Since the Starbucks Holiday drinks just hit the stores on Nov. 7th, juniors Sophia Webb, Olivia Siskin, Bella Goings and I decided to try and review them. The new items this year include the Cran-Merry Orange Refresher, Turkey Sage Danish and Dark Toffee Bundt. Classic menu items also made their returns to the shelves including the Sugar Cookie Almond Milk Latte, Peppermint Mocha, Caramel Brulee Latte, Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai and the Chestnut Praline Latte. We tried all of the holiday items that were available and here are our opinions.
First, we tried the iced Chestnut Praline Latte. I expected to not like this one at all as the name does not sound appetizing. In reality, this was actually Bella and I’s favorite item that we tried. The latte didn’t taste too strong of coffee and had more of a vanilla flavor. It reminded me of the regular vanilla latte but a little bit sweeter. Next we tried an iced peppermint mocha. In my opinion it was too sweet and there was no coffee flavor at all. It tasted like chocolate milk that was extra cold because of the mint flavor. The chocolate was really rich but was honestly the only flavor you could taste. We tried the Gingerbread Chai next and we all liked it but the gingerbread flavor was not there. It tasted just like a regular chai because chai’s already have spice in them so the gingerbread flavor just got lost in the drink. I would go for the regular chai to get more drink instead of wasting space with the cold foam. Next we tasted the Caramel Brulee latte. This one tasted just like a Dunkin latte to us. It had a nice coffee flavor and was sweet too. We all really enjoyed this one and would recommend it if you like sweet drinks that aren’t sickeningly sweet. The new Cran-Merry Orange refresher was not what we expected. We tried the one with water instead of lemonade and actually thought there was lemonade because the flavor was so strong. It tasted nicely of cranberry juice and also had a little spice to it. I liked this one and thought it gave off a very Christmassy flavor but we had mixed reviews in our group. Lastly was the classic Iced Sugar Cookie Almond Milk latte. This is one of my favorite Starbucks drinks because it tastes like a normal latte but the sprinkles and almond milk add the perfect hint of sweetness. The sprinkles also look so festive in the drink. If you don’t like the coffee taste in your drinks, though, I wouldn’t go for this drink.
For the food, they were sadly out of the Turkey Sage Danish that we were all excited to try. We first tasted the Sugar Plum Cheese Danish. I was expecting to not like this one because jam and cheese on a pastry sounded kind of weird. We were pleasantly surprised as the cream cheese flavor and the sweet jam mixed well together even with the flaky pastry. We all enjoyed this one but noted that it probably wasn’t good enough to order again. Lastly we had the new Dark Toffee Bundt cake. This one was very sweet and had a nice cakey consistency. It wasn’t too dry but we all said that it just really tasted like sugar and there was not much of a flavor. Though, toffee is basically just sugar so this made sense.
