Oma's Holiday Spiced Coffee Recipe | The Gracious Pantry (2024)

This post was created in collaboration with The Folger Coffee Company.
All opinions and stories are my own.

If you love spiced coffee for the holidays, my Oma’s Holiday Spiced Coffee recipe is sure to get you into a festive mood!

Growing up as a child, my grandmother’s kitchen was always a safe haven. It was a place of comfort, laughter, and too many wonderful memories to count.

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One thing I remember most about mornings in Oma’s kitchen was the smell of brewing coffee. I remember our mornings together sitting at her tiny breakfast table in the breakfast nook of her kitchen. The aroma of coffee wafted up into my nose as we waited for the coffee to brew and our toast to pop up so we could spread brie cheese on it (we are German. Bread and cheese for breakfast was a standard!).

Over breakfast, I often heard all the wartime stories about how little they had during that time (WWII). The story that always struck me the most was how they would stand outside a bakery to get full off of the smells coming from inside. Can you imagine trying to fill your stomach with aromas?

I also heard tales of saved thread that was slowly and painstakingly pulled out of old garments and carefully wound up intoa ball to use again to sew something new.

But the story I heard most often when Oma was savoring her morning cup of coffee, was how excited they would get when a cousin in Africa would send them a package of coffee in the mail. My grandmother and her sisterswould gather around the box, oooh-ing, and aaah-ing over the coffee, how it smelled and what they could trade for some of it. And of course, most was reserved for enjoying.

When they came to America in 1953, coffee was an instant staple in the house. I remember there always being an old can of Folgers® coffeein her kitchen. I can still see that can in my mind now, some 30 years later. It was a permanent fixture in her cabinet.

Every time she would have her German friends over for a kaffeeklatsch (a casual meeting of friends for coffee, usually just women, but not always) that familiar favorite can of coffee would come out of the cabinet and that wonderful aroma would waft through the house again, just like it had at breakfast earlier that morning.

That smell created so many wonderful memories for me with my grandmother. It’s pretty amazing how connected we get to life events through smell. Folgers® was a part of my childhood, and I will always treasure those memories.

So when Folgers® announced this Limited Edition Collector’s Can, which you can get EXCLUSIVELY at Target, I had to give it a try just to see if all those memories would come flooding back.

Boy did they! I felt like I was sitting back in her kitchen again with the stove warming everything and that smile on her face as she sat across from me enjoying each sip. Truly a wonderful experience in each cup.

In honor of my grandmother and all the memories she created with me, I thought I would share a simple spice coffee recipe that she always made around the holidays. It’s a mildly spiced coffee that gives just enough flavor to be a little different this time of year.

RECIPE NOTES:

This recipe only works with paper filters or a french press. With any other type of coffee maker, the spices will clog your machine.

More Seasonal Coffee Recipes

• Pumpkin Spice Latte
• Peppermint Mocha
• Blender Coffee

Oma’s Holiday Spiced Coffee Recipe