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Winter brings many things, the Starbucks Christmas menu being one of them. On Nov. 7, new holiday items were added to the regular menu at Starbucks. This menu included festive treats as well as special drinks. We wanted to give our insight into this new menu and let you know what you should or shouldn’t spend your money on.

How we rated the items: 

The review is based on how the products look compared to how they are displayed on the website. They will also be rated based on how they taste. They will be rated out of 10 by both of us , and we will also take the average based on both of our ratings to use as a final score.

Food:

1.  Sugar Plum Danish: The Sugar Plum Danish is a vegetarian-based fluffy pastry with cream cheese filling topped with a spiced sugar-plum spread. Right off the bat, the pastry tastes exactly like a regular Danish, just with added sugar plums, which you get the taste of when you bite the spread. It is moist and it has a good balance between the taste of the puff pastry and the cream-cheese filling and does not taste overly sweet.

Rating: 9.5/10

2. Cranberry Bliss Bar: The Cranberry Bliss Bar has a base of a vanilla cake, topped with cranberries and cream cheese icing. This delicious dessert tastes similar to a granola bar, but much more dense. This is one of the best additions to the Christmas menu. The combination of the berries and the icing makes the flavor a perfect amount of sweetness.

Rating: 10/10

3. Snowman Cake Pop: The Snowman Cake Pop is a vanilla cake mixed with buttercream, dipped in white chocolate icing and has a snowman face design on it. When tasting it, you can definitely taste the white chocolate icing more than anything. The inside is very moist and soft but looks exactly like the regular cake pop. The chocolate flavor tastes very dense and very chocolaty, which might be a negative for some people. It does not taste too sweet and is not filled with a huge amount of sugar. It is a pretty safe option to go with, but the taste overall isn’t much different from their original birthday cake pop.

Rating: 6/10

4. Toffee Bundt Cake: The Toffee Bundt Cake is a toffee-flavored cake that contains small leaf sprinkles on the top. If you haven’t had toffee before, the taste is very similar to caramel. This sticky bundt cake has an amazing flavor for the first few bites, but slowly starts to become repetitive. It loses its initial shocking flavor and has a little bit of a banana aftertaste.

Rating: 4/10

5. Penguin Cookie: The Penguin Cookie is a buttery shortbread cookie with a white-chocolatey topping and penguin design. If you’ve had their other cookies, this one isn’t much different. When tasting it, you definitely get that white chocolate taste as well as the soft shortbread taste. You can also taste some sugar crystals if you pay attention to it.

Rating: 3/10

6. Turkey Sage Danish: Similar to the cheese Danish, this puff pastry has a caramelized exterior and a savory filling. Topped with sage and stuffed with turkey, this Danish seems to be a perfect Thanksgiving treat. Sadly, the turkey Danish is the exact opposite of “perfect”. The filling has random chunks of bland turkey, and there seems to be a weird mixture of vegetables as well. The sauce tasted too soggy and moist, and took away the flavor from the puff. The sage topping was also way too strong, and it took over the entire taste. We would definitely recommend for you to skip this one, and opt for another pastry instead.

Rating: 1/10

Drinks:

7. Cranberry refresher (water version): This refresher has inspired flavors of sweet orange, cranberries and warm spice shaken with ice, water and some cranberry inclusions. The taste is not so magical since it is the water version of it. The aftertaste is kind of bland and you lose the taste of the cranberries after a while of drinking it. It tastes similar to their black tea, so the taste itself is not that great. For us, it wasn’t the best, but also not the worst. It’s not a very tasty drink, but for us it definitely could be better.

Rating: 4/10

8. Cranberry Refresher (lemonade version): This cranberry-flavored refresher is similar to the water one, but it has lemonade mixed into it. This refresher reminds me of a Christmas candle, with the overwhelming taste of pine sap. Although it tastes better with lemonade than water, it is not better than any of the other refreshers. The most disappointing part of the refresher is the lack of cranberry. In this refresher, I honestly tasted nothing other than the overwhelming orange and lemon juice. If you were to get a Cranberry Refresher, we recommend trying this one.

Rating: 5/10

9. Sugar Cookie Almond Milk Crème Frappuccino: This Frappuccino has a sugar cookie-flavored syrup combined with almond milk and is topped with whipped cream and festive sprinkles. The taste itself is very sugary. We thought that the taste was similar to eating sugar cubes alone. It’s extremely sweet, so if you are not a fan of sugary drinks, this is not the drink for you.

Rating: 4/10

10. Iced Sugar Cookie Latte: This cold coffee drink has a sweet taste, enchanted by the cookie-flavored syrup and sprinkles. This drink resembles the sugar cookies you buy from the grocery store, with an icy twist. However, there are some disadvantages. If you’re expecting a strong coffee taste, you will end up disappointed. The syrup overtakes almost every other flavor in the drink, but not in a super sugary way. This drink is in between for us, but if you’re looking for a good coffee flavor, we would recommend trying something else.

Rating: 7/10

11. Iced Gingerbread Chai Latte: This latte includes sweet and spicy gingerbread flavors, combined with blonde espresso and milk, topped with whipped cream, nutmeg and spice blend. It tastes similar to a chestnut praline latte but has a different aftertaste. The aftertaste tastes like a white chocolate Frappuccino. This is one of our favorite lattes in the new menu. It’s not too sweet, but is still a very good drink to go with.

Rating: 9/10

12. Peppermint mocha: As an iconic Christmas drink, we couldn’t miss out on the chance to rate the peppermint mocha. This is a chocolate coffee-based drink, with a lingering flavor of peppermint. Out of all of the drinks, this one is the most festive. If you’re looking for a Christmas spirit, the overwhelming peppermint taste will deliver. However, the peppermint can also be a problem. In our opinion, it overtakes the drink. When we tasted this drink it felt like drinking toothpaste, with almost no flavor of the chocolate. We would say this drink is overrated. We would recommend opting for something with more of a coffee taste, even when looking for a festive drink.

Rating: 6/10

Final Thoughts:

Overall, most of the drinks and pastries were perfect for a holiday treat. Some of the drinks we would recommend you to pass on, but definitely try the iced sugar cookie latte and the iced chai gingerbread latte. Although, definitely try all of the treats. We didn’t like the turkey danish, but it was mainly because we both don’t like turkey. The menu was very different from previous years, and it would be beneficial for you to try it for yourself!