Stopping at Starbucks in the morning is a staple for many people. The holidays are coming up which means that Starbucks is dropping their new 2025 winter menu items today, Nov. 6.
While new holiday drinks have been added, some holiday favorites have been taken away this year–one of the biggest shocks for customers is that Starbucks did not bring back the Cran-Merry Orange Refresher.
Starbucks will also be dropping a series of holiday cups and new flavors for some delicious drinks. The drinks include Peppermint Mocha, Caramel Brulée Latte, Iced Sugar Cookie Latte and Iced Gingerbread Chai.
If you’re not into changing up your current Starbucks order, you can add any of the following syrup flavors to your beverage of choice: sugar cookie, peppermint, caramel brulée. All these flavors add an amazing twist to different flavors and drinks.
I used a ranking system out of ten, ten being the best and 1 being the worst, to rate the different holiday beverages. The rankings were based off flavor presentation and smell.
Peppermint Mocha 5/10
My honest review of the Peppermint Mocha may be different from most, due to the fact that I’m not the biggest fan of mocha or peppermint. This drink would be the perfect beverage for a chocolate lover who wants a little bit of that holiday flavor. I wasn’t a fan of the peppermint flavor, but it wasn’t too strong, and you can also reduce the amount of syrup by asking your barista. Overall, the taste wasn’t my favorite, but the beverage smelled and looked amazing.
Caramel Brulée Latte 8/10
The Caramel Brulée Latte may have just been my favorite beverage Starbucks brought back for the holidays. I recommend non-coffee lovers who want to try this drink get it made with vanilla sweet cream milk instead of the normal 2% milk. It’s a gamechanger and makes the drink much sweeter and gives it less of that espresso flavor. I tried both versions, one with 2% and the other with vanilla sweet cream. In my opinion, the taste and smell really outdid this drink, it smelled super sweet and gave a nice holiday scent–here was such a good flavor and amazing variety for this drink. I wish the drink could’ve included more caramel topping like drizzle or even some different sprinkles.
Iced Sugar Cookie Latte 4/10
The Iced Sugar Cookie Latte was certainly not my favorite flavor on the menu, though I did enjoy the sugar cookie syrup mixed into a cold foam on top of a cold brew. I would recommend this drink to my coffee lovers who like that bitter coffee taste. The sugar cookie was a good addition to the latte–though I feel it was lacking in certain areas such as presentation, and the flavor was somewhat overpowered by the espresso.
Iced Gingerbread Chai Latte 9/10
The Iced Gingerbread Chai Latte was truly delicious. Different flavors and spices, such as bold flavors of gingerbread and that spiced flavor of chai all combined to make up this amazing drink. You can also get this as a hot beverage for those cold winter days. That said,I wish this drink would’ve had more of a chai flavor–unfortunately, the gingerbread does over power the chai. Try asking your barista for an extra pump of chai and a pump less of gingerbread. It truly makes this drink dynamic.
Conclusion
In conclusion these new holiday flavors really brought something unique to Starbucks. The flavors are comforting for the holiday season,even though some customers are not happy about different beverages being discontinued such as Cran-Merry Orange Refresher. Make sure you’re at Starbucks to get your sweet treat. All holiday beverages and treats are usually available until the second week of January.
