Review: We Tried Starbucks' New Cinnamon Caramel Cream Nitro Cold Brew
When we hear of a new Starbucks drink, you best believe we will give it a whirl. Even better? This one is a brand-new iced coffee option combining some of our favorite tastes. The new items in question utilize Starbucks' latest flavoring addition inspired by delicious cinnamon rolls: Cinnamon Caramel.
In 2014, Starbucks launched a trial cold brew premiere in several cities. After a successful showing, this cold coffee appeared in stores across the country in 2015. Then, in 2016, nitro cold brew made its appearance with all of that cascading coffee goodness. For a few years, customers just customized cold brew iced coffee just as they would any other iced coffee drink at Starbucks. Then, the cold brew coffee game changed forever when Starbucks introduced its cold foam in 2018. After that release, cold brew got a whole new look with a creamy white topper. Since then, this coffee giant has premiered several seasonal, rotating cold foam options, and this spring, it is offering the newest addition: Cinnamon Caramel Cream Nitro Cold Brew.
So, what is this drink?
This swirl of flavors comes in two varieties: a nitro cold brew as well as a regular cold brew. The new Cinnamon Caramel syrup gets added to both the nitro cold brew and the cold brew. For the cold foam, baristas use the same syrup and top that delicious creaminess with a nice helping of Cinnamon Dolce sprinkles.
More than anything, the most significant announcement here is that of a new syrup. With this new addition, you have another syrup with which to customize your drinks, and we think several of Starbucks' offerings would fare well with this sweet addition. When we gave these drinks a try, our barista recommended adding the syrup to a shaken espresso rather than using the brown sugar syrup. This syrup would be delightful as part of a delicious iced chai. If you love the Cinnamon Dolce sprinkles added to your cold foam, know that this is a topping you can add to any Starbucks drink.
When you can get this drink and how much it costs
Although this coffee is arriving as a spring beverage, Starbucks intends to keep it around throughout the year. This way, if you love cold coffee, you have another excellent option to choose from. Even still, if Starbucks eventually removes the Cinnamon Caramel syrup from its menu, you will still be able to order a Cinnamon Dolce cold foam since Cinnamon Dolce is a syrup that has been around for a very long time and is in many beverages on the Starbucks menu.
In terms of cost, the nitro versions of the cold brew only come in two sizes: tall and grande. The tall version is $5.45, and the grande option is $5.95. Oddly enough, there is only a 50-cent difference between the two sizes. The regular cold brew drink, which includes ice, runs from a tall through a trenta option. The smallest of these drinks is $4.95, and the largest of them is $5.95. Please note that the trenta size in the iced cold brew costs the same as the grande version of the nitro because the trenta version, though in a larger cup, has a great deal of ice in it, while the nitro version has no ice.
The nutritional info to know
Both the nitro cold brew and the normal cold brew are sweetened using the new Cinnamon Caramel syrup, which is sweetened with brown sugar. The topping of the Cinnamon Dolce includes sugar as well as cinnamon. The Cinnamon Sweet Cream begins as a base of Vanilla Sweet Cream, which includes vanilla syrup, and then gets Cinnamon Caramel syrup added to it. Basically, it's an enhancement on the already delicious cold foam.
Cold brew coffees get less syrup added to them than lattes of the same size. As a result, they tend to have slightly less sugary stats than other drinks. In this case, a grande nitro cold brew will deliver 260 calories, 8 grams of saturated fat, 34 grams of carbohydrates, and 265 milligrams of caffeine. The same size in a regular cold brew carries 250 calories, 8 grams of saturated fat, 33 grams of carbohydrates, and 185 milligrams of caffeine. These stats are relatively similar, except for the difference in caffeine. The nitro cold brew serving has so much more caffeine because there is simply more liquid in it, owing to the lack of ice.
Enjoying the sweet taste of this coffee
Between the nitro cold brew and the regular cold brew variants of this new drink, we definitely preferred the iced cold brew drink. We appreciated the velvety smooth look and feel of the nitro, but the taste of the regular cold brew was much more enjoyable to us. With the nitro cold brew, you get a smooth flavor, but it is less sweet. On the other hand, the cold brew with ice is quite a sweet drink. Since we love a delicious, sweet cold brew, there is no wonder why this was our preferred beverage.
We should also note that the lack of ice in the nitro cold brew is one of the reasons this one wasn't our favorite. If you happen to drink your cold coffee fairly quickly, the no-ice issue shouldn't be a problem, but if you tend to take your time with cold drinks like we have been known to do, then that absent ice will be sorely missed. In the end, the nitro cold brew will become nitro room-temperature coffee. That said, we genuinely wish the regular cold brew had the same smooth texture as nitro, and there's nearly nothing quite as pretty as that cascade when the barista first hands over your drink.
How the drink compares to other Starbucks favorites
With the addition of the Cinnamon Caramel Cream Cold Brew, Starbucks now has quite a collection of drinks on its cold brew menu. This drink joins a Pistachio Cream Cold Brew, Chocolate Cream Cold Brew, Salted Caramel Cream Cold Brew, Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew, and seasonal favorites as they come and go. On the nitro end of things, this Cinnamon Caramel Cream Nitro is a welcome addition since this part of the menu only had the original nitro and a Vanilla Sweet Cream Nitro Cold Brew before this new drink.
In terms of sweetness, we found the Cinnamon Caramel Cream Cold Brew to be as sweet as the other cold brews we've come to know and love on the menu. When it comes to nitro, this new flavor adds a dynamic swing to this type of drink, extending the range and offering a drink to people with new tastes who may be interested in trying nitro.
Is it worth getting?
In terms of price, these drinks are no different from any other cold brew you would expect to purchase on the Starbucks menu, so the price feels adequate. If you love a sweet Starbucks drink, you will completely adore the new Cinnamon Caramel Cream Cold Brew. It has a delicious and smooth flavor, plus the fresh syrup gives you plenty of options to personalize other drinks. However, if sweet drinks aren't really your thing, we still recommend trying the Cinnamon Caramel Cream Nitro Cold Brew. For this one, the smoothness outpaces the sweetness, and for us, that wasn't preferable, but for many, it will be a delicious advantage.
We look forward to all of the secret menu options people come up with using the new cinnamon caramel syrup. We sense a Cinnamon Caramel Mocha on the horizon, and we are here for it. Not to mention, a shaken espresso with Cinnamon Caramel Cold Foam may become our new favorite pick-me-up.