This holiday season, on November 2nd, Starbucks has brought back its festive drinks, food, and merchandise that will cause mine and others’ bank accounts to plummet rapidly.
Starbucks came out with the new Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai, and the returning drinks are the Peppermint Mocha, Caramel Brulée Latte, Chestnut Praline Latte, Gingerbread Latte, and Iced Sugar Cookie Almondmilk Latte.
These drinks can all be customized and there are many festive coldfoam flavors such as the chestnut praline, peppermint chocolate cream, caramel brulée, and the sugar cookie cream coldfoam.
There are many different variations of each and they are either served as a frappuccino, iced, or hot.
My ranking for the drinks from best to worst, is the Iced Peppermint Mocha, Iced Caramel Brulée Latte, Iced Gingerbread Oat milk Chai, Iced Chestnut Praline Latte, and lastly, the Iced Sugar Cookie Almondmilk Latte.
The Iced Peppermint Mocha includes milk of your choice, 2 shots of espresso roast, Mocha sauce, peppermint syrup, chocolate curls topping, and whipped cream. I am not a huge fan of mochas or peppermint but this drink is very tasty and executes the holiday spirit well.
The chocolate flavoring is a little overpowering and the coffee isn’t very noticeable in this beverage. It tastes extremely similar to a peppermint chocolate bar, but not as sweet. I would recommend getting a tall (small) or grande (medium) because it is a very heavy and filling drink.
The Iced Caramel Brulée Latte includes milk of your choice, 2 shots of espresso roast, caramel brulée sauce, caramel brulée topping, and whipped cream. It is a little too sweet but still very delicious. If you have a sweet tooth, I highly recommend this drink, although it isn’t as festive as the other drinks.
It tastes very similar to a vanilla latte. The caramel bits sprinkled on top add a little bit of crunch and are a delicious detail.
The Iced Gingerbread Oat milk Chai includes oat milk infused with gingerbread-flavored syrup, chai, and a pumpkin spice topping. My favorite drink from Starbucks is chai so I had high hopes for this drink. The drink is good but I couldn’t fully taste the gingerbread flavor.
I am not a huge fan of oat milk, so this explains why I didn’t love this drink. The gingerbread flavoring didn’t fully taste like gingerbread. Instead, it tasted a little spicy. I wished that they had put in more gingerbread flavoring because it just tasted like a chai that wasn’t made correctly. I like the idea of this drink, but they didn’t execute it as well as I hoped.
The Iced Chestnut Praline Latte includes milk of your choice, 2 shots of espresso roast, chestnut praline syrup, chestnut praline topping, and whipped cream. It tastes like an iced blonde vanilla latte with a nutty aftertaste.
This drink didn’t sound as appealing to me as the others, but surprisingly, it was pretty good. It was very smooth and didn’t taste too sweet. Once again, this latte tasted pretty similar to a vanilla latte, but I liked the creativity of this drink.
The Iced Sugar Cookie Almondmilk Latte includes almond milk, 2 shots of blonde espresso roast, sugar cookie syrup, and red and green sprinkle topping. Some people like this drink but I am not a fan. The idea and look of it are really good, but the drink isn’t.
I tried this drink for the first time two years ago, and I couldn’t go past drinking more than a sip. It looks really cute because of the sprinkles but this latte is just bad. It tastes like gross coffee infused with plastic. I would not recommend this drink.
Although not all of these drinks taste amazing, the holiday spirit is what makes them so special. Drinks that are only around during the holiday season give so many people something to look forward to. I know that it’s winter time once Starbucks comes out with its holiday beverages, food, and merchandise.