Handyman Tim is the big coffee drinker around here. I’m more of a whipped cream and caramel syrup with a splash of coffee kind of girl. I usually only indulge when I’m out running errands. Coffee is not usually the first thing I think of when it comes to entertaining and Every. Single. Year. I get caught a little unprepared and a little surprised when our house guests are begging to know where we keep the K-cups.

But not this year!

This year, I’m heading into the entertaining season PREPARED. I took just a few minutes to pull together a handful of items to make a sweet and simple holiday coffee bar for our guests. Everything can be made far in advance (like right now!) and stored in your fridge for weeks so you can pull it out in a pinch.

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I wanted to lay out the materials for guests to be able to assemble my two favorite treats: a homemade Peppermint Mocha and my knockoff of a Caramel Brule’ latte.

The shopping list is really easy:

1 package of Dunkin’ Donuts regular K-cups
1 package of Dunkin’ Donuts French Vanilla K-cups
1 jar of homemade peppermint syrup (recipe at bottom of the post!)
1 container of chocolate syrup
1 jar of homemade sea salt and vanilla bean caramel sauce
2 canisters of whipped cream
milk
candy canes
crushed Andes Candies
festive cups & napkins

I was able to grab everything I needed at Walmart including those glass drizzle bottles. I decanted a store bought container of chocolate syrup into it for presentation and then filled the other two with my own homemade versions of the syrups. I did a quick little design in PicMonkey and printed out the labels on sticker paper.

For the peppermint mocha, I followed the instructions over on Mom Advice’s blog. What makes it work is the scalded milk. The next time I set this up, I will definitely scald a large quantity of milk and set it out in an insulated carafe to save guests time.

For the caramel brule’ latte, I adjusted the mocha recipe a bit. I started with a Dunkin’ Donuts French Vanilla K-cup and then added scalded milk and 2 tbsp of sea salt & vanilla bean caramel sauce.

And then mounded up the whipped cream with more caramel sauce. Because Christmas. Because, of course!

Homemade Peppermint Syrup

Author: Peanut Blossom

Print Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 tsp peppermint extract

Instructions

In a small sauce pan, stir together the sugar and water and heat over medium. Continue to stir until sugar has dissolved into the water. Remove from heat and cool. Add the peppermint extract, stir to combine. Store in a jar in the fridge for several weeks.