sweet 16
Coffee shops are doing more than your everyday standards. With the end of the year approaching and cooler seasons, independent cafes are exploring drinks of a more creative and seasonal kind using herbs, roots, liqueurs, and yes, eggnog. Explore the roundup and enjoy your next cup.
1. In Memphis, Tennessee City and State bring back its Lumberjack Latte, complete with almonds threads of a warmer kind. The art of everyday coffee gets a seasonal lift, elevating the ritual to something more than your average.
2. Tustin, CA | Deck the halls of your coffee cup with Portola Coffee’s Nutella Mocha. The texture of both ingredients oozes double the pleasure feels. The mocha is house-made complimented by a hazelnut spread.
3. New York | Gimme Coffee’s Cardamom Cookie Cappuccino is ready to take the drink that’s known as the comfort capp to everything to the level and sugar and spice. The dark brown sugar is house made, which makes this a gimme now item.
4. Dates might be the going thing as a year turns over, but a coffee date of one or two are quite the normal. The Sticky Date Latte, is an espresso drink with a house made butterscotch date sauce. Sounds like the nice and not the naughty!
5. Pairing coffee with spirits is part of the crux of Café Demitasse’s brand. The long-time locals have steamed up the Eggnog Bourbon Latte. They call it coxy, warm and sweet, aka a beverage primer for the holiday season.
6. The lab is always in session at Onyx Coffee Lab. Known for their yearly seasonal menus, their dedication to art and coffee is worthy of attention. House-Made Brown butter Toffee is what they’ll call, and the culture too, a well met drink with no need of a hail mary. unless you can’t stand the decadence.
7. In Santa Monica, Good People Coffee Go brings the after-hours to daylight with Barney’s Delight. The ube drink features eggnog Liquor, spiced rum, vanilla, and oat milk. This drink is easy on the nog but a bit heavy on the liquor. Opt for this when you want to tip the drinking season into a spirited high.
8. Sometimes it’s hard to decide on one coffee, so why do it? Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Pilcrow Coffee gets it and with this four-drink flight, you’ll get it too. There’s Gingerbread, Eggnog, Peppermint Mocha and Frosted Sugar Cookie. These will take you high Into 2022. You know you want it.
9. Culver City, CA| This won’t destroy you. But it might destroy your penchant for that regular coffee drink order. Destroyer’s Winter Spritzer is ready to splash us all with a refresh. First, its espresso originates from Peru, which as an origin has had a lovely moment this year. Followed by pressed blood orange juice, wild juniper, and fresh rosemary opt for this when you want elegance in the cup.
10. Tell your friends, but please tell your aunties. Bloom and Plume Coffee’s Auntie Mabel is a fall/winter drink comprised of maple, smoked salt and espresso for a classic salt white. Bringing together all the savory and sweet things, you’ll soon be bloomin.
11.“Biiig fire!” That’s what Long Beach’s Recreational Coffee is calling their Peppermint Mocha. While this drink is one of those seasonal ones you can find on a big chain menu, RC’s treatment of the drink makes this personal. The peppermint mocha sauce is house=made, then paired with a 54% Belgium dark Chocolate with peppermint. It’s all of this hybrid mint in the right places.
12.Expect your coffee to go in directions other than the normal ways. The Reverse Orangutan’s seasonals showcases four drinks as its holiday stapes. The West Coast Spro and Tonic takes this riff on the alcoholic beverage and uses spruce pine, a tree found in the coastal planes of the south. That’s going to hit different and the culture is here for it.
13. Cooler weather means toasted sweets and campfire drinks. Enter The Campfire Latte from Arizona’s Presta Coffee. Its spicey, smoky and sweet meaning you’ll have a hot one on your hands.
14. Introducing the Cookie Butter Cream Latte says Frame Coffee who facilitates drinkers search for the perfect cup. Sipping on this beverage might engender the kind of fullness that comes when you’re satisfied. Get it in Fullerton.
15. In The Rockaway’s of New York, Greenhouse Café RBNY dresses up coffee with a Buttered Fig Americano. It takes its signature from hot buttered rum drinks, with espresso taking the liquor’s place.
16. If a café were being flirty, DayGlow’s Howls Moving Castle. puts the move on with this drink. It’s a vegan eggnog made with butterfly pea flower, distilled coffee and nutmeg. Served in a glass where the contents just meet the rum, this is the perfect ratio of flavors to eggnog. Served cold in a texture akin to a slush, its one to write home about, trust me.