FROM STAFF REPORTS
Barista Magazine is proud to partner with Pacific Foods Barista Series for a special holiday celebration that we’re calling Holiday Cheer (follow along on Instagram at #baristaseriesholidaycheer).
We invited eight outstanding baristas from all over the United States to create an original drink with a winter holiday theme using one of the products in the Pacific Foods Barista Series line. And that was the only rule! Some of them turned in boozy Hanukkah drinks, others created a drink that’s easy to scale up for a crowd during Kwanzaa. But every single one of them has quality and creativity in common—we can honestly say these drinks are some of the most fun, unique, and delicious holiday coffee beverages we’ve ever tasted!
Every few days through the end of December, we’ve been posting one of the drinks right here at Barista Mag Online, and the posts include a PDF download of each drink recipe.
First up was Karla Ly Quiñones García, who owns Café Comunión in Santurce, Puerto Rico, with her husband, Abner Roldán. You can read all about her drink, Miel de Avena, a spiced honey oat latte that uses Pacific Foods Barista Series Oat to reach perfection, by clicking here!
Second was Emilee Bryant, manager of Everyman Espresso’s SoHo shop in New York, and current contestant on The Barista League: Online season 2! Read about Emilee’s wildly delicious drink, the Drunkin Donut, which uses Pacific Foods Barista Series Almond, by clicking here!
The third holiday drink was brought to us by the incredible duo behind Cxffeeblack in Memphis, Tenn.: Bartholomew Jones and Renata Henderson. They created a fantastic drink to celebrate the fourth principle of Kwanzaa, Ujamaa, which uses Pacific Foods Barista Series Hemp! Check it out here.
Our fourth drink recipe was created by Cup of Excellence education manager and instructor Alex Pond. Alex was inspired by the Giving Tuesday holiday, and created an incredible drink using Pacific Foods Barista Series Unsweetened Almond.
The fifth Holiday Cheer recipe was from the world’s youngest Q Grader, Frankie Volkema, who operates her own coffee company, Joven Coffee, under her father’s company, Sparrows Coffee in Grand Rapids, Mich. Frankie was inspired to create the drink December Horchata, using Pacific Foods Barista Series Unsweetened Almond, by the young coffee producers from whom she buys coffee in Cauca, Colombia.
Next up was a drink by Selina Viguera, who works as café lead for Blue Bottle Coffee—Abbot Kinney in Venice, Calif. Selina found inspiration in the tradition of Simbang Gabi in the Philippines, which is a series of night masses in anticipation of Christmas. Selina used two Pacific Foods Barista Series products, Oat and Coconut, to make her drink.
Our seventh Holiday Cheer drink was an original coffee by Joshua Edens, bar and engagements director for Onyx Coffee Lab in Fayetteville, Ark. Joshua was inspired by the classic Christmas dessert, Bûche de Noël, which they call the Yule Log Martini. As a trained barista competition judge at both the USCC and WCE levels, Joshua knows their way around the drink-building process, and this stunning drink utilizing Pacific Foods Barista Series Oat was a holiday (or anytime) hit!
And just like that, we’re almost finished with the Pacific Foods Barista Series Holiday Cheer Project! Our final drink of the eight-drink series comes to us from Adam JacksonBey, a well-known coffee professional, founder of GoFundBean, and co-creator of the DMV Coffee series. Fittingly, Adam has created a drink that he likes to enjoy on New Year’s Eve! Adam calls the drink Brew Year’s Eve, specifically because it’s inspired by one of his holiday favorites: the Christmas Ale by Great Lakes Brewing Co., located in his hometown of Cleveland. Adam uses Pacific Foods Barista Series Unsweetened Almond for this drink. Read more and get the recipe to try it for yourself on New Year’s Eve below!
