This post is a little late, but here it is...a compedium of holiday drinks including fall & winter.
Let's start off with this...
from Communal Coffee in South Park...
That was the matcha caramel apple. It may have looked quite striking, with the green matcha throughout and cinnamon on top, but to be honest, that was waaaay too sweet to finish in one sitting. A few sips were all I could handle. This was totally diabetes in a cup. Fuck man.
The other drink was Bert's mocha. No latte art and in an ugly paper cup because it's a cart and they don't have ceramic ware or glassware (boo).
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Winter signals Bert's obsession these peppermint drinks. Usually in mocha form. This was Hawthorn Coffee's version. Always a good cup here. Except Bert substituted it with Oatly (oak milk substitute). The funny thing was that this barely tasted of peppermint. We both tried and found it tasted like a regular mocha. So being the bitch that I am, took it back and questioned the flavor (in a nice way).
The barista graciously took his drink back and later gave us another. No latte art this time. Good God, I hope she didn't spit in this thing. More peppermint flavor, but at what cost. For the record, he didn't keel over later that day, so hopefully no extra "special" ingredients, ha ha.
We were in Liberty Station and took a walk to look at the older buildings. This anchor is near the Barnett Street entrance...
Moniker was our destination.
They still had their Campfire cappucino, a fall drink. Looks cute,but the graham cracker was just perched on the edge and what looks to be a slightly torched housemade marshmallow sitting on top of that. I liked the size of this drink (smaller than a monstrous latte) but felt that the campfire theme was not really carried out in the flavor of the coffee itself, but just on the "topping" or accoutrements.
Another repeat drink was the Downtown Julian from Scrimshaw (it's the drink on the right). Has housemade apple syrup, garnished with a super strong candied pieces of ginger and topped with cinnamon and nutmeg. It tasted like apple pie in a cup! The other drink is their version of a Vietnamese iced coffee. While good, I would rather make my own and make it much stronger with less condensed milk.
Repeat Fall drink #3 was the Jane Goodall at Cafe Virtuoso in Barrio Logan.
Of the fall drinks so far, this banana flavored latte was my favorite. I hope they have it again next year.
The first weekend of December, I met up with a good friend at Dark Horse, Golden Hill. I saw on IG that they would be offering the minty mocha cortado. But....it was not to be.
Apparently they did not have the syrup ready (housemade peppermint) so my friend and I got two of their fall drinks labeled below:
Her they are: Sweet potato latte + Salted maple latte
They look the same, but have different flavor profiles. I liked mine better. The sweet potato tasted too pumpkin like for me.
S3 in Grantville is known for their great coffee (from Cafe Moto) and their beautiful drinks. They are one of the few places that I like make drinks really well that aren't a hipster Third Wave coffee bar. The ladies that work here (and more recently, the man I saw for several recent visits) are super nice.
This was their Peppermint latte - S3 - Bert's drink. It was a little more frou frou than he would like liked. To be honest, the drink didn't need all of the whipped cream, sprinkles, powder and crushed candy on top. The drink itself was really good, but got logged down in sugary goo with the melted whipped cream, sprinkles, etc.
This was their Nutcracker latte - made with toffee amaretto foam with a hand dripped waffle cookie white chocolate pistachio, cacao nibs and cranberries). It looked beautiful but most importantly, tasted as good as it looked. The coffee wasn't scalding hot (it never should be) and was comfortable enough to drink without the fear of burning your throat, ha ha. I like that S3 has lovely ceramic ware as well.
On another weekend Bert and I were at Imperial Grounds. It might have been Small Business Saturday. I thought maybe they would have their winter drinks ready but they didn't. The barista (I forgot his name but he was also an educator) was really nice and told Bert he could make him a peppermint mocha, seen below.
While on the "thin" side, the drink was quite nice and we had a nice time chatting with the barista that morning.
In early December, D and I went on a mini food crawl. We hit up two coffee spots up north, the first being House of Black. On IG, they depicted a new drink called the Mint Condition. I was very disappointed when I got my drink, the one below with the Andes mint. Their photo online showed a pretty drink with latte art, no wrapped candy on the side. The drink was also super sweet to the point of being undrinkable. The drink on top was D's - hers was a salted caramel latte. Our drinks look the same.Sorry to say but yeah. I try to seek out places that differentiate themselves with specialty drinks. It is a disappointment when reality is different from what they advertise. I think I am done with House of Black because they haven't really delivered the goods in terms of taste and looks.
House of Black folks are big Harry Potter fans (hence their name) and also, hence this cup's stamp. If you know the movies, you'll get the reference.
A better visit for D and I was at nearby Mostra. They had several specials. We took ours to go since we wanted to get back home...It was a long day. D was too sugared out so she got a regular coffee while I pondered my choices. I eventually settled on the Ferrero Cold Brew.
One of the better holiday drinks I've had. I liked that it was iced as well. There were bits of hazelnuts int the drink as well. A little too sweet though.
At Modern Times Cafe with Bert...we admired their Christmas decor and enjoyed their Peppermint mocha.
There was a faint sprinkling of finely crushed candies (or were they red sprinkles?). The milk sub used here was almond...
We enjoyed this drink very much!
Back in December, Starbucks was hyping their new dirnk, the Juniper latte. This was a bit of a head scratcher since the flavors were not mainstream. Juniper to me taste like pine needles. Not the flavor I want in my coffee,reminiscent of potpourri almost. The sage was also an interesting addition. Very faint the flavor was but I can see a small percentages of folks who might like this. I happened to nt like it.
You can kind of see the pine citrus sugar...
So...for the second weekend of December, I tried my luck at the La Mesa location of Dark Horse Coffee. I really wanted to get that minty mocha cortado and yes, they did fucking have it....
This is the third year they've offered this drink. It is one of my favorites.
Sitting outside because of better lighting. Crushed candies didn't quite encircle all of the rim. The drink seemed sweeter than I remembered.
OMG....
Here is Bert's Peppermint mocha from Holsem - not very picturesque though. While there weren't any visible chocolate shavings on top, they had fallen into the drink, making it quite chocolately and rich. Good one this.
Versus the peppermint latte from James Coffee, Bankers Hill. This had a more rich mouthfeel...
Peppermint latte from Lofty Coffee, Little Italy during a recent visit. A little sloppy on top but damn, was this version pretty good. Bert got his with almond milk, I kept using his mocha as a 'chaser' to my macchiato.
Dark Horse Coffee has done it again by offering yet another creative holiday drink. This was called the Noggy by Nature - an eggnog cortado! I saw eggnog lattes offered at other places but not the cortado (and I do prefer the smaller sized drinks too).
Looks so nice! The barista garnished the drink with nutmeg. The eggnog flavor wasn't overpowering. I don't have fond memories of drinking real eggnog, which is why I'm surprised I liked this.
Creme brulee latte (aka the Tiny Tim) from Cafe Virtuoso - nicely torched! Another great drink!
One of the more recent and creative drinks I tried was this Gingerbread latte from Leap Coffee in Carlsbad (in the Carlsbad Shoppes)...Even Bert enjoyed this drink (I took a risk and ordered with with whole milk, yikes). This was very smooth and quite nice!
Peppermint mocha from Leap:
Middle finger courtesy of our friend Tatonka. Both he and Bert got peppermint mochas that they both enjoyed. We liked the ambiance at the new Leap (haven't gone to the old one but may do so in the near future).
The last peppermint drink I tried was with D during a recent weekend out. This was from Heartwork and we had it with almond milk. The drink was lovely and made quite well. Very rich and smooth.
I don't know how Bert was able to imbibe all of these peppermint drinks. I liked taking a few sips here and there but after awhile, it got to be too much. I do have to say that Lofty, Holsem and Leap's versions stood out to me this year. As for the new drinks, I loved the Jane Goodall from Virtuoso and the Noggy by Nature cortado from Dark Horse. Points for creativity there.
Last year's holiday drinks post:
December 2017
There might be a few drinks I missed but I'll either add them in later or do a separate post.
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