Starbucks Thanksgiving Blend, reviewed

Even though it has been out for a couple of weeks, the Starbucks Thansksgiving Blend seems like a very short-lived coffee blend. This is probably because Thanksgiving happens in a rush of food and shopping over the course of about a week – in between thinking about Halloween and worrying about holiday presents. The blend is actually a great idea because most people end up serving a lot of coffee to friends and family this time of year and it’s promising to see a roast put out for the occasion.

The Starbucks Thanksgiving Blend is a blend of extra-dark roasted Sumatran and medium roasted Guatemalan beans. The blend is designed to let the deeper flavor of the dark roasted beans create a backdrop for highlighting the sweet, slightly spicy notes of the lighter blend, so there is an emphasis on the darker beans. I didn’t get all the herbal notes that the tasting notes promised, but this blend did have a really good overall balance to it and you could taste the sweetness from the lighter beans over the slightly smokey dark roasted ones. This is a blend that will appeal to a lot of coffee drinkers, as it is neither too intense nor to mild, and will still complement all kinds of foods, sweet and savory.