World Market's Cinnamon French Toast

It's Sunday, so it's time for a post about coffee I've recently consumed.

Summer mornings are perfect for drinking coffee outside.
It's okay to not have the willpower to make it across the yard.

WORLD MARKET COFFEE: CINNAMON FRENCH TOAST

This is another one of those flavored coffee blends that surprised, because the aroma of the pre-ground beans doesn't quite line up with the resulting brew.

When first opened, the coffee in the package presented a strong and unmistakable scent of maple syrup, which, was indeed a flavor mentioned on the package: "Warm cinnamon and premium maple syrup blended with sweet buttery notes." Given how strong cinnamon often comes through in flavored coffee blends, I assumed that it would be detectable as soon as I got ready to pour coffee in basket for brewing. Since it wasn't, part of me began to think that maybe they'd missed the mark and that the coffee wouldn't deliver on the complex mix of flavors promised. I fully expected this to taste like someone had poured maple syrup in my coffee.

(As a sidenote, I don't know for sure whether the foundation of this blend is a light-roast or medium-roast, as the package didn't say. Based on the look of the grounds and the taste of the resulting brew, I am guessing it's a medium-roast.)

As the Cinnamon French Toast blend brewed, there was no detectable aroma other than coffee. When I poured the first cup, a non-definable sweet scent met my nose, mixed in with that of coffee. When I took my first sip of this blend black, I was surprised by the fact that it didn't taste like someone had poured maple syrup in my coffee... it tasted like someone had dissolved some French Toast in the coffee pot when I wasn't looking.

The flavors of this coffee were 100 percent on point! The cinnamon is there, the maple syrup is there, even a hint of buttery, egg-soaked bread can be detected. The flavors are mild but still very much present and they blend delightfully with a great-tasting coffee to the point where I could have finished a whole cup without adding any milk or creamer. (I only had a 2-oz. sample pack, so I didn't...)

Another great thing about this blend is that the flavors remained constant as I put the blend through my usual tests--mixing it with Unsweetened Almond Milk, then Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, and ultimately sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer. All the flavors blended nicely with the basic french-toastiness, adding a varying degree of sweetness to the blend, but not causing the initial flavors to shift or alter too much. This was also a little surprising to me, given how mellow the flavors of this blend are. Surprising in a very good way.

World Market's Cinnamon French Toast blend was as tasty at room temperature as it was hot. I preferred it with the sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer, but all of the ways I consumed it were highly enjoyable luke-warm. 

When consumed iced, the mellowness of the flavors worked against this blend. When I tried it black, it tasted like a slightly sweetened iced coffee with a hint of cinnamon. It wasn't unpleasant, just bland. I didn't try it iced with the sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer, but with both the vanilla and plain unsweetened almond milks, any flavors but the coffee and the milk were washed out. At least the flavor didn't turn salty as happens with many flavored coffees when they are chilled and iced.

The Cinnamon French Toast blend is considered a seasonal, Christmas offering by World Market. As a result, this blend is only available as I post this in the World Market Holiday Sampler which features five different 2-oz. packs of Christmas-themed coffees. Perhaps it's another hole in my understanding of American culture, but I don't see how cinnamon or french toast are in any way Christmas-related. If you ask me, this blend would make a perfect breakfast coffee any day of the year. I recommend keeping an eye out for it come November or thereabouts when it undoubtedly makes a return to retail outlets.