We tried the Starbucks winter menu (the favorite is obvious)

Exactly a year ago, I was writing a very similar article about the Pistachio Cream Cold Brew at Starbucks  (SBUX) - Get Free Report. The then-new pistachio cream foam was the chain's first new flavor of 2023 and was popular enough for the chain to bring it back again this year in both cold brew and latte form.

The 2024 Starbucks Winter Menu launched earlier this week and also includes the entirely new Iced Shaken Hazelnut Oat Milk Espresso. For some reason, the chain associates the post-holiday period of winter doldrums with the woodsy and buttery flavors of different nuts and so I thought I'd keep up tradition by testing the new espresso.

Related: Starbucks Hopes It Has the Next PSL (We Tried It)

In large part due to the lack of the foam, the Iced Shaken Hazelnut Latte does not have the kind of head-spinning whiff of hazelnut that I've observed in the pistachio one a year prior (I'm not sure when it went off the menu to make room for spring drinks but I haven't had it since.)

Strong whiff of pistachio or subtle hazelnut flavor? That depends on your tastes

The hazelnut taste is much more subdued and, as such, the coffee is the taste that shines. This is a plus for people like my colleague Daniel Kline, whose review of the pistachio cream will come later in this article, but I am not an avid coffee drinker and much prefer the more dessert-like beverages.

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While the latter means I rarely have drinks in which milk of any kind needs to be added and cannot really weigh in on oat versus almond versus cow, the oat milk base is sure to please those who follow a plant-based diet. The drink most similar to the new latte in style is the Iced Brown Sugar Shaken Espresso, which Starbucks launched in March 2021 and is another milky coffee drink but with that caramelized sugar taste in place of the more tastebud-specific hazelnut.

At 180 calories for a grande, this is still an indulgence rather than something even the most ardent Starbucks fan would have on regular rotation but it's more likely to appeal to those who still need to have that coffee flavor at the forefront. Those looking for a rich dessert drink will prefer the two returning pistachio ones.

-Veronika Bondarenko

Starbucks offers a bland new cold foam

Starbucks changed the coffee game in late-2014 when it began offering cold foam as a topper for its iced coffees. That was a move Dunkin' and other rivals eventually had to copy which pushed the innovator into creating new cold foam flavors. Some of those have been more successful than others. Caramel Brûlée Cold Foam adds layers of nuance to the coffee it tops as you get a little bit of burnt sugar flavor along with the sweetness as you sip your drink. In other cases, however, the cold foam's flavor does not really stand out. 

That's sadly what I thought about the chain's returning Pistachio Cream Cold Brew. Starbucks describes the drink as "smooth cold brew topped with silky pistachio cream cold foam and salted brown-buttery sprinkles." The problem is that there's nothing particularly nutty about the Pistachio Cold Foam. It's milky and sweet, but given a dozen guesses as to its supposed flavor, “pistachio” would not have come to mind. It's not unpleasant (like the Irish Cream Cold Foam) but it's not distinct in any way.

In addition, the “salted brown-buttery sprinkles” don't add any contrast to the flavoring the way the burnt sugar pieces do for the Caramel Brûlée version. It's not an utter failure as "blank" still works as a cold foam flavor but this pales compared to the Chocolate Cream and Salted Caramel Cold Foams Starbucks introduced in 2023.

-Daniel Kline