As the crisp air is settling and fireplaces are lit, the holiday season is arriving. Bringing nostalgia and deliciousness all into one small cup, holiday drinks by popular coffee chains like Dunkin and Starbucks have been a common way to celebrate the holidays for years. Both companies publish a limited holiday menu in early November for customers to enjoy exclusively during the holiday season. Globe staff set out to sample and review these seasonal offerings.
Starbucks Iced Sugar Cookie Almondmilk Latte: This is a hard drink to create considering the espresso shouldn’t overpower or ruin the taste of sweet sugar cookies, yet somehow, Starbucks managed to make this into a delectable drink. The overall flavor is sweet with a little undertone of almond and espresso. The top and the bottom of the drink has red and green sprinkles which adds a visual touch that brings the drink together. This is the summary of the holidays in one sip which is why it gets a 9/10.
Starbucks Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai: This drink is a great attempt at creating a holiday drink with the use of such a popular item that is bought during the holidays; gingerbread. The gingerbread part tasted a lot like cinnamon, so that autumn flavor combined with chai makes this drink remind the taster more of fall than the holidays. Holistically, the taste of this drink is very good, but does not bring the holiday cheer. So for that reason, this drink gets a 7/10.
Starbucks Peppermint Hot Chocolate: At first glance, this drink looks like a traditional hot chocolate with nothing special to it. But at first sip, it is truly a burst of sweet, minty chocolate indulgence. The whipped cream adds the perfect touch and ties this drink together with something on the colder side to cool your mouth. After a couple of minutes, the drink was significantly colder. As a result, it tasted very watered down so it is recommended that you drink it as fast as you can. Despite that issue, the positive outweighs the negative in this drink, so it deserves an 8/10.
Dunkin’ Sangria Berry Lemonade: Similar to the Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai, this drink was a great attempt at a holiday drink but did not pull through. The first sip is an extremely tart surprise that makes it hard to focus on any other holiday flavors that you could potentially taste. Also, since this drink is a refresher, it is more summery. This drink is not recommended because of its taste and its lack of holiday spirit. As a result, this drink is a 4/10.
Dunkin Iced Peppermint Mocha: One may assume this drink would taste very similar to the peppermint hot chocolate, but with a hint of espresso added to it. Just looking at it shows how incorrect that assumption is. Its mocha drizzle surrounding the cup makes it look entirely different. This drink tastes like a better, but colder version of the peppermint hot chocolate. The espresso and mocha syrup enhance the flavors and make taste buds dance. This drink is the closest to the perfect holiday drink and was easily the favorite. This drink is highly deserving of a 9.5/10.
Dunkin Cookie Butter Latte: This drink was new this year for the Dunkin’ Holiday drink menu. Expectations were extremely high when tasting this after hearing so many positive reviews. While the drink itself was delicious, with the cookie butter cold foam, cold brew, and sweet syrup, it lived up to its name. The issue is this drink has zero correlation with the holidays. It is commonly purchased as an iced latte, so it is cold, and has no association with anything holiday related. That gives this drink a 5/10.
Some drinks were delightful but had no holiday spirit, others were wonderful in both categories, and some lacked in both categories. Overall, these chains and their holiday menus should be sampled by all and continue to add more to the holiday season for years to come.
