Nespresso and Swarovski Are Making Coffee a Little More Playful This Festive Season

Blueberry cheesecake lattes, pink brownie mocktinis and pistachio affogatos are on the menu as Nespresso introduces three colourful recipes for the holidays.

Coffee is getting a rather colourful makeover this festive season. As part of its latest collaboration with Swarovski, Nespresso has introduced three limited-edition coffee recipes that take the familiar morning ritual in a decidedly more indulgent direction.

Think blueberry-flavoured coffee topped with blue cream, a chocolatey mocktini finished with a cloud of pink foam, and a pistachio ice cream affogato with matcha. Not exactly your usual flat white, but that's rather the point. Designed to be recreated at home, the recipes make use of Nespresso's festive coffee flavours, with a few unexpected ingredients thrown in for good measure.

First up is the Blueberry Cheesecake Creamy Iced Latte, which sounds suspiciously like dessert disguised as coffee. Made with Nespresso's Blueberry Cheesecake capsule, the drink combines chilled coffee, milk and vanilla syrup before being topped with whipped cream coloured with blue spirulina. A few fresh blueberries finish things off. The result is a layered, pastel-blue creation that looks almost too pretty to drink.

For those who take their coffee with a generous helping of chocolate, there's the Hazelnut Pink Brownie Mocktini. Two shots of Hazelnut Brownie coffee are mixed with milk, sugar syrup and chocolate sauce, then served chilled in a martini glass. The finishing touch? Pink dragon fruit whipped cream and crumbled chocolate financier. It's rich, slightly theatrical and probably best enjoyed when you're in no particular hurry.

Our personal pick, however, might just be the Crystal Spark Matcha Affogaccino. A scoop of pistachio ice cream meets Nespresso's Crystal Spark coffee, with matcha-infused milk foam poured over the top and crushed pistachios scattered across the surface. It's an interesting combination of Italian dessert and Japanese tea flavours, with enough coffee to make it feel appropriate at almost any hour.

The recipes accompany Nespresso's festive collaboration with Swarovski, which brings a little extra colour and sparkle to the brand's seasonal offering. Rather than requiring elaborate equipment or professional barista skills, the drinks are designed for home preparation, although a milk frother certainly comes in handy.

And while we're usually quite happy with a straightforward cappuccino, there's something fun about giving coffee the full dessert treatment, particularly when friends are coming over or a long dinner calls for something other than another slice of cake.

The only real question is whether to start with the blueberry latte or skip straight to the pistachio affogato.

Discover the festive collection and recipes at nespresso.com and follow @nespresso for more.