Starbucks Holiday Drinks Ranked From Worst To Best

When fall is announced by Starbucks, everyone goes bonkers for the Pumpkin Spice Latte. However, the true dash to the Starbucks counters around the country is when the holiday drinks are announced. Early each November, the roster of returning and new festive coffee concoctions are released to the awaiting public. There's even a website dedicated to the countdown to Starbucks' holiday releases.

After all, it's not the holiday season until we can drink something that gives us winter vibes out of a red paper cup. In a world where limited edition and viral drinks have been harnessed by all the major brands, and even indie cafes, we wait for these drinks to signal us that's it's time to shop, wrap, decorate, and carol to your heart's content. 

But once those holiday menu boards go up, it gets to be a little overwhelming. With new flavors and old favorites all contending for space, how do you decide which festive drink to order? We can help with that. This is our definitive ranking of Starbucks' offerings of holiday past — many of which are making a valiant return in 2019 (and some that we hope are gone forever). Let's see how your favorites stack up on our list!

Yes, you're reading that right. This was a holiday drink that actually existed at Starbucks. If you don't remember it, there's a pretty good reason for that. It debuted for a whopping four days in the USA and Canada in 2016, and it was never heard from again. One has to wonder who thought to take the world's most hated holiday dessert (if you could really call it that) and more or less puree it into a Frappuccino. It was a gimmick, clearly, but one that still didn't really pay off.

The ingredient combination and bizarre flavor profile probably lent itself to that as well. Starbucks explains its Fruitcake Frappuccino as a Hazelnut Crème Frappuccino with dried fruit, cinnamon, whipped cream, and a topped with a combination of caramel dots and matcha. Um... yum? We don;t think so. Those who were brave enough to taste it described it as chunky and tasting nothing like fruitcake itself. We're still not sure if this is a good or bad thing.

Considering you can now get a flat white on Starbucks' regular menu whenever you want, it does take the luster off of its holiday edition, the Holiday Spice Flat White. Geared more towards caffeine heads than festive drinkers, the flat white contains ristretto shots of espresso (think of it as a more concentrated espresso shot), steamed milk, and a collection of holiday spices like nutmeg, ginger, clove, cinnamon, etc. Don't get us wrong, it's quite tasty and a nice pick-me-up in the morning, but it's also nothing to jingle your bells about.

There is still that same velvety mouthfeel that flat whites have, and it's a more subtle and less sweet addition to typical holiday menus that are overloaded with sugar. For those points, this drinks gets some points. However, without the selection of mulling spices, there is simply nothing holiday about it. So it's nice and tasty enough, and great for a caffeine buzz, but otherwise it's just kind of on the nicer side of humbug.

If the regular Toasted White Chocolate Mocha wasn't enough for you and you want yet even more of a decadent treat, then the Frappuccino version is what the doctor ordered. Made with the same delightful ingredients of slowly caramelized white chocolate, espresso, milk, and candied cranberry sugar, the Toasted White Chocolate Mocha Frappuccino becomes like a milkshake singing "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." That's because you will be probably dancing around after inhaling this tasty treat. A tall has 44 grams of sugar, and we all know you're not getting a tall.

It's delicious. It's ridiculous. And it is even better than the regular mocha offering. Starbucks fans were delighted when the Frappuccino version was released. One might think it's weird to enjoy a (mostly) frozen beverage in the cold months, but it isn't all that weird — in fact it's the perfect solution for when the heat is cranked up just a bit too high. Whether it be iced coffee or a whipped cream topped Frappuccino with all the fixings, the point is that it's a holiday treat for yourself.

What's better than a creme brûlée and some caramel? A marriage of a creme brûlée and caramel with copious amounts of whipped cream. Thus we have the Caramel Brulee Frappuccino, a serious drinkable dessert and a half. There is nothing healthy about this drink, not in the slightest, but there's something about drinking a drink so decadent around the holidays that just feels right. It's also a favorite among Hawaiian Starbucks customers, which makes a bit more sense than drinking this in a blizzard in Wisconsin, if you think about it.

You may also want to get a few extra squats in after devouring one of these. No one is going to say a Frappuccino is healthy, but you may not be aware of just how much sugar is in this holiday package. How about 61 grams in a grande? Yeah, you read that right. Don't try and fret too much about it, after all... calories in December don't count. 

There may be backlash that this isn't higher on the list, even though it's still pretty high up there. Many people are a fan of this spicy caffeine treat. The Chestnut Praline Latte is a pretty fancy Starbucks holiday drink, what with it's caramelized chestnuts and spiced praline crumbles. This is the sort of latte you order when you want to invoke Europe's Christmas spirit. 

At least that's what Starbucks research and development manager Amy Dilger thought when she created it. "The rich, earthy, sweet, roastiness of chestnut is a perfect foil to espresso." She said. "Then we balanced the nutty chestnut flavor with brown sugar and spice." It's those blend of ingredients that give it a more nuanced and complex flavor profile. You get sweet, then nuttiness, then a touch of smokey bitterness. It's a European Christmas wrapped in a grande cup that also comes iced. No matter which way you enjoy it, it's going to be nutty and delightful.

Not all hot chocolates are created equal. The Peppermint Hot Chocolate is great, and the Toffee Almondmilk Hot Chocolate is super tasty as well, but the Snickerdoodle Hot Chocolate is just... perfection. It's the Rudolph of Starbucks' hot chocolates. Everyone raves about the others, but it's the cookie-in-a-cup chocolate delight that is truly the best of the ranks. In addition to the already rich hot chocolate base, there's white chocolate sauce and cinnamon dolce syrup, and the whole thing is topped with whipped cream and cinnamon sugar. It's seriously like drinking a cookie, one that we can only hope returns to the holiday menu sometime in the future.

Costumers who wanted to up a bit of roasted flavor, had this hot chocolate made with almond milk. What a great idea, right? The nuttiness of the almonds really pair well together with the cinnamon dolce syrup and Snickerdoodle base. Multi-dimensional hot chocolate, who'd have thunk?

When you think of the smells of the holiday season, chances are that traditional mulling spices are going to come to mind. Cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and all-spice can make everything smell and taste a bit like the holidays. This includes cold brew. Created by brewing long and slow with cool water, cold brew coffee has seen a rise in appreciation in the past few years.

Starbucks is always looking for trends, and cold brew was definitely one of them. Better yet, they wanted to create a dedicated holiday brew, and so it came up with the Spiced Sweet Cream Nariño 70 Cold Brew in 2016. Slow steeped for 20 hours, this cold brew is then infused with flavors such as cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, and vanilla. It's then finished with a velvety smooth float of house-made sweet cream. What makes this cold brew a serious holiday winner is the subtle flavor of the mulling spices. They don't overpower the taste of the brew itself, but only enhance them. It's holiday flavor that's not in your face, but still very delicious.

This one isn't on the 2019 menu, but fingers crossed for 2020. 

Having the Peppermint Mocha at the number one spot may seem like a cheat, especially as you can technically get them all year round. You don't even have to do a secret menu, it's simply there on the main board. However, there's just something about it being in a red cup during the holiday season that just makes it taste better. Plus, it's been a staple of the holiday seasonal drinks for over 16 years. That's quite an endorsement from customers and Starbucks alike. After all, if pumpkin spice is the flavor of fall, peppermint is definitely the flavor of winter.

Made with espresso, melted chocolate, peppermint syrup, steamed milk, and topped with vanilla whipped cream and dark chocolate shavings, it's just Christmas in a cup, isn't it? The Peppermint Mocha even got its own cocktail treatment from Starbucks, an iced version available in grocery stores, as well as a bespoke blend and instant kits.