Christmas Coffee Drinks to Make at Home

Is it even really Christmas until your house smells like coffee, cinnamon, and bad decisions about a fourth cookie?

I love Christmas. But I really love Christmas COFFEE.

Forget pumpkin spice, Christmas is when coffee gets to show off. We’re talking peppermint, gingerbread, eggnog, toasted marshmallow – the cozy, sweet, “hug-in-a-mug” flavors that make you want to put on fuzzy socks and watch Home Alone for the 47th time.

I’ve tried A LOT of holiday drinks over the years – some were instant classics, some tasted like a pine tree in a cup. So I narrowed it down to the absolute best of the best.

Here are my 5 all-time favorite Christmas coffee drinks that I make on repeat every December. Let’s get cozy and caffeinated!

Why I Love These Christmas Coffees

They use real chocolate, spice and cream instead of bottled syrups, so they smell like a kitchen at Christmas. Each drink below comes with the full ingredient list and the video I used, so you can see the drink and make it.

Eggnog Latte

My Eggnog Latte is the holiday latte I keep making because it uses real eggnog you cook yourself. It tastes thick and rich from egg yolks, vanilla bean, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger.

I first tried it because the video for it has over a million views on YouTube, more than any other Christmas coffee video I found, and I get why. The eggnog is a light custard you cook in one pot on the stove, then finish with cream and a splash of brandy, cognac or bourbon. Each latte is two shots of espresso with hot eggnog and milk, with whipped cream and fresh nutmeg on top, and one batch of eggnog makes about six drinks. You can leave the alcohol out of the eggnog so everyone at the table can have a mug.

What sold me is how different this latte is from the coffee shop cup. Someone in the comments under the video who used to make these lattes at a coffee shop says the shop version is mostly milk with only a little eggnog. That is why this homemade one tastes so much richer. And at home, the whipped cream is still there when you take that first sip, not melted on the drive home.

Ingredients

• 3 cups milk
• 1 vanilla bean
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1.5 Tbsp ginger powder
• 2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup brandy, cognac, or bourbon
• 1.5 cups heavy cream
• 2 shots espresso
• 1/2 cup eggnog
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• Whipped cream
• Fresh ground nutmeg for dusting

Peppermint Mocha Mix

A Peppermint Mocha Mix is a peppermint mocha you keep ready in a jar. It is a dry mix of cocoa, instant coffee and crushed peppermint candy, and you just stir it into hot milk when you want a mug.

I love this mix because it is so simple. A spoonful goes into a little boiling water, hot oat milk goes on top, and you have a mug in about seven minutes. The small batch makes two mugs. The whole drink is dairy-free, too: the dark chocolate has no milk in it, and you finish with oat milk. The snap of the peppermint candy against the chocolate is what makes it taste like Christmas.

You can easily make a bigger batch and fill a jar, and a jar of the mix makes a good Christmas gift. One cook in the comments under the video made this peppermint mocha for a guest she barely knew and got invited to their Christmas. The mix is also a nice way to dress up instant coffee for someone who drinks it every day.

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp (13g) granulated sugar
• 2 tsp (4g) Dutch-process cocoa powder (or cacao powder)
• 1 tsp (1.3g) instant coffee granules
• 0.21 oz (6g) dairy-free dark chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 tsp (4g) peppermint candies, finely chopped
• ½ cup (120ml) boiling water
• 2 cups (480ml) barista oat milk (or any unsweetened plant-based milk)
• Chocolate shavings, peppermint candies, vegan whipped cream (optional, for topping)

Irish Coffee

Irish Coffee is my after-dinner Christmas drink: hot sweet coffee and Irish whiskey under a cool layer of lightly whipped cream. It is the grown-up one on this list, for a cold night when you want something warm that still tastes like coffee.

What makes this Irish coffee special is the cream on top. The cream is shaken just until it thickens, so it floats instead of sinking, and you drink the hot coffee through the cold cream. You make the whole drink right in a warm glass with brown sugar and cane sugar. One drink takes about five minutes, and you need no espresso machine.

I save Irish coffee for the end of a long Christmas dinner, when everyone is still at the table talking. The drink is cozy without being heavy. You can easily change it up, too: one cook who commented on the video splits the whiskey between rye and brandy and now likes that best.

Ingredients

• 3 oz. or 90 ml. Coffee
• 1 barspoon brown sugar
• 1 barspoon cane sugar
• 1.5 oz. or 45 ml. Irish Whiskey
• Heavy cream, dry shaken

Mocha Mint Cold Brew

Mocha Mint Cold Brew is the iced one you can make ahead and keep in the fridge, which I love in the busy days before Christmas. It is smooth cold brew with a creamy milk syrup, cocoa and mint, already bottled and ready to pour over ice.

Cold brew just means coffee soaked in cold water instead of brewed hot, so it stays smooth. This recipe uses one part dark roast to ten parts water. The milk syrup is equal parts sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk stirred together. Each drink goes into its own small bottle, so you have a cold chocolate mint coffee whenever you want one.

Chocolate mint is the flavor I crave most in a cold coffee. It is cool and sweet, and the coffee still comes through. Since each bottle is one drink, it is easy to double or halve the batch for however many bottles you want in the fridge.

Ingredients

• Dark Roast Coffee Beans 100g
• Water 1 Litre
• Condensed Milk (50% of the milk syrup)
• Evaporated Milk (50% of the milk syrup)
• Cold Brew 4oz/120ml
• Unsweetened Chocolate Powder 1 tbsp
• Milk Syrup 1.5oz/45ml
• Mint Syrup 0.5oz/15ml

Christmas Coffee Questions

Here is what I would want to know before making these drinks.

Can I Make These Without an Espresso Machine?

Yes. The peppermint mocha mix uses instant coffee, the Irish coffee uses regular hot coffee, and the mocha mint cold brew uses cold brew, so none of those need an espresso machine. For the eggnog latte, use about 1/2 cup of strong brewed coffee from a dark roast in place of the two shots of espresso.

Can I Make Them Dairy-Free?

Yes. The peppermint mocha mix is already dairy-free as written, with oat milk and dairy-free dark chocolate. For the eggnog latte, any unsweetened dairy-free milk works, and you can use dairy-free eggnog too. For the cold brew, you could try coconut cream and coconut milk in place of the milk syrup. I have not made the cold brew that way, so treat the swap as an idea, not a sure thing.

How Long Do They Keep?

The dry peppermint mocha mix keeps up to two months in a jar, but make each drink fresh. For homemade eggnog, my rule is to use it within about three days. For the cold brew bottles, my own rule is about a week to ten days in the fridge. If you want them to last longer, you can freeze them in plastic bottles until you need one.

Is Homemade Eggnog Safe With Raw Egg Yolks?

The eggnog base is not served raw. You heat the milk and yolks together until the mixture thickens and coats a spoon. Bringing it slowly to 160 F is what makes the eggs safe, and this recipe heats it past that point. The splash of brandy or bourbon is there for flavor. It is not what makes the eggnog safe. Cool it quickly over ice water and keep it cold.

I make the eggnog latte when I want the house to smell like nutmeg, the jar mix when I need a gift, the Irish coffee when dinner runs late, and the cold brew when I want something cold and ready. Pick the moment you are in and start there.