5 Starbucks Holiday Drink Customizations For A Totally Festive Upgrade

The long-awaited Starbucks holiday drink menu returned on November 6, and if you're one of the many who eagerly wait all year for your chance to order festive holiday favorites like the peppermint mocha or gingerbread latte, you probably know the menu backwards and forwards. Although Starbucks' 2025 holiday menu doesn't feature a single new drink, there are some fun upgrades and customizations you can use to create completely new beverages.

At Tasting Table, we're no stranger to Starbucks drink customizations. In fact, last year, we created five Starbucks secret menu holiday drinks ourselves. This year, we're back to highlight five new fan-created masterpieces that have gone viral on social media. Each begins with a standard Starbucks drink recipe as its foundation but incorporates holiday syrups, add-ins, and toppings to create a custom specialty beverage.

These recipes aren't Starbucks-approved, so not every location will necessarily be willing to accommodate your requests. When ordering, be as specific as possible in case your barista hasn't heard of your Starbucks secret menu holiday drink before. And, of course, keep it classy and friendly — the holiday rush at Starbucks is no joke, and the last thing you want is to ruin a barista's day by asking for an off-menu drink that takes 10 minutes to make when the line is out the door.

The Pumpkin Pie Chai is a hot drink that combines all of the warm and spicy seasonal flavors found in a slice of Grandma's holiday pumpkin pie. You'll taste notes of warming spices like cardamom, ginger, cloves, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg along with sweet pumpkin and brown sugar in each sip. To order it, ask for a grande hot gingerbread chai and add two pumps of brown sugar syrup and two pumps of pumpkin sauce. Get it topped with pumpkin cream cold foam and cinnamon powder or pecan crunch topping.

If you don't like chai, this drink can easily be turned into a latte, but you'll miss out on the sweet, spicy flavors infused into chai tea. To order it as a latte, get a grande hot gingerbread latte with two pumps of pumpkin sauce, two pumps of brown sugar syrup, and one pump of classic syrup or vanilla syrup. For a nondairy version, order a gingerbread oat milk chai latte with nondairy cold foam. Oat milk will add a creamy, nutty flavor to the drink.

This is one of the most popular drink customization options for the 2025 Starbucks holiday menu, and there are a few variations that allow you to make it truly yours. Start by ordering a grande iced sugar cookie latte in a venti cup of ice with four shots of blonde espresso. Ask the barista to line the inside of the cup with caramel sauce. Further customize your order with two pumps of white chocolate mocha sauce and two pumps of caramel brûlée sauce or dark caramel sauce. Get the drink topped with extra sugar cookie cold foam and red and green sprinkles.

Customers have already been putting their own spins on the drink using the iced sugar cookie latte as the foundation. For instance, this can be further customized to create a cookie butter latte or an iced oatmeal cookie latte. Order a quad blonde espresso in a venti cup of ice lined with caramel sauce. Get a splash of oat milk, two pumps of brown sugar syrup, and two pumps of sugar cookie syrup, topped with vanilla sweet cream cold foam and cookie crumbles.

This drink is the perfect cold brew hack for enjoying hot cocoa in a warmer climate. It's also a great compromise for anyone who finds hot chocolate too sweet or mocha lattes too strong. It is like a milder version of each classic holiday drink, offering a bit of a pick-me-up that you wouldn't get from a traditional hot chocolate, but without the nerve-shattering jitters that can come with drinking too many shots of espresso. 

While there are a few ways to order it, simply ask for a grande chocolate cream cold brew in a cup lined with mocha sauce. Add a ½-inch splash of the milk of your choice, peppermint chocolate cream cold foam, one pump of vanilla syrup, one pump of white chocolate mocha sauce, and two pumps of traditional mocha sauce. Have your cold foam topped with mocha drizzle or cocoa powder and chocolate curls.

For a nondairy version, start with the nondairy chocolate cream cold brew and add a splash of the nondairy milk of your choice, along with two pumps of each of the white chocolate and traditional mocha sauces. Give your drink an extra protein boost with chocolate protein cold foam, or lower the sugar content by choosing sugar-free vanilla syrup and just one pump each of white chocolate and traditional mocha syrup.

This drink is similar to the secret menu Grinch Frappuccino that took social media by storm in 2022. However, this is a more mellow iced version that isn't as complicated to order, even using the Starbucks app. Order a grande iced matcha latte in a venti cup with the milk and espresso of your choice. Get two pumps of sugar cookie syrup, and ask for extra sugar cookie cold foam and extra red and green sprinkles on top.

You can play around with your customization options to make the drink your own. For instance, some customers have turned it into an iced blended sugar cookie matcha. Start by ordering an iced matcha latte made with oat milk and blonde espresso. Ask for two pumps of sugar cookie syrup and two pumps of white chocolate mocha sauce. Get the drink topped with whipped cream or vanilla sweet cream cold foam along with extra cookie crumbles.

After Starbucks discontinued its toffee nut syrup, we held out hope that it would return for this year's holiday menu. Unfortunately, it didn't. Without it, we thought we wouldn't be able to order some of our favorite secret menu holiday drinks. Luckily, Reddit came through with some great suggestions for recreating it using existing nutty Starbucks syrup flavors — just in time for us to try out the Snowball Frappuccino.

For this drink, order a venti peppermint white chocolate crème Frappuccino without the peppermint syrup. Instead, ask for one pump each of brown sugar, vanilla, caramel, hazelnut, and pecan syrups. Get it topped with whipped cream and caramel brûlée topping. To make it less sweet or to lower the calorie count, switch to a grande nonfat vanilla bean crème Frappuccino and ask for two pumps of sugar-free vanilla syrup, one pump of hazelnut syrup, and one pump of caramel syrup without whipped cream or other toppings.