This Starbucks VIA Ready Brew Christmas Blend 2020 featured a dark-roast from Guatemala, Colombia and Papua New Guinea that come together to highlight the ‘hero’ of the blend that is the rare aged Sumatra.

The VIA format featured instant and micro-ground coffee and is prepared by adding water.

Adding 180mL of just-boiled water to one sachet, the coffee was an opaque brown-black colour with a deep roasted aroma. Consumed hot, initial notes of acidity came through before hints of spice — recalling cinnamon but without any sweetness — emerged in the body to give a festive flavour. The micro ground aspect of the coffee shows itself in the more viscous quality of the mouthfeel that delivered a velvety rich cocoa finish that lingered pleasantly on the palate. All in all, this is enjoyable but lacked the clearer mouthfeel of non-instant coffee.

This Starbucks VIA Ready Brew Christmas Blend 2020 contained 12 sticks. It was produced in the United States and received as a gift from acquaintances in Sydney, Australia in 2020.