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Starbucks Is Hopping On The Dubai Chocolate Trend In Its New Winter Menu

If you’re ready for 2025 to be over and done with, you’re not alone, as Starbucks is already looking towards the new year with a brand new winter menu to kick off the first months of 2026. The menu leaked this morning, and Starbucks has already followed up with an official announcement. And it’s not exactly “new year, new me” at the coffee chain as their menu is all about pistachio and the Dubai chocolate flavors that took the food world by storm in 2024. Their take on the trendy chocolate features new and returning drinks, plus additions to their protein drink menu and a couple of unrelated food items. Here’s what we’re getting from the 2026 Starbucks winter menu.

What drinks are on the menu?

What flavors give winter? If you ask Starbucks, the answer is Dubai chocolate and pistachio since the bulk of their wintry menu features the trendy flavors. If you’re looking for a drink form of the internet’s favorite chocolate bar, they are offering new Dubai Chocolate Mocha and Dubai Chocolate Matcha drinks (do pistachio and matcha go together? I guess we’re going to find out). These drinks were apparently created after seeing people posting custom orders for Dubai Chocolate flavors. 

 And while not explicitly part of the released information and just speculation on my part, the image of the Dubai Matcha might reveal a Dubai Chocolate cold foam. After all, the Iced Banana Cream Protein Matcha gets its banana flavor from its cold foam. So maybe we’ll be able to add Dubai Chocolate flavoring to other drinks on the menu.

Starbucks is also bringing back their plain pistachio drinks, the Pistachio Latte and the Pistachio Cream Cold Brew, plus an additional new pistachio drink: the Pistachio Cortado. And if pistachio isn’t your thing, or you want your coffee to count as your breakfast, Starbucks will also be dropping two new protein drinks, an Iced Caramel Protein Matcha and a Caramel Protein Latte. The menu will also mark the release of a sugar-free caramel syrup that will become part of the permanent menu. 

What food items are on the menu?

Starbucks’ winter menu doesn’t just have new things to sip on — three sweet and savory treats are headed our way. Their Turkey Bacon, Cheddar, and Egg White sandwich is returning, while the Truffle Mushroom and Brie Egg Bites will be making their debut. And for sweet tooths and lovebirds, the Valentine Cake Pop is also returning.

When is the menu releasing? 

The coffee chain is not giving people any time to breathe between themed menus, as Starbucks’ winter menu is dropping just after New Year’s on January 6. Just in time for you to get out of your endless holiday food coma.

What else is Starbucks releasing? 

We might not have the full winter menu yet, as Starbucks notes that their menu announcement (which came mere hours after leaks starting brewing on social media) is a “preview of some of the beverages and food coming.” 

And if you’re still trying to savor the holiday flavors (after all, it’s only the first of December), keep in mind that Starbucks is releasing the second half of their holiday menu on December 2. This includes the Chestnut Praline Latte and the long-awaited return of the Eggnog Latte. So you still have holiday drinks to keep you warm through the end of 2025.

Sarah Leberknight is the Fall 2025 Spoon Editorial Intern. She covers food on all fronts, hoping to write articles that make you hungry for a snack, and loves to tackle divisive opinions on your favorite foods.

Sarah is a senior at Virginia Tech, where she juggles 3 majors—English Literature, Creative Writing, and Professional and Technical Writing. She writes for VT’s Collegiate Times newspaper as an opinions columnist, spouting her thoughts on women’s soccer, college, and anything else she has a say on. Her work has also appeared in VT News and Trill Mag, where she interned for 6 months as an entertainment writer and is now interning as an editor. She previously interned at Sneak Peek Books as a book reviewer.

When Sarah’s not writing professionally or for school, she’s still writing. Short stories, a novel trilogy, and novellas—she does it all. Except poems. And if she actually isn’t writing, she’s playing video games or watching other people play video games. She can’t get enough of the Legend of Zelda.