Right about the time (actually exactly the time) I got my hands on Green Mountain’s Gingerbread K-Cups (Limited Edition Seasonal), I also received a box of one of their limited edition Holiday Blend.  Now quite frankly, I’m not sure what really goes into coffee to make it a holiday blend, at first I thought maybe little bits of reindeer, but that seemed to me much more likely to come from the Caribou Coffee company, so I decided to skip any further attempts at humor, and instead went to the Green Mountain website to gather some information, and this is what I found out.

The Description

“An elegantly balanced blend of light and dark roasted coffees. Deliciously rich and aromatic”.   Sounds a bit like Autumn Harvest Blend, doesn’t it?

The Aroma

Holiday Blend smell like a nondenominational holiday event; or even Christmas…except without a trace of pine, spruce, or candy cane.  Actually, it smells like a natural sweet, delicious medium roast coffee, which makes perfect sense, because that’s what it is.

Drinking It Black

Green Mountain Holiday Blend is smooth with a hint of nutty flavor that sits in the back of the throat.  It finishes with a subtle, but discernible dark chocolate tones.  On the whole it’s somewhat reminiscent of Kenyan AA, although it lacks the natural sweetness, and some of the sophistication of that blend.  It’s very good straight out of the brewer, but probably nothing I’d consider drinking black.  Although, here I am several sips in, and I’m starting to change my mind.

With Cream and Sugar

When you throw cream and sugar into the mix, Holiday Blend becomes a really tasty medium roast, actually, it was pretty tasty before.  It’s certainly among my favorites, and draws comparisons (at least in how much I like it) to Coffee People’s Donut Shop Coffee (which happens to be the gold standard for K-Cups not named Tully’s Kona).  I’d be more than content to drink this every day, but of course that’s not going to happen because not only do I have too many other varieties to review, but I also only have one box.  You do the math.

Final Thoughts

Well, I already said most of what I was going to see here, up in that cream and sugar section (I’m some kinda efficient today), but I will leave you with this…  Green Mountain’s Holiday Blend is my favorite among the non-flavored seasonals I’ve tried so far.  Granted, it’s a short list that only include Autumn Harvest Blend, and Summer Symphony, but given a choice of the 3, I’d take Holiday Blend every time.  To quote my buddy Ken, “mmm, tastes like Christmas”.

Shameless Plug

It wouldn’t be a K-Cup-Challenge Review without a shameless plug. And since this review happens to coincide quite nicely with the heart of the holiday shopping season (at least at the time or writing), I’m going to strongly suggest that you do some of your holiday shopping at my favorite coffee roaster; Green Mountain.

As I’ve pointed out a couple dozen times before, Green Mountain carries the entire lineup of Keurig Home Brewers, including my personal favorite, the B70, as well as the brand new, highly portable, highly awesome B30 Mini Brewer (available in red) (review/video).

Of course the also offer a huge assortment of K-Cups, including Holiday Blend, as well as the other winter seasonals like Gingerbread (review). If none of the above is what you’re looking for, they also offer a collection of unique gifts and samplers.

If that weren’t enough, you can also Save $2 on Every Box when you join Green Mountain’s Café EXPRESS program.

Green Mountain has also very recently introduced a Refer A Friend Program. If you refer a friend to Green Mountain and that friend buys a Keurig Brewer, you’ll both get two free regular variety samplers.

While you’re here, check out the growing list of K-Cup reviews in my K-Cup Challenge.