The Tiramisu Velvet Drinks Lead a Lineup That Leaves Out Two Longtime Favorites
Credit: Daily Vitality
Starbucks' holiday menu arrived in US coffeehouses on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, one day after the company published its official launch announcement. The lineup pairs a new dessert-inspired drink family, the Tiramisu Velvet Latte and Tiramisu Velvet Cold Brew, with a new fruit-forward Apple Pomegranate Refresher and a slate of returning holiday classics.
For anyone who tracks the seasonal menu closely, the more telling detail is what the announcement leaves out. Two drinks that came back during the 2025 season, the Chestnut Praline Latte and the Eggnog Latte, do not appear in either of Starbucks' 2026 holiday announcements. Starbucks has not said whether they will return this year.
This update sorts the 2026 US menu into three plain categories: what is new, what is back and what is missing. It also lays out the key dates through Dec. 1, the caffeine format behind each new drink and the sugar figures Starbucks has published so far. Canadian and other international menus differ and are not covered here.
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The centerpiece of the 2026 menu is a pair of drinks inspired by the Italian dessert. According to Starbucks' Nov. 4 launch announcement, the Tiramisu Velvet Latte combines Starbucks Signature Espresso with milk and vanilla syrup, then finishes with a new Velvet Mascarpone Cold Foam and a dusting of cocoa. It is available hot and iced.
The Tiramisu Velvet Cold Brew uses the same vanilla syrup, mascarpone foam and cocoa topping over Starbucks Cold Brew instead of espresso. That base swap matters more than it might seem, because cold brew and espresso carry noticeably different amounts of caffeine in a grande, a difference covered in the nutrition section below.
The second new drink family moves away from coffee entirely. The Apple Pomegranate Refresher is built on crisp apple flavors with popping pomegranate-flavored pearls. Starbucks offers it three ways: as the standard Refresher, as the creamier Snowy Apple Drink made with coconutmilk, and shaken with lemonade.
The caffeine format is flexible here as well. Starbucks says its Refreshers can be ordered with no caffeine, with light caffeine, or as an Energy Refresher with added caffeine, which makes this the only new holiday drink that Starbucks presents at three caffeine levels.
Two more drinks carry the "new" label even though their flavors are not. The Iced Caramel Brulée Cream Chai pairs creamy chai with caramel brulée sauce and caramel brulée bits, bringing a returning holiday flavor into the chai lineup. The Iced Sugar Cookie Cream Matcha tops a matcha latte with sugar cookie cream cold foam and red and green sprinkles.
The two builds also widen the caffeine range on the holiday menu. Chai and matcha are tea-based formats, and the matcha drink's posted caffeine figure is well below that of the espresso and cold brew options, as the nutrition table below shows.
Daily Vitality's coffee vs. tea breakdown compares the two everyday drinks in more detail.
On the food side, the new Braised Short Rib Grilled Cheese layers braised short rib, caramelized onion jam and a hint of Dijon with Cheddar, Parmesan and mozzarella on sourdough. The new Bearista Cake Pop, styled after the Bearista bear cup, is vanilla cake and buttercream dipped in chocolaty icing.
Starbucks is also introducing its first-ever holiday pup cup design. It will be available at select coffeehouses only, for a limited time and while supplies last.
Four signature holiday drinks return, each in more than one format. The Peppermint Mocha combines espresso, steamed milk, mocha sauce and peppermint-flavored syrup with whipped cream and dark chocolate curls, and it is available hot, iced and as a Frappuccino. The Caramel Brulée Latte returns in the same three formats, finished with whipped cream and caramel brulée topping.
The Sugar Cookie Latte is back, led in the US announcement by its iced version, which combines Signature Espresso, milk and sugar cookie-flavored syrup over ice with red and green sprinkles; it is also available hot. Gingerbread Chai returns as the Iced Gingerbread Cream Chai, topped with gingerbread-flavored cold foam, and can also be ordered as a hot chai or as a hot or iced latte.
Starbucks lists five holiday cold foams for 2026: Velvet Mascarpone, Gingerbread, Peppermint Chocolate, Sugar Cookie and Caramel Brulée. The Velvet Mascarpone foam is the one that tops the new Tiramisu drinks; the other four carry the season's familiar gingerbread, peppermint, sugar cookie and caramel brulée flavors. Many can be made non-dairy, but Starbucks excludes the Velvet Mascarpone and Caramel Brulée foams from that option.
Every holiday cold foam can also be made with protein, which Starbucks says adds approximately 15 grams of protein in a grande. That option is not a 2026 launch. Starbucks first introduced Protein Cold Foam in 2025, when it began offering the topping in US coffeehouses on Sept. 29 with the same roughly 15-gram figure per grande. This season simply extends it to the holiday flavors.
Daily Vitality has already ranked the highest-protein Starbucks orders on the year-round menu.
The Turkey & Stuffing Sandwich returns with a new recipe: sliced turkey, holiday stuffing and gravy on a new baguette baked with cranberries, finished with cranberry sauce. The bakery case brings back the Snowman Cookie, the Cranberry Bliss Bar (also sold as a whole tray) and the Sugar Plum Cheese Danish.
Thanksgiving Blend, Christmas Blend and Holiday Blend return as the featured brewed coffees in participating coffeehouses for most of the season, and all three are also sold as whole bean coffee.
Two longtime holiday drinks are absent this year. Neither the Chestnut Praline Latte nor the Eggnog Latte appears in Starbucks' Nov. 4 launch announcement or on its 2026 holiday hub, which lists the season's drinks, food and dates in one place.
The only Chestnut Praline item Starbucks features this season is not a coffeehouse drink at all. The holiday hub promotes a Chestnut Praline Latte-inspired dairy creamer, part of the company's at-home lineup sold at grocery retailers.
The absence did not go unnoticed earlier in the fall. When Starbucks previewed its holiday lineup in early October, The Journal News reported that the Chestnut Praline Latte was not part of it.
There is recent history behind the question of timing. Last season, both drinks returned through a separate announcement in December. The company announced on Dec. 1, 2025 that the Eggnog Latte and Chestnut Praline Latte would return to US coffeehouses starting Dec. 2, 2025, while supplies last. Starbucks described the Eggnog Latte in that announcement as its first-ever holiday espresso beverage, dating to 1986.
That precedent describes what happened last year. It is not a forecast. As of Nov. 5, 2026, Starbucks has made no announcement about either drink for this season.
Starbucks.com has published US nutrition information for four of the new holiday drinks. The figures below were read from each drink's official nutrition page on Nov. 5, 2026, and reflect a grande (16 fl oz) in the default build Starbucks lists for each drink. Any change in milk, syrup pumps or toppings changes these numbers.
The hot latte's listing on the Starbucks Tiramisu Velvet Latte nutrition page also shows 11 grams of protein in the default grande, the same figure posted for the iced version.
The table makes the format differences concrete. Among the new drinks with posted figures, the Tiramisu Velvet Cold Brew carries the most caffeine at 190 mg per grande, the two espresso-based Tiramisu lattes sit at 115 mg, and the Sugar Cookie Cream Matcha has 50 mg. The Apple Pomegranate Refresher sits outside that ladder entirely, since it can be ordered with no caffeine, light caffeine or as an Energy Refresher.
Starbucks had not posted nutrition pages for the Iced Caramel Brulée Cream Chai or the standard Apple Pomegranate Refresher that could be located on Nov. 5, so those drinks are left out of the table rather than estimated.
For context on how holiday sugar figures compare across chains, Daily Vitality's Pumpkin Spice Latte analysis lays out sugar and calories for the fall season's signature drink.
The holiday season at Starbucks is staged rather than delivered all at once. The merchandise collection that arrived Nov. 5 includes Bearista mugs, tumblers and an ornament, and Starbucks' holiday merchandise announcement confirms that a surprise collection of Bearista Glass Cold Cup characters arrives in US coffeehouses on Nov. 10, followed by the original Bearista Glass Cold Cup on Dec. 1 at select locations.
Red Cup Day on Nov. 17 sits between those two drops. Starbucks' launch announcement also notes that more merchandise, seasonal drinks and surprises will be unveiled as the season unfolds, without naming what they are. Any additions beyond the dates above remain unconfirmed.
For readers who follow the cost of their daily cup as closely as the seasonal menu, Daily Vitality has also costed coffee per cup and per 100 mg of caffeine across ground, instant and bottled formats.
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About the Author
Angela Nightingale is a Senior Editor at Daily Vitality with over two decades of experience in digital publishing and health and wellness content. She specializes in turning complex, often-confusing health topics into clear, calm, and practical guidance that respects the reader's intelligence. Her work focuses on helping people feel informed and confident — never overwhelmed or alarmed — as they make everyday decisions about how they eat, move, rest, and age.
