Peter Schmidt pours coffee into a cup while he and other home coffee-roasting aficionados, sit around the kitchen table at Schmidt's home and talk about different coffee beans that each of them home roasted, Friday, Oct. 27, 2006 in Milwaukee. After looking and smelling the different beans, they grind them and evaluate the coffee, then rate each on a hundred point scale. America's most finicky coffee drinkers tout their caffeine connoisseurship in many ways. Then there are people at the outer edge of the country's java culture who roast coffee beans at home.
(AP Photo/ Ron Kuenstler)
Coffee shops make own holiday tradition
Mistletoe ... jingle bells ... Eggnog Latte! Limited-time only coffee drinks are increasingly becoming a holiday tradition, as more coffee shops offer the specialized treats to frazzled holiday shoppers.
Coffee chain Starbucks Corp., along with its signature red holiday coffee cup, has been rolling out its Eggnog Latte in early November for 21 years, and has more recently introduced Peppermint Mochas and Gingerbread Lattes. It also serves holiday snacks including Cranberry Bliss Bars and Gingerbread Loaf Cake.
But it's not alone. Pete's Coffee & Tea Inc. offers a Gingerbread Caffe Latte, an Eggnog Caffe Latte and a Peppermint Caffe Mocha. On Monday, Dunkin' Donuts started selling its own Gingerbread Latte. The shop typically offers one appropriately flavored coffee drink -- peppermint is one example -- each year.
"When you're out shopping, its a treat people get to reward themselves," said Dunkin' Donuts vice president John Gilbert.
Gilbert says drinks give a boost to sales during the holiday season, which is the busiest time of year for Dunkin' Donuts in some of its largest regions, including New York and New England.
Caribou Coffee this year also introduced a Gingerbread Latte, in addition to its Fa La Latte and Ho Ho Mocha. While Caribou chief executive Michael Coles said it was difficult to determine how much new business the drinks generate, since regular customers often switch to the holiday offerings, the new choices help spur return visits, he said.
"It adds new variety and new taste," he said.
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