12 Starbucks Reserve Menu Items We Wish We Had At Our Local Cafe

Unfortunately, there aren't too many Starbucks Reserve locations around the country. Those who live far from one and have only ever fueled up prior to a day taking in the Empire State Building, know the allure of Reserve locations goes far beyond premium coffee and cocktails. And although the Reserve-exclusive lattes, martinis, or unique flavor combinations might cost a lot, as a regular visitor I can attest that you generally get what you pay for.

If you're going to visit one of these Starbucks flagships, you really ought to go all the way and entrust the select tier baristas and bartenders with making you something special. Yeah, you could save money making coffee at home, even using those highly prized Reserve blends you can purchase, but you didn't come all this way not to go for the gusto. 

Just as you can't quite take home the actual Starbucks Reserve experiential activities, you can't fully replicate the expertise and expensive machinery that crafts some of these foods and drinks. So why would you get the same ol' cake pop you can order anywhere? With that in mind, here are the Starbucks Reserve-exclusive menu items I've most enjoyed (or drooled at from afar) that I wish were available everywhere.

Starbucks didn't drop a truly legitimate cortado until the start of 2025, to the relief of many a Miami resident (the city where it's most popular in the U.S.) and/or Spaniard missing the proper pour from home. You can get two types of cortado at any Starbucks location, one of which is vegan. If that's not a concern for you, the honeybees have crafted you this concoction, this elixir of paradise, this bromide for your brain, this cortado for your cortex ... yeah, you'd better bee-lieve people would order this if it showed up next to the two cortados already added to the permanent menu.

Truth is, I'd jump headfirst into my own grave if you topped it with hot honey or latte foam, so this drink was always going to be my destiny. Combining the two components makes this a done deal, and the Starbucks Reserve Espresso is just the bonus, even as good as those select blends are.

Are you kidding me? Starbucks made a Heath Bar white chocolate mocha latte? Stop talking and glide down my gullet, I'm sold. The salted brown buttery topping is already a winner seen in other Starbucks drinks, like the pistachio latte available nationwide, so at least part of the joy in this drink is on hand. This one might be called a Hazelnut Bianco Latte in your area, by the way.

This decadent indulgence definitely belongs at Starbucks Reserve locations, but given how many drink variations are a milkshake by another name, it's not like the regular storefronts are strangers to rich, sweet drinks. Certainly there will be huge sales near my house, as espresso, steamed milk, and toffeenut join the other sugary ingredients to find a balance of bitter, fatty, nutty, and sweet flavors that belongs on coffee bars countrywide.

Nitrogen is glorious. All drinks should contain nitrogen. I once had a bartending roommate who poured me a Guinness and apologized in advance because her manager had hooked the keg up to carbon dioxide aeration instead. And yes, you could immediately taste the difference. I demand more nitro drinks: Nitrogen fizz bubble tea. Nitrogen hot cocoa. Nitrogen egg cream, even. But the closest I'll get for now is the mocha mixed in with this Starbucks Reserve Espresso shot and almond milk. I want one, and I don't even love almond milk in my coffee.

This is a great pick for when you want to take your time drinking, because it's 12 ounces of ambient visual entertainment watching the tiny nitrogen bubbles cascade almost endlessly, without worrying about it getting cold. Bring your own see-through cup if this cool drink ever makes it to regular stores.

Of course, I know why there aren't going to be cocktails at Starbucks anytime soon, but let's dream a little dream together. No, the Westland single malt in this drink isn't a scotch, but you'd be forgiven for mistaking it for one. The TTB only formally created the official designation of American Single Malt just days before the end of 2024. Of course, American single malts with no official category have been around for quite some time.

Much like Americans putting a new spin on single malt in a different setting, the mixologists designing Starbucks Reserve menu items preserve what works while adding a twist. They combine coffee, Amaro Averna, Scrappy's chocolate bitters, unspecified syrup flavor (likely simple syrup, unadorned) with cream and nutmeg to make a lush drink best consumed slowly — not because of its alcohol content, but so you don't get too full before dinner. The people who tell you to eat dessert first because life is short never said you can't do it in the same sip as your cocktail hour, but they would probably tell you one is plenty to save some room for the food on the Starbucks Reserve menu.

You won't believe me when I say this is the one hot honey pick that has nothing to do with its sweetener, but here goes. The combination of ginger beer with pickled ginger feels like it would cancel out any effects of either, but you're really pairing sweet and fizzy with salty and crunchy. Ultimately, the contrast of flavors and textures leaves more than enough room to distinguish themselves in harmony, even from the common core of ginger root. 

By the time you notice the drink is also garnished with a cinnamon stick and given even more bite from the capsaicin, you've already ordered another and started drafting an email to Starbucks corporate to ask why you can't get one of these over the counter back home. Oh, and was it obvious that there's also coffee in here? Truly an audacious combination.

Is this ... did Starbucks invent a green tea lime rickey? A matcha base hosts four different spirits (El Tesoro Blanco tequila plus three liqueurs), lime, and cherry, but the amarena cherry is also coffee-infused for just a touch of dirty matcha. The only way this could get more dazzling is if the amarena became a Luxardo, but look, it's already above a certain grade of quality.

And to save you the web-searching I had to do despite a long time working in this spirits space, the liqueurs are Liquore Strega, Verino Mastiha Antica, and Royal Combier. The first is the lovechild of Chartreuse and Fernet Branca, the middle is an aperitif mastic with an herbal combo as discordantly brilliant as a Bomb the Music Industry track, and the last combines two other Combier liqueurs with cognac for a sweet and spicy sip to round it out.

This malted milkshake takes a hard turn at the top toward an orange creamsicle, starting off with, yes, whiskey barrel-aged cold brew blended into its old friend malt ... possibly the same spent grains that originally created the whiskey, you don't know for sure that it's not. Life takes everyone to some strange places.

To this, Starbucks adds vanilla gelato, chocolate, and some orange bitters, before topping it with the almost requisite whipped cream and cherry. But this being Starbucks, the whipped cream is above par, and this being a Starbucks Reserve, the cherry is amarena (preserved in syrup). It's technically non-alcoholic, but it sure feels indulgent to the point of vice.

You can get some satisfying breakfast sandwiches at Starbucks, many served on the widely underrated ciabatta roll. But you know what's not underrated? Porchetta. Everybody who's ever tasted porchetta lives the rest of their life dreaming about it like it's the One That Got Away. Go to her now, you young fool! Go to the airport and book your flight to the nearest city with a Starbucks Reserve. Look your barista deeply in the eyes and say, "I would like to be reunited with porchetta, please."

Moments later, your lips touch. And what's this? A cage free egg has come along to teach you the tender joys of soft cooking? This is all getting rather spicy. Oh wait, no, that's the salsa verde (Italian-style, natch, in keeping with the porchetta theme). Well, even so, this is amazing. Next time, let's order it around the corner to avoid sneaking away for a food tryst once a year. Let's make porchetta and egg on ciabatta work for us in our daily lives, Starbucks.

There are a few cornetto options, but this is the one that hits that classic brunch combination of smoky cured salmon, red onion for bite, peppery green notes from arugula, and a schmear of thick cream cheese familiar to almost every New Yorker. But where an everything bagel would play host on the Lower East Side brunch, the Starbucks Reserve version uses a slight variation in the form of a cornetto. (The Italian breakfast pastry is still seeded, though. Nobody said you had to sacrifice sesame to get artsy.) 

It's a little less dense and a lot more expensive than your average bagel with cream cheese at the corner bakery, so that's why salmon is the pick. For the price of these cornetto sandwiches, you might as well get the one that's comparable to the NYC brunch spots dramatically upcharging you for salmon. And anyway, it's an incredibly delicious classic.

This is one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth throughout my many visits to review Starbucks items for you. Yeah, mushroom pizza is everywhere, but it's usually button mushrooms, not the much tastier hen of the woods variety.

You may have noticed most of these picks lean toward complex, even baroque, to justify the admittedly higher-end of the acceptable price margins at Reserve locations. If it's hard to do right, or more trouble than it's worth for a couple minutes of satisfaction, my attitude is to take it to the professionals. But here? Simplicity reigns. Just a couple of very high-quality ingredients you're unlikely to have in your fridge (fontal cheese for this flatbread), paired with fresh, not dried, herbs. Each element gets elbow room to assert its character, ultimately locking arms to march toward glory.

It's funny, but the ingredients of this caprese come closer to a traditional pizza than the actual pizza slice in this list. Still, this caprese combo throws mozzarella, tomato, arugula, and olive oil together differently than your standard slice, with the fresh cheese serving as a pleasant contrast atop a crusty, pillowy bread, while the juicy tomatoes give equal time to the greens rather than burying them in a sweet, rich sauce.

Anyway, your deconstructed/reconstructed not-pizza is like the summer equivalent of a comfort slice for a day never intended to eat hot foods. Hot pizza is better than cold pizza, but never-cooked pizza (barring the bread) comes in somewhere in the middle. Come on, Starbucks, make this one national even if it's just a seasonal limited-time-offering. The people (me) demand delicious fresh tomatoes and arugula standing in for fresh basil's pepperiness, stacked between sliced crispy focaccia.

And now it's time for dessert. Do you ever know something clearly tastes amazing despite only having a vague awareness of its ardently European name? Me too, and that's how I learned the word frangipane today. But if it pairs well with raspberry jam, you had me at Hallo, which is another ardently European word. I mean, it's made of pistachio, so it's off to a good start. It can only prosper from here and oh my stars and garters, there's a raspberry gelée center, this is really too much, I couldn't possibly — more pistachio? In the form of a white chocolate ganache? And toasted pistachios? And even more raspberries, these ones freeze-dried to intensify in flavor? Is this heaven?

The question isn't why Starbucks doesn't sell this triple double pistachio raspberry tart at its local shops. The question has now become why it isn't for sale everywhere and at all chains. This should replace apple pie for future "as American as ..." statements. This isn't just a dessert to end your Reserve experience with. This is a dessert to end all existence when you're enjoying your final meal on your deathbed at age 101. Get at us, Starbucks.