I Tried And Ranked Iced Vanilla Lattes From 10 Coffee Chains

Where should you go to get a classic, satisfying vanilla latte? This isn't as easy to answer as it once was. The coffee market is saturated with new drive-thru coffee shop options like 7 Brew and Scooter's, pricey brick-and-mortar stores like Foxtail Coffee Co., and, of course, the inescapable giants of the industry like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. Adding to the excess choice dilemma is the steep rise in coffee prices, so if you go with a bad choice, it becomes a much costlier mistake than just drinking a subpar cup of coffee. 

A good iced vanilla latte isn't that simple of an order; there's a lot of hidden nuance behind this brew. There needs to be a balance between the milk, vanilla syrup, and coffee, not to mention the right level of ice. The vanilla syrup shouldn't be too sweet or too bland, and that milk needs to offer just enough creamy richness to cut through the bitter coffee. Of course, that coffee flavor lying underneath it all needs to be strong, smooth, and perfectly aromatic. So, which coffee company delivers the best iced latte with the ideal level of vanilla sweetness? I tried 10 different brews — and risked a caffeine-induced panic attack — to get the answer. 

A brand that hails from Valdosta, Georgia, Red Owl Coffee Company has relatively recently trickled into my home state of Florida. The brand specializes in coffee orders, but it has begun to branch into the energy drink realm with its Hoot Energy line. Ordering was fast and efficient and right off the bat I appreciated that the barista didn't overdo it on the ice.

But that's really where my positive notes end. First off, the vanilla flavor here was understated, bordering on non-existent. It was giving plain simple syrup vibes. And while the milk was liberally applied, it couldn't really compensate for the overly bitter coffee flavor. I like an intense dark roast coffee as much as the next gal, but it really seemed to dominate everything else. Some of the other lattes on this list had a lackluster vanilla syrup as well, but none had such burnt and bitter coffee base. 

PJ's Coffee of New Orleans is a chain that I had hopes for purely because of my biased love of all things NOLA. I've never had a bad meal there, let alone a subpar cup of coffee, so I hoped that I could get a touch of that Creole magic through the new PJ's location. Alas, that Crescent City charm doesn't travel quite as well as I'd hoped.

To the credit of PJ's, this had the potential to be a big and bold coffee order. I occasionally tasted hints of a robustly flavored brew that suggested an expertly roasted coffee bean blend. Unfortunately, this was almost completely washed away by the liberal presence of vanilla syrup, milk, and ice. The beginning and middle were much too sweet, and the last sip was glorified ice milk. No matter how hard I chased it, I couldn't quite get a real taste of that quality coffee. My main take away from this drink was the frustrating feeling that it had great potential that was squandered by an imbalanced ratio of milk and sugar. It was also one of the more expensive lattes on this list, making these mistakes irredeemable in my book.    

Though it may not have nation-wide reach just yet, this drive-thru-focused coffee chain is practically inescapable in my home state of Florida, and it's quickly spreading through the neighboring lands of Georgia and Alabama. That being said, Ellianos Coffee was an unknown variable to me prior to this taste test. First impressions were definitely not helped by what was a fairly short coffee menu. Most other coffee chains offered a small iced coffee in a 16-ounce cup. This one came in a 12-ounce cup, which peeved me even though it was slightly cheaper than most 16-ounce options. 

I was even more irritated by this minuscule size when I got my first taste. While I definitely detected a smooth coffee flavor underneath the strong sweetness and milky base, the majority of my drink was ice. Four solid sips got me way too close to the bottom line for a drink that cost me over $5. At a dollar a sip, the coffee needed to offer much more flavor than it was giving. 

Scooter's Coffee is a Midwest-born brand that always knew that its contribution to coffee would be a speedy affair conducted from a drive-thru window. Though the brand mostly lacks a true sit-down interior, there are plenty of homey, cute touches to be found. You can find adorable stickers on each cup of Scooter's Coffee. My own cup had a shade-wearing smiley face that instantly made this option my daughter's favorite latte of the bunch. 

Cute marketing aside, Scooter's does get major brownie points for offering a syrup with true vanilla flavor. It wasn't just a bland hit of sweetness like I found at Ellianos and PJ's. It had authentic aromatic vanilla bean undertones. However, the most important element, coffee, was just okay. Add to that a surplus of ice that made an already lackluster latte even more bland, and I couldn't quite justify the five-minute detour let alone the $6 price tag. 

Like the Ellianos small iced coffee, the Starbucks tall iced latte comes in the diminutive 12-ounce cup, though the size doesn't bother me here. Instead, I got a bone to pick with the lid. The opening is too narrow, leading to ice blockage and clumsy shakes that end in inevitable spills. My low-stakes conspiracy theory is that this lid was specifically designed to cause you to spill it all down your front, trapping you in an endless loop of reordering latte after latte. But maybe I'm projecting.

There's little I can say about Starbucks coffee that hasn't been written in a billion reviews before. You either love that dark, bordering-on-burnt coffee flavor, or you don't. I don't mind it, and the vanilla syrup and milk present in the latte go a long way to mellow out its harsher notes. Maybe if it had the blonde espresso as the base, I could call it the best Starbucks iced latte flavor. But that required extra customization, an out of bounds request. Either way, the traditional Starbucks vanilla latte is like a security blanket. It offers familiar comfort, but that's hardly what I want to wake me up in the morning. Other coffee shops offer better tasting and more exciting lattes on their menus.  

7 Brew is one of the fastest growing chains in America, and not just because of the drive-thru coffee. I first got to know the brand through a 7 Brew Fizz Soda review and was impressed with the seemingly limitless options to customize a drink order. But could the brand also deliver a proper version of the caffeinated basics as well? The vanilla latte test was about to answer this question.  

At first glance, this was a fairly solid latte. The vanilla syrup was not too sweet and worked to smooth out the sharp acidity of the coffee base. I also appreciated that it wasn't overly milky, like the Starbucks latte. However, it packed a lot of ice that made the drink a watery mess in mere minutes. The fact of the matter is that coming to 7 Brew to order a plain vanilla latte is a bit of a wasted opportunity. Outlandish customization is the order of the day here, and you should opt for something like the Banana Bread Blondie. Still, I was happy to see that the brand could do something simple well, even if it couldn't quite hold a candle to its other, more complicated options.

Dunkin Donuts is an iconic brand for many reasons, not least because it knows how to turn out simple coffee drinks quickly and efficiently. This is the kind of place that people go to if they need sugar-saturated caffeine, not if they want atmosphere with a side of bitter java. Heck, this is the place that offered Candy Bar Lattes last Halloween. With that said, it's unsurprising that this brand nails the vanilla syrup better than anyone else. Labeled as French Vanilla rather than just plain vanilla, this latte is like melted vanilla ice cream with coffee aroma. 

I'm in a bit of a toxic relationship with this latte. On the one hand, it starts off way too strong, offering a one-two punch of sweetness and bold coffee. But then it mellows out as the ice melts, making it one of the few iced lattes that gets better with time. And at a roughly $5 price point, I have to say it offered the most quality coffee for my money, considering how strong it was even with a bevy of melted ice. I can't resist its magnetic, sweet pull from time to time but I'm never quite happy with the toothache afterward. 

Though I've become very familiar with the sight of the Dutch Bros Coffee blue windmill during my morning commute, I'd never actually tried any of the coffees. Of all the coffee chains I visited, this was the one place where I could actually watch my coffee being made, which I think might have helped with the overall experience. For one, I felt like the barista was less inclined to overload my drink with ice with me watching mere feet away. Of course, they could have just been generous.  

Either way, the Dutch Bros came out strong and swinging with this latte. This is a latte that earns that generous addition of milk and vanilla syrup, which I feel is the whole point of the latte to begin with. The intense, darker roast flavor that accompanied each sip was well matched by that creamy dairy and sweet syrup. My one quibble is that the vanilla itself wasn't particularly discernible, the one edge that Dunkin had on it, but that can be forgiven as the coffee is well above par. The quality of the plain latte has me jonesing to try the best Dutch Bros iced coffee, the Annihilator. But we'll leave that for another day. 

Of the 10 different brands I visited, Foxtail Coffee Co. had the most luxe storefront and marketing. Neither cookie-cutter like Starbucks nor humble and homey like Dunkin, Florida-founded Foxtail seemed to channel some of that boutique coffee house charm you can get at a college town haunt. Despite this aesthetically pleasing approach, it still offers a drive-thru window for the commuter who likes a refined on-the-go latte. This was the most expensive coffee on this list, so it needed to deliver an equally expensive flavor.  

This definitely met expectations. The ice was at an appropriate level, and both the vanilla syrup and milk worked as smooth complements to a full-bodied coffee. The chain is proud of the fact that the beans are roasted in-house, and I can recognize that in the flavor. It had a nice blend of acidity and nutty richness. The only thing that keeps this coffee from taking the top spot is its eye-watering price point. This is a coffee that you can enjoy as a special treat, but it doesn't really lend itself as a daily habit. One final latte does it just as good but for far less. 

While the second-ranked latte I ordered was the most expensive, my number one pick was actually the cheapest. Sure, it comes with the caveat that I was able to use my military discount (Black Rifle Coffee Company is proudly veteran-owned and operated), and that it came in the smaller 12-ounce size, but this cup of joe overdelivered on elements that other, more expensive options consistently dropped the ball on. Let's break it down.

First off, this was not drowned in ice, giving coffee, milk, and vanilla syrup the chance to really pack a flavorful punch. Second, the vanilla sweetness was perfectly balanced by the right amount of rich dairy and the subtle coffee acidity. Speaking of its coffee, this robust brew made me feel like I'd ordered a latte at a painfully hip coffee shop that caters to true coffee snobs rather than a drive-through window bordered by a four-lane highway. And that's what really good coffee should do; transport you to a better, cozier place through your taste buds. Black Rifle Coffee Company achieved that with the humble iced vanilla latte. I can't imagine what they could do with a proper espresso. 

For coffee shop selection, I looked for stores that were certified chains and could boast locations in more than one state. These were the 10 I had access to in Jacksonville, Florida. I tried the lattes immediately after ordering, as the melting ice meant the overall flavor was a ticking time bomb. For the order, I kept things simple. All lattes were made with regular vanilla simple syrup (not sugar-free) and with regular whole milk (no alternative milks or heavier half-and-half). Beyond that, there were no special instructions or customizations ordered.

During my taste test, I evaluated the flavor of the coffee and syrup, and the level of milk present in the latte. I also had to consider the ice level, as each coffee chain seemed to prefer a different amount per cup. Some non-edible features that I reviewed were cup design (don't give me something that will make me dump expensive coffee on myself) and price points. I also noted how the flavor of the drink changed when ice melted a bit, as that seems like a natural progression of every iced latte, and it shouldn't make the basic item undrinkable.