether marketing team came up with this one, a take on a hot toddy inspired by the Irish coffee at San Francisco's Buena Vista Cafe. It's built on batch brew, which almost never shows up in a specialty drink. That makes it fast to make in a rush, and it gives your filter coffee a spot on the holiday menu.

Ingredients (one drink)

• 5½ oz (165 ml) freshly brewed strong coffee, preferably a medium-dark roast. The team used Sumatra Bahtera.
• 1½ tsp (7.5 ml) pure maple syrup
• ½ tsp (2.5 ml) chocolate syrup, homemade or store-bought
• 3 tbsp (45 ml) lightly whipped cream (whip a larger batch of cold heavy cream ahead of service)
• A dusting of freshly grated nutmeg
• A dusting of cocoa powder

Method

1. Prepare the cream. Pour the cold cream into a small chilled bowl. Whisk by hand until it thickens slightly but is still pourable, about the consistency of melted ice cream.
2. Warm the glass. Fill a heatproof Irish coffee glass with hot water for 30 seconds, then empty it.
3. Add the flavorings. Put the maple syrup and chocolate syrup into the glass.
4. Add the coffee. Pour in the hot coffee and stir until the chocolate dissolves.
5. Float the cream. Hold a spoon just above the surface of the coffee, back side up, and slowly pour the cream over it so it forms a distinct layer.
6. Garnish. Finish with a dusting of cocoa powder and nutmeg.

Tips: keep the cream very cold, because cold cream whips more easily and floats better. For a single drink, a small milk frother works, but be careful not to overwhip. And don't sweeten the cream: the contrast between unsweetened cream and maple-sweetened coffee is what makes the drink.

Make it a Bad Santa: for an after-hours staff party, add 1 tbsp (15 ml) of bourbon between steps 3 and 4.

Less than a tablespoon of syrup goes into the whole drink, so the coffee stays the star. The team has also made it with Mexico Sierra Azul, whose maple notes echo the syrup, and with natural coffees like Colombia La Candelaria Natural, which bring out a fruitier side.

Plan your holiday stock early

The holidays get busier everywhere at once. If your café is busier, so are the cafés you sell wholesale to and your online subscribers. The coffee team's advice is to raise how much green coffee you keep on hand going into December, and to order a little earlier than usual so a winter shipping delay can't leave you short.

The coffees in this post were picked partly because there's plenty of each. You can see current prices and availability on the Green Coffee Marketplace.