Once in a blue moon, I hear partners (Starbucks calls their employees “partners”) say that Holiday Blend and Christmas Blend are the same thing – just in different packaging.
That lore comes from a time many years ago, when Holiday Blend and Christmas Blend were indeed the same thing. Of course, people get trained by a more seasoned employee telling a newer employee, ‘Here’s what you need to know … “ and then mistaken information follows, often simply because rules change, policies change, procedures change, life changes. This happens in every single business. It’s not necessarily a Starbucks thing at all.
So do you know what’s NOT in Starbucks Holiday Blend? If it were a game of “spot the differences” between Holiday Blend and Christmas Blend, how many could you spot?
Just by looking at the packaging and/or the official Starbucks Coffee Passport, you should be able to spot at least 6 differences in the descriptions because they are in fact two totally different blends.
First off, if you’re looking at your store’s whole bean wall, you’ll find the Holiday Blend in solid blue packaging and Christmas Blend in solid red packaging. Not every store got Holiday Blend! You can find both Christmas Blend and Holiday Blend online right now at StarbucksStore.com.
If you grab a bag of each coffee and hold them side by side, you’ll see that the descriptions on the side of the bag are different:
For those who have a coffee passport, there’s even more information inside that little booklet. Here’s Holiday Blend:
This version of the “Starbucks Coffee Passport” has been around for a few years – my guess would be about 4 years – and I notice that at the bottom it does describe Holiday Blend as a “new blend of vibrant and smooth…” I assume that about 4 years ago was when Holiday Blend stopped being Christmas Blend in different packaging, though I don’t know exactly when the switch happened. If anyone knows, please weigh in.
I wanted to give you a little bit better look at the Holiday Blend page. You can see it is a medium roast profile coffee with a medium body. The flavor notes for Holiday Blend are “herbal and maple.”
Here’s Christmas Blend:
And a close up look at Christmas Blend coffee passport page:
Have you spotted all the differences? What is missing from Holiday Blend? 😉
Edit: I confirmed with Ms. Laurel H. of Starbucks media relations, “Holiday Blend became its own unique coffee, separate from Christmas Blend beginning in 2013“.
On a complete change of topic, I saw that Starbucks was just ranked as having the happiest employees! Congratulations Starbucks for being number one on this list of happiest retailers to work for!
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Disappointing. I never payed attention because they used to be the same and I assumed they still were, but different packages. I do not like medium coffee. I rarely buy their beans since I prefer organic & they rarely have any.
The most important item missing from the Holiday Blend is the Aged Sumatra…. 😉
Last year, only a few of the Starbucks in Chicago (I only found one) carried the Holiday Blend. At the one closest to us, it was not carried and the employees were told at a meeting that the Holiday Blend and the Christmas Blend were the same and each Starbucks would only have one or the other. A barista at our Starbucks was very unhappy when he learned the truth.
I assume the holiday blend in the blue bag is the same as CPG Holiday Blend that grocery stores got. It’s in a red bag. The Christmas Blend is much better 🙂
I haven’t had the holiday blend, but it sounds intriguing! I love Latin American coffee and it would be interesting to add the Indonesian and taste it. Thank you for bringing our knowledge up to date! 🙂
@Elisabeth – You’re welcome. I think it would be a GREAT coffee tasting to do Christmas Blend and Holiday Blend side by side.
You know it’s always a little dangerous to not look things up.This happens in the law. One attorney will say to another, “Oh those fines and fees are not waivable because…” and it can be that the law has changed. It’s just a human thing. We listen to others, but there’s always a risk that things change.
I know that Costco sells a Winter Blend, is this an entirely different blend then?
@BrianChow – That’s a really good question. It would be interesting to see what the coffee description is on the side of the Winter Blend packaging. It’s totally possible it’s a different blend entirely!
I remember blending Colombia and Sumatra “live” in-store around ’05 or’06 when Xmas Blend was out of season. Perhaps as a simple variation to the dark aged Sumatra version Starbucks finally decided to actually release the minimal Holiday Blend. I notice the change in like 2009 I think. Maybe ’10
I bet a lot of partners are not aware of this – thanks for the information!
I assume that the *real* reason that the Holiday blend is different from the Christmas blend is that—pardon the pun—the bean counters in Seattle once realized that if the general public figured out that they were the same coffee, people would stop buying the Christmas blend and buy the cheaper Holiday blend instead. Now people who specifically want the “Christmas” flavor have to specifically buy the Christmas coffee.
I just got the holiday blend k-cup..and I feel fustrated.
Its too bitter.
Didnt find any sweet smel or taste like maple. It is nothing sweet in that coffee. Have to dump it.
Hopefuly I get my refund for the box of 60.
Very bad choice.