photo credit: Sophia Robinson
During the cold months of winter, nothing sounds better than cuddling up near a warm fireplace and drinking a nice warm latte. Within the short winter time of early November to early January, the popular coffee shop Starbucks brings in some favorite seasonal drinks.
Throughout the past weeks, I went to the Starbucks located in Polaris to try some of their famous holiday drinks. I tried the Gingerbread Chai, the Peppermint Mocha, the Hot Chocolate and lastly, the Cinnamon Dolce latte with a twist. With all of these drinks, I substituted the whole milk for almond milk. Some of the drinks I ordered online, some in the store, but every time I was treated well by the employees, by far my favorite Starbucks to visit.
Starting off with the Gingerbread Chai latte, a grande costs $5.95, according to the Starbucks website. I would rate this drink a 7/10; it started off with a strong gingerbread taste with little chai, but the more I drank, the more chai I tasted. Overall, the drink was good, I would definitely recommend it and try again.
Next, I tried the Peppermint Mocha, which, according to Starbucks, the grande size costs $6.25. I would give this drink a 3/10. It’s not my favorite, and I personally do not like coffee. The first sip of this drink tasted strongly of espresso and little to no peppermint. I did not enjoy this drink. I would definitely recommend this to someone who enjoys coffee, but for me, I would not try it again.
After that, I got the classic Hot Chocolate; a grande costs $4.25, the cheapest of the drinks I’ve tasted. I would give this drink an 8/10; during a cold winter, there’s nothing better than a nice hot chocolate. The first few sips were really strong and a little bitter, but after more, it started tasting much better like a hot chocolate I would’ve drank when I was little.
The drink I decided to try last was the Cinnamon Dolce latte, but because I am not a coffee fan, I decided to take the Chai latte, add four pumps of the cinnamon dolce syrup, whip cream and the cinnamon topping, which are the same ingredients as the coffee version.
The original latte costs $5.75 but making it a chai moved the price up to $6.75. Though I am not a fan of the price bump, this drink was really good. I give this drink a 9/10; I personally think the whip cream and cinnamon topping didn’t add anything to the drink. I also feel like they could remove a pump of the cinnamon as it was a little overpowering, but if someone loves cinnamon and wishes there was a non-coffee cinnamon dolce latte option, I would definitely recommend it.
The last menu item I tried was not a drink, but I couldn’t do a review on Starbucks and not buy myself a cake pop. This winter, they brought in a polar bear cake pop. I rate this a 10/10; nothing can go wrong with a good cake pop, though it was a little pricey, costing $3.45. Going into it, I didn’t know what the flavor would be, but it was a classic vanilla cake. My friend hoped for a fun winter flavor but I was happy with the plain flavor as the cute polar bear design made up for it, and don’t forget about the crunch of the chocolate. Overall, I would definitely recommend this to anyone.
