Battle of the Holiday Drinks

photo credit: http://philippines.starbucks.com

Only 39 days to go and then it's Christmas! The weather is finally getting colder (though it might be because of the low pressure area) and there are ongoing sales in Trinoma and Eastwood to celebrate everyone's 13th month pay (yay?)

Of course, pre-Christmas season won't be the same without the annual release of the Starbucks Red

Cups. This year the Red Cup drinks are Toffee Nut Latte, Peppermint Mocha, and the new Cranberry White Chocolate Mocha. It's time, again, to spend too much on coffee and earn stickers for the 2012 Starbucks planner (which is nice, by the way, especially the pouch).

This year, though, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf also released a holiday drink. Last November 7 different CBTL branches had an open house to introduce their holiday drink, the Red Velvet (ice blended or hot cocoa).

photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/coffeebeanphilippines

I was able to try CBTL's red velvet hot cocoa a week ago and man do I love it! It might be a bit watery in terms of consistency but it tastes heavenly! Not too chocolate-y and not too sweet. I was only able to get a sip of the ice blended version from my sister and it was pretty good too, perfect if you're not up to having a hot drink.

I only got to try the cranberry white chocolate mocha from Starbucks earlier this week. I was really excited because I love their white chocolate mocha (I think it's the only hot drink I order from Starbucks, aside from hot tea) and to combine it with such an odd flavor, cranberry, is just totally interesting. I ordered  the hot version of the drink and was sorely disappointed. I was expecting a nice blend of sweet-tangy cranberry flavor to complement the white chocolate mocha, but the only taste I got was just white chocolate mocha. What a letdown. =(

In any case, the other two red cup flavors are oldies but goodies. But if you're looking for an interesting and new holiday drink I suggest you try the red velvet drinks from Coffee Bean. They're not coffee-based, though, but I highly recommend them.

I wish Starbucks Philippines would introduce more new red cup flavors, though. I am very interested in the Gingerbread Latte & Eggnog Latte I've read about in other blogs.