How To Get An Eggnog Latte This Season

The eggnog latte is a popular holiday tradition on the Starbucks menu, and many people are left wanting more when the holidays inevitably end and the drink is taken off the menu. However, these people may be wondering: can you make a drink reminiscent of the eggnog latte by ordering off Starbucks’ secret menu?

You can only order an eggnog latte at Starbucks during the holiday season. However, you can get a similar drink by ordering a grande latte with two pumps of vanilla, one pump of caramel, and two pumps of chai and topping it off with whipped cream and sugar cookie sprinkles.

If the idea of ordering something similar to the eggnog latte year-round has caught your eye, you may want to keep reading. In this article, we’ll cover what the eggnog latte is, when Starbucks serves them, whether you can get them dairy-free, and how to order them when they’re not on the menu.

What is an Eggnog Latte?

Traditional winter eggnog in glass mug with milk

A traditional caffe latte is made by combining one or two shots of espresso with a special kind of milk called steamed milk.

This milk is brought to scalding temperatures and then whisked to froth it up, giving it a nice creamy texture. Cafes typically own dedicated espresso machines with milk steamers to steam the milk for them.

The eggnog latte puts a spin on this by partly swapping out the steamed milk for steamed eggnog. This causes a mixture of the nice bitter flavor of espresso with the sweet, creamy eggnog. At Starbucks, the drink is then topped off with whipped cream and nutmeg.

This drink has been offered at Starbucks during the holidays every year since 1986. Starbucks owner Howard Schultz asked Dave Olsen and his team to create a new holiday drink.

Olsen had always been curious about combining eggnog with a latte, but he had never had a good chance to test the idea. This was finally the perfect chance. He made a test drink for his employees, and the drink was a huge success.

Is Starbucks Still Making Eggnog Lattes?

The eggnog latte is an item that Starbucks adds to its menu at the start of the holiday season. The latte usually returns to Starbucks sometime in the middle of November.

For example, in 2022, the eggnog latte will hit Starbucks on November 17th. Unfortunately, this means that at the time of writing this article, Starbucks is not currently serving the eggnog latte.

The eggnog latte is also not a certainty at Starbucks. Even though the drink had been served during the holidays since 1986, in 2021, Starbucks did not offer the eggnog latte as part of its holiday lineup.

No specific reason for not offering the drink was ever given, but the drink has since been announced as part of the 2022 lineup. Unfortunately, this means that 2021 may go down in history as the only year where Starbucks customers could not order the eggnog latte.

Is an Eggnog Latte Dairy-Free?

Homemade Eggnog Cocktail for Christmas Eve

No, the eggnog latte is not traditionally made dairy-free. In fact, at Starbucks, you can’t even order a dairy-free eggnog latte. This is because even if you replace steamed milk with a dairy-free milk substitute, Starbucks’ eggnog itself is dairy-based.

Starbucks does not yet offer dairy-free eggnog. However, people who avoid dairy may be happy to learn that you can easily make your own dairy-free eggnog latte at home.

  1. First, you’ll need to purchase some dairy-free eggnog. Many common brands sell eggnog in pretty much any store that sells eggnog.
  1. To turn this eggnog into a latte, heat your eggnog in a saucepan for about 5 minutes while whisking constantly. This should cause the eggnog to froth up.
  1. Once the eggnog is frothed, you need to add some espresso or strong coffee.  
  1. Put this in a mug, pour your frothed eggnog on top, and now you have a lovely homemade, dairy-free eggnog latte.

When making lattes, Starbucks uses a fancy machine called an espresso maker to make their espresso. If you have access to one of these, you simply need to make 3 ounces of espresso.

If you don’t have espresso, simply make 3 ounces of really strong coffee. For this, you should make coffee using one and a half to 2 times the coffee grounds you would regularly use to make 3 ounces of coffee.

How to Order an Eggnog Latte This Season

Even though you can’t order an eggnog latte year-round, you can get pretty close by just ordering from the regular menu.

All you need to do is order a grande latte, ask for two pumps of vanilla, one pump of caramel, and two pumps of chai, and top it off with whipped cream and sugar cookie sprinkles. This will create a blend of spices and sweetness that will be highly reminiscent of the eggnog latte.

If you want to avoid the coffee in favor of tea, you can also order a chai latte and add caramel syrup. You want one pump for a tall, two for a grande, and three for a venti.

Then, top off the drink with whipped cream with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar topping. The best part is that both of these options are available year-round.

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