The long awaited Starbucks holiday drinks are finally here! After the fall Starbucks menu and the immensely popular iced pumpkin chai, people are looking for new drinks, and the holiday menu offers that and more. There are six new drinks on the holiday menu: peppermint mocha, caramel brulee latte, chestnut praline latte, iced gingerbread oat milk chai, cran-merry orange lemonade refresher, and the iced sugar cookie almond milk latte. After tasting each of these drinks, we decided that there were some we really liked and some we did not.
This year, Starbucks brought back fan-favorites such as the peppermint mocha, the caramel brulee latte, and the chestnut praline latte. Each of these drinks surpassed our expectations and made it feel like Christmas was already here. The peppermint mocha was a perfect blend of hot chocolate and peppermint flavoring, and it reminded us of a snowy Christmas morning by the fireplace. The caramel brûlée was a fan-favorite, and it certainly did not disappoint. While we are not the biggest fan of caramel, the warmth and sweetness of the coffee won us over and it quickly became one of our favorites. The chestnut praline latte was a classic coffee with a hint of praline flavor. Going into it, our expectations were not high because we were sceptical about the praline, but there turned out to be only a little bit of praline flavor in the coffee. Overall, it was a plain and basic coffee that didn’t stand out from the others. The lack of flavor and holiday toppings pushed it towards the bottom of our list. Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by these three drinks.
The three iced drinks on the holiday menu had very different representations of Christmas and holiday cheer. The iced gingerbread oat milk chai latte reminded us of freshly baked gingerbread cookies coming straight out of the oven. As the Starbucks employee called our names and placed the drinks on the counter, excitement pulsed through our veins. It looked so delectable with cinnamon sprinkled on the top. We were in agreement that it tasted just about as good as it looked. Although it was cold and refreshing, it warmed our stomachs and gave us a happy and merry feeling. We think, overall, this was definitely our favorite drink. However, this was not the drink we were most looking forward to. When we finished ordering our drinks, we were anticipating the iced sugar cookie almond milk latte to be our favorite. When it came out, we were so excited. It looked and smelled so scrumptious and the red and green sprinkles on top were really the icing on the cake. However, to our dismay, it tasted like water. Looking back upon our taste testing vlog, the expressions on our faces truly conveyed our disappointment and confusion. Though our friend, who ordered the same drink but with cold foam, described it as “delicious”. So, perhaps for future reference, we would recommend customers add cold foam to their orders to give this drink the justice it deserves. The final drink we tried was the brand new Cran-Merry Orange Lemonade Refresher. We also had extremely high expectations for this, as we have previously been big fans of the refreshers on the normal Starbucks menu. We personally didn’t like the flavor of it; as we are not fans of the taste of cranberry juice. There were also little frozen cranberries floating around the drink which we disliked. Though we acknowledge that some of the drinks can be viewed differently depending on the person, we didn’t really enjoy the iced sugar cookie almond milk latte and the cran-merry orange lemonade refresher. Despite those two drinks, overall, we were really satisfied with the cold drinks presented on the menu this year.
Starbucks has done it again! We were very impressed with the menu and drinks this holiday season. Although we had definite favorites, all of the holiday drinks this year were really delicious, and we believe each one represented a significant memory of Christmas that the customers can look forward to each year. We can state with confidence that Starbucks has yet to disappoint in their holiday drinks, and we cannot wait for what they (literally) bring to the table next year.
