Starbucks Has A New Hazelnut Latte For The Holidays, But You Can't Get It In The US

The creative minds at Starbucks are always coming up with new drinks to celebrate the season, and this year is no different. Among the company's 2025 holiday offerings is an oatmilk-based hazelnut praline mille-feuille drink offered in three different forms: a standard oatmilk latte, a blended oatmilk Frappuccino, and a blended oatmilk cream Frappuccino. Unfortunately for those of us in the U.S., these new nutty, creamy drinks are only landing in a market on the other side of the world: Asia.

If you've never heard of it, a mille-feuille is a type of custard dessert originally hailing from France. The name translates to "thousand-leaf," a reference to the crisp puff pastry that sandwiches delicate custard in this layered dessert. Mille-feuille has an alluring history, and the tricks by which it is turned into a latte are equally intriguing.

Making a flaky custard dessert into a latte is no easy task, but the rich syrups are doing most of the work. No mille-feuille would be complete, however, without pastry. To finish the drink and realize the illusion, crushed "mille-feuille topping" is sprinkled over the top. You may not get a full thousand pieces with your Frappuccino, but homage is at least being paid to the confectionary inspiration of this seasonal offering.

Interestingly, this is not the first latte Starbucks has released based on this classic French dessert. In February of 2024, the company rolled out a French Vanilla Oatmilk Mille-Feuille Latte — but again, this was only in the Asian market. As it turns out, despite being French in origin, mille-feuille is actually quite a popular dessert across Asia. The pastry and variants based on it — and the very similar Napoleon — can be found in bakeries in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and beyond. Seemingly, this dessert is not enough of a cultural phenomenon in the U.S. to bring its derivative drink to our market. So, what are we to do in the U.S. when we get a hankering for a hazelnut praline latte sprinkled with puff pastry?

Well, the outlook isn't great. Unfortunately, the 2025 Starbucks holiday menu in the U.S. doesn't include a single new drink. There are some favorites returning, but we won't have access to this new hazelnut-flavored delight — just like the Asia-exclusive Toffee Nut Crunch Latte. On the plus side, the flavor sounds pretty similar to the Chestnut Praline Latte that has graced the Starbucks holiday menu in the past, and that flavor is set to make a return this year as well. It isn't quite the same, but settling for a Chestnut Praline Latte is a whole lot cheaper than booking a ticket to the other side of the world. And you might get a few weird looks, but we won't judge if you bring your own little zip-top bag of crumbled puff pastry for the signature topping.