Starbucks is highlighting a few drinks in honor of February’s 2024 Valentine’s Day. The two main ones they have on their website are the Chocolate Hazelnut Cookie Cold Brew and Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Creme Frappuccino Drink. Are they vegan? Can they be made vegan? We share all of the details with you here!
You may have even seen the Strawberry Creme Frappuccino Drink with Java Chips on their social media. We answer if that one can be ordered vegan as well. And if any other drinks get highlighted, this Vegan Valentine’s Guide will be updated along the way.
Let’s get to it!
Is Starbucks Chocolate Hazelnut Cookie Cold Brew Vegan?
Starbucks Chocolate Hazelnut Cookie Cold Brew (wow, that’s a mouthful) consists of ice, brewed coffee, chocolate cream cold foam, hazelnut syrup, and chocolate cookie grind topping. The chocolate cream cold foam is what makes this one NOT vegan as-is.
Can you make it vegan? That’s a tricky one. Some Starbucks locations will make a cold foam using a non-dairy milk, some won’t. If your location will, order the foam with your choice of non-dairy milk with vanilla syrup and chocolate malt powder.
We suggest asking for it to be made with oat milk. We tested oat, almond and soy
in 2023 and found that oat milk made the best foam out of the three… but you choose what you like best.
Vegan-Friendly Chocolate Hazelnut Alternate Drink
If your location will not make a non-dairy foam, an alternate drink you can order will be a Starbucks Cold Brew with your choice of non-dairy milk. Add hazelnut and vanilla syrup. Top with chocolate cookie grind topping.
Is Starbucks Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Creme Frappuccino Drink Vegan?
Starbucks’ Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Creme Frappuccino Drink consists of ice, cow’s milk, creme frappuccino syrup, strawberry puree sauce, whipped cream, frappuccino chips and classic syrup. Three of the ingredients are what make this drink NOT vegan as-is–the cow’s milk, whipped cream and frappuccino chips.
The frappuccino chips are what give you the chocolate flavor in this drink but they contain cow’s milk. It would make more sense to order a different drink than making modifications to this one, in our opinion.
Vegan-Friendly Chocolate Covered Strawberry Alternate Drink
The drink we suggest you order if you are vegan and/or dairy-free is Starbucks Strawberry Creme Frappuccino with your choice of non-dairy milk and NO whip. Add Mocha Sauce.
Yes, the frappuccino chips contain cow’s dairy but the mocha sauce does not. The ingredients in the mocha sauce are:
MOCHA SAUCE [WATER, SUGAR, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, NATURAL FLAVOR]
Is Starbucks Strawberry Creme Frappuccino Drink with Java Chips Vegan?
Starbucks is advertising the strawberry drink for Valentine’s Day in two different ways. To clarify any confusion, the Starbucks Strawberry Creme Frappuccino Drink with Java Chips is basically the same drink as the Chocolate Covered Strawberry Creme Frappuccino Drink. The ONLY difference is that the Chocolate Covered one also has classic syrup.
Again, our suggestion is to order a Strawberry Creme Frappuccino with your choice of non-dairy milk and NO whip + mocha sauce.
2 Additional Drinks Starbucks is Highlighting for Valentine’s Day
The 2 additional drinks Starbucks is highlighting are the Pink Drink and Dragon Drink. We initially had the Pink Drink an alternate above but moved it down here once we noticed these two are on Starbucks’ main page on the website.
Are they vegan-friendly? Yes! Both of them are.
The Pink Drink is a combo of their strawberry acai base with coconut milk, ice and freeze-dried strawberries. We are big fans of this one.
The Dragon Drink is a combo of Starbucks mango dragonfruit refresher base with coconut milk, ice and freeze dried dragonfruit pieces. While we have not tried this one, we have heard its delicious!
In Conclusion…
While the main 2 drinks we have seen Starbucks promote for Valentine’s Day 2024 are NOT vegan-friendly as-is; you can at least order a couple of alternate drinks that still give you chocolate and strawberries.
If you have any other drinks that feel very sweet and loving to you from Starbucks, let us know in the comments! We can add them to this guide. We also have a complete Vegan Guide for Starbucks that lists every option broken down into categories like cold and hot drinks, caffeinated or caffeine-free + more.
If you celebrate Valentine’s Day, whether that be with a partner, family or friends, we hope you have a loving one.
