Review: Starbucks' New Eggnog Cold Foam Isn't The Noggiest, But A Returning Favorite Is Here To Help

Fall foliage is soon to blow away into the waning days of November, but at Starbucks, the winter holidays are already running full steam ahead. The holiday menu was actually announced back in early October, but one can now walk into a store and get your hands to pull apart its new Cinnamon bread that wasn't much to write home about, or head over to the Starbucks Reserve offshoot for the complex, but smooth sipping Caramel Miso Hot Cocoa. There's plenty of old favorites returning too. Frosty flavorings like gingerbread, sugar cookie, caramel brûlée, and peppermint can pep up hot or iced beverages, as well as taking the frothy form of foams. Starting December 2, one of the holiday's signature flavors is taking over Starbucks by (winter) storm: eggnog. First and foremost, the Eggnog Latte is returning for the first time in five years, and second and second most, the chain is rolling out the option of an Eggnog Cold Foam.

With so many hibernal options already on the menu at your neighborhood Starbucks, is there even room left to cozy up to eggnog? Will the new Eggnog Cold Foam be even better than the real thing? And after so many years away, is the Eggnog Latte's rebirth worth the wait? Starbucks invited Tasting Table to have a sip of each item, and now our noggin is ready to dish in this sip & say.

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I was presented with both a hot Eggnog Latte, and an iced beverage, topped off with the new Eggnog Cold Foam. It was a temptingly tough choice to figure out where to begin, but I always feel it's best to try something that's warm first, before it loses its steam, and so the Eggnog Latte was the first batter up.

As the drink arrived in a seasonal red Starbucks paper cup, its strong spiced scent filled the room up with a familiar holiday essence. A closer whiff of the beverage itself, and it felt as if I was transported inside a bake shop within a cheery Hallmark Christmas movie. If that wasn't welcome enough, the top surface of the latte's liquid was just a pleasant sight to behold. The Eggnog Latte had a beautiful yin-yang-like color split between mocha-white, and the other half sandy brown. A closer look revealed what appears to be a sea of cinnamon sprinkles.

While nutmeg is a key ingredient for many eggnog recipes, and adorns the creamy liquid at the top, the Eggnog Latte is not only physically laden with cinnamon, but its taste is too. The layer of foam it sits on has a nice creaminess to it. Just don't expect the super rich vanilla flavoring, or thickness of actual eggnog in this drink. Alas, while it's not a carbon copy of the genuine article, it was still an excellent drink that captures enough of its essence. The mild, but still winning eggnog flavoring blended in quite well with the rest of the latte base. It added just the right amount of spiced sweetness, without going overboard.

After falling in love with the Eggnog Latte, I was assuming the Eggnog Cold Foam would be the next great extension of this old flavor reborn. While it can top any drink hot or cold, the one given to me to try was a simple Cold Brew with vanilla flavoring. The foam looked rather frothy, like the splash of sea water washing up ashore, sitting atop this cool drink. Its white hue was so bright, it had me thinking of winter days, with hills covered in fresh snow.

Without any cinnamon in sight, I had a feeling the cold foam wasn't going to have as strong a smell as its Latte brethren did. When my nostrils had their way with the foam, it confirmed my suspicions. When I sipped the foam itself, it too wasn't able to supply the flavoring my mind and mouth were eagerly waiting for. As a foam it's fine, but being billed as an eggnog flavored one, it doesn't really deliver the holiday goods. It mainly just tasted like the overly milky Dunkin' drink mixed up with the stronger brews of Starbucks.

I love eggnog. Always have, always will. It's associated with a holiday I don't even partake in, but I'm happy to pour a small glass and take some strong sips of the creamy dream stuff on the occasional winter evening. Eggnog is so great that I don't ever want a drop of alcohol poured into it, as to not sully its already awesome overindulgent appeal.

While I never had the pleasure of trying an Eggnog Latte on its previous runs on planet earth, I now feel like I missed the boat on its first go around, but happy to now be able to catch up with it on this encore presentation. This latte is a wonderfully harmoniously blended drink with just enough notes of eggnog along for the ride. While regular eggnog is purely for special occasions, the Eggnog Latte is perfect to call upon for any time of the day. I truly hope Starbucks calls upon it every holiday season from here on out.

The Eggnog Cold Foam didn't exactly work the same mojo magic as the Eggnog Latte did. Maybe the cold brew I tried it with wasn't the best match, or maybe, just maybe, the foam needs a few more dashes of nog to make for a more eggs-cellent foam. It's nice to see it as an option for this holiday season, but if Santa's bringing it back in 2026, perhaps he can totally go nuts next time and sprinkle in a bunch more pinches of nutmeg.