Hot drinks - our festive favourites

15th November 2019

We are halfway through November so it’s officially Christmas! Before the Christmas lights switch on and the Christmas tunes start to ramp up, one thing that has graced everyone’s high street are Christmas food and drink items!

From Christmas stuffing sandwiches to flavoured mince pies, supermarkets and cafes are more experiential than ever! You have probably noticed that some big high street coffee shops have unveiled their Christmas cup designs, ready to pour with Christmas inspired drinks to get everyone in the festive spirit.

Christmas coffee seems to be one of the Christmas items that we are always ready for, with the famous Halloween pumpkin spice latte getting us geared up for what else the high street has to offer.

We headed to our local coffee shop chain, and from Christmas coffee to festive tea and juice, the UK’s favourite coffee shop had a vast selection. We focussed our taste test on hot drinks and opted for the following:

Irish Velvet & Cream Latte.

Gingerbread & Cream Latte.

Hazelnut & Praline Latte.

Spiced Cappuccino.

Black Forest Hot Chocolate.

Here is what the team rated from best to worst…

1^st

Black Forest Hot Chocolate - the prettiest by far with great presentation despite being in a disposable cup. The drink was the most flavoursome of the bunch, although it was incredibly sweet so the consensus was that you couldn’t drink a whole one to yourself.

2^nd

Gingerbread Latte - great ginger flavour, the only comment was that it would have been nice to have a gingerbread man on top as advertised. This might be because it was to take-away, but we would have expected the same drink.

3^rd

Hazelnut Latte – this would have scored slightly higher if it was gluten-free. It did taste like hazelnut but not particularly Christmassy.

Joint 4^th

Spiced Cappuccino – didn’t taste very spicy but realised afterwards that all the syrup had sunk to the bottom.

Irish Cream Latte – comments were that the flavour wasn’t very pleasant or that people weren’t a huge fan of Irish cream.

So, it looks like team HGEM enjoy sweet chocolaty treats – we hope we’ve inspired you to see what the high-street has to offer and would love to know if you agree with our panel!