Miss the Gingerbread Latte? Here’s How to Hack Your Way to Something Similar at Starbucks.

updated Nov 12, 2019
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Credit: Isadora Baum

As you’ve probably found out by now, Starbucks chose not to bring back the beloved Gingerbread Latte this year for the holiday season. And people are pretty upset, letting their rage out on social media. One husband shared that all his pregnant wife wants is a Gingerbread Latte, so imagine what’s been going on in that home for the past week. 

And get this: one diehard fan even set up a petition to get Starbucks to bring back their favorite holiday beverage. That’s dedication. 

So of course the realists and problem solvers out there chose to come up with a few variations to make the Gingerbread Latte at Starbucks by customizing a few ingredients out of what’s available on the menu. 

Reddit user retrolesbogamer suggests adding two pumps white mocha syrup, two pumps cinnamon dolce syrup, and a few shakes of nutmeg to a white mocha, while Reddit user bbyshrew has another solution — take a soy chai latte and add one and a half pumps of chestnut praline syrup. 

But these seem super sugary, and so I tried the last variation, which was plain and simple. Reddit user, caffeinated_enigma, said to order a chai latte and add one pump of cinnamon dolce syrup. I was pretty excited, as this wasn’t super sweet compared to the others, and it was just what I needed on a 20-degree day with SNOW AND ICE in Chicago. Yuck. (Who feels my pain, here?)

Credit: Isadora Baum

My Thoughts 

I thought it was delicious! It was not very sweet, and it was less sweet than the Gingerbread Latte. 

To be fair, I only had that once before and would take a sip whenever my mom, who is a gingerbread anything and everything kind of gal, ordered it. But from what I do remember, I thought it was super sweet and had too much whipped cream for my taste.

I am not typically a sweet coffee drinker, but I actually finished this one (which I did not do with the IT Frappuccino or the Jack Skellington Frappuccino, both of which were sugar bombs and definitely felt more like dessert than a cup of java to give me energy.) 

This one tasted festive, wintery, and GINGERBREAD-like — you could legit taste the notes of gingerbread spice instead, which was awesome. I even decided to dunk a Bobo’s Bar in limited edition gingerbread for the occasion, and I have to say, the creamy coffee flavor was a nice complement to the chewy texture of the Bobo’s oat bar. (Think of this combo as the new “cookies and milk” duo.) 

If you’re looking for that gingerbread fix this season, I definitely recommend this version! And while I didn’t try the others, I can already say I think this is likely the healthier option, which makes it more of an everyday kind of coffee drink that feels way more indulgent than it actually is. So, feel free to grab that slice of gingerbread pound cake to go with it, if ya want.