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.

Bones Coffee's What the Fluff?!

Bones Coffee...whenever we think we're at the end of what they have to offer, they spring a new flavor on us! And more often than not, the artwork on the packaging is just as much fun to look at as the coffee is to drink!

She's dancing along the boardwalk, in search of coffee and cotton candy!

 

BONES COFFEE COMPANY: WHAT THE FLUFF?!

The marketing department and roasters at Bones Coffee once again take a shot at answering a question that no one asked: "What would it taste like if we dipped a bunch of cotton candy in a cup of coffee?" (Or maybe the truck delivering beans to the roastery collided with a cotton candy vendor towing is booth to the county fair... and they figured, "What the hell, let's go with it!" OR maybe it came about the same way many of the ROLF!: The Rollplaying Game supplements came about... we thought of a great title and then came up with the product to match it.)

And calling this blend What the Fluff?! is brilliant. It immediately made me curious about what it might be. The cartoon on the packaging was also weird enough to pique my interest further, because it made me go "what the f--- is he doing with those teddy bears? it even provides a third option for the speculation about this blend's origin above: The Bones Mascot harvested the demonic essences from evil teddy bears and then used that evil for good by bringing the world another amazing coffee flavor.

When the bag is first opened, there is the unmistakable smell of those magically spun bits of flavored and colored sugar we refer to as cotton candy. It wasn't as strong an aroma as some Bones blends, but it was strong enough to kick up the anticipation. As the coffee brewed, and as I poured the first cup, that sweet, somewhat undefinable aroma hung in the air. Again, it wasn't as strong as some Bones offerings, but it was unmistakable.

When I tried the coffee without anything added, it had a pleasant taste, with the coffee and a flavor I couldn't quite place mixing so mellowly that I could probably drink it this blend black. An aftertaste started to build as I drank more--bitter and sour--but that could just have been a natural effect from the coffee... one I rarely notice because I drank more of this black than I normally would have in an attempt to identify the flavor. It seemed vaguely berry-like, but I wasn't sure and thought that maybe I was just assuming that because Bones seems to excel at berry-flavored coffee. (But I wasn't surprised that the flavor didn't seem to quite line up with the aroma... that is something I've experienced with Bones blends before.)

When I added unsweetened almond milk to the blend, I found that the liquids did not mix at all well. The vaguely berry flavor was still there, but a dirt-like flavor emerged. It still didn't taste like cotton candy, though... which I guess is a good thing, because coffee that tastes like a cotton candy stick that's been dropped in the dirt would be depressing.

When I tried What the Fluff?! with sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer, the berry flavors really popped and that strange aftertaste that was present when I drank it black became very muted but it never completely went away. I still didn't notice any cotton candy; maybe I just don't know what cotton candy tastes like? At room temperature, the flavors remained mostly as they were when the blend is consumed hot, aftertaste and all.

This blend worked best when iced, either black or mixed with sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer. I still don't think I was put in mind of cotton candy while drinking this, but the berry flavors were great, almost softdrink-like. Unfortunately, that aftertaste was still present... and it was joined by a touch of the saltiness that sometimes emerges in Bones Coffee blends when they are consumed iced. Both the aftertaste and the saltiness were very mild, but they built in my mouth as I consumed the blend  iced, so perhaps it's only an issue if you drink your coffee by the mugful instead of a more civilized coffee cup size. 

As I swallowed the final mouthful of What the Fluff?! that I'd brewed from the sample pack I'd gotten, I still had not figured out what the berry flavor was. I wondered if "berry flavor" is what cotton candy tasted like, and I was just misremembering. And, honestly, I couldn't tell you what cotton candy tastes like, but I feel certain that it's not what this coffee tastes like.

And I can't help but think that the people at the Bones Coffee Company eventually came to the same conclusion. The package states What the Fluff!? is just cotton candy flavored, but if you go to the Bones Coffee website, it describes the blend as tasking like "sweet cotton candy flavor with a twist of fresh berry."

It seems that maybe they made a blend that has a mixed berry flavor with a twist of sweet cotton candy? Or, like I said, maybe my mind and tastebuds are playing tricks on me, and I have idea what cotton candy is supposed to taste like.

Even if I feel like it didn't quite hit the mark, I think this is an okay blend to drink black or with creamers... so long as you don't drink alot of it too fast, because of that aforementioned aftertaste. If you're a fan of other of Bones' berry-flavored coffees, I suspect you might like this one, too.

And, if you want that pure cotton candy flavor, or can't get your hands on some of the What the Fluff?! blend, you can always follow the example of this lovely lady (as photographed by Nina Leen). Just head down to the nearest boardwalk or traveling carnival! 

Hey, you could even try dipping the cotton candy in a cup of coffee to see what happens. (Although people might look at you like the cotton candy vendor in the background of that last shot.)