It’s S’mores Season! So let’s savor these summer months by stuffing our mouths with a sugary surge of s’mores.
Starbucks is going all out this S’mores Season with the return of the S’mores Frappuccino and the introduction of two new drinks: the S’mores Cold Brew with Marshmallow Cold Foam and the S’mores Chai.
I’m a chai guy, so the S’mores Chai got my attention over the cold brew. I’ve had tasty chocolate chai drinks before, so I thought this would be a sweet, satisfying beverage. The fusion of chai tea with toasted marshmallow, milk chocolate sauce, and graham cracker sounds amazeballs. However, while I’m a chai guy, I’m also a shy guy, and I can spot shyness when I see it. The s’mores flavor in this drink is even shyer than I am.
Despite three pumps of marshmallow syrup, marshmallow cream cold foam, milk chocolate drizzle, and graham cracker topping in and on my tall order, none of it was enough to overcome the three pumps of chai. With every sip, the chai’s spices dominated everything else, like that friend who puts on too much perfume or cologne for a dinner.
Everything on top looks quite sweet-tooth-satisfying, but doesn’t do much to enhance the chai flavor, and that’s two-ply-toilet-paper-getting-misaligned-frustrating. I thought the chocolate sauce would be a welcome addition, but I couldn’t detect it at all.
Even after mixing the toppings into the drink, they didn’t make much of a difference. If anything, the marshmallow notes maybe made the chai slightly sweeter. Stirring things together also created a new problem — all the graham cracker crumbs sank to the bottom and became mostly trapped by the ice.
The barista who made my drink wrote “yum” on the cup, and I’m not going to disagree with her. I’m a chai guy, after all. But it tasted too similar to a regular chai to justify the “S’mores” in the product’s name. So I guess my S’mores Season is off to a shaky start.
Purchased Price: $5.95
Size: Tall
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Tall) 280 calories, 10 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 95 milligrams of sodium, 40 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 37 grams of sugar, 6 grams of protein, and 45 milligrams of caffeine.