Restaurants like Starbucks are notorious for drowning customers in peppermint and other holiday flavors every winter. Every year stores roll out their holiday menus by mid-November, and they hope their selection is large and varied enough to inspire holiday spirit, and holiday spending. The issue is, they aren’t very good at it. Menus are certainly large enough, but the differences between the drinks they offer are pretty minimal.
Starbucks is certainly the worst offender. They offer eight different hot drinks starting from November 1st, and in my experience, they’re pretty similar. It’s a little excessive to overhaul your whole menu just to capitalize on the flavors people expect during the holiday season. It’s certainly excessive to make several different drinks that taste virtually the same. An example would be their chestnut praline and caramel brulee flavors, which may be a little too similar for the average customer. I honestly don’t know if people could differentiate between several drinks on the list if they were given a sample and asked to choose.
Restaurants like McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts know that they don’t need to offer eight different choices to please consumers. I feel like offering so many different options, and starting so early in the season shows a lack of confidence in the regular menu. Even other coffee shops, like Peet’s Coffee, offer about half as many choices. Starbucks could take a cue from them, and even just the regular restaurants; sheer quantity shouldn’t make a customer choose one just because the holidays are coming up.
Now that I’m done attacking Starbucks for its ridiculous spread, the drinks they offer during the holiday season are generally pretty good, in my experience. Peppermint and white chocolate, flavors that are available pretty much anywhere, are always safe choices. If you’re more adventurous, maybe Starbucks’ chestnut praline flavor would be for you. Personally I think it’s weird and a little much. Likewise, while gingerbread and eggnog are great holiday flavors on their own, they may not be the best addition to coffee. The biggest issue that plagues these holiday flavors is the sickly sweetness, that usually won’t be offset by much else.
I guess we can be thankful that in 2017, you can go to a store and choose from eight different flavors for your December morning drink. But personally, I think it might be getting a little out of hand.