35 Delish Starbucks Toppings in 2022 (from Around the World)


Starbucks toppings

As the name suggests, coffee toppings go over a base of coffee, on the inside walls of a coffee cup, or on the rim of the cup to add flavor or as a garnish.

A cup of coffee is more than simply the brown liquid. Topping your coffee with a delish dollop of sweet whipped cream, a buttery swirl of a flavored sauce or some spicy sprinkles can add a new flavor to it as well as embellish the drink.

Starbucks is the King of coffee toppings with dozens of toppings options to choose from. Starbucks toppings include dozens of sprinkles and crumbs, sauces, whipped cream, and cold foam. You can pair two or more toppings on a drink to maximize the desired flavor.

Some toppings suit both hot and cold drinks whereas others such as cold foams are suitable for cold drinks only.

Let’s delve into these 35 delicious Starbucks Toppings from the U.S. and around the World.

1. Cinnamon

A good old dusting of cinnamon adds some spicy notes to your drink. Cinnamon is antioxidant-rich and highly nutritious.

A few shakes of cinnamon powder on your coffee superbly enrich the drink without adding any calories. Cinnamon powder is free at Starbucks.

2. Cinnamon Dolce Sugar

Starbucks cinnamon dolce topping is different from plain cinnamon as cinnamon dolce is cinnamon sugar that contains milk (butter) extracts, salt, and butter.

Plain cinnamon is vegan and has no sugar whereas cinnamon dolce is not vegan and has sugar. Dolce is Italian for sweet.

Cinnamon dolce is a seasonal Starbucks topping.

3. Pumpkin Spice Topping

Pumpkin spice topping is vegan and contains four fall spices – cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg – and sulfiting agents. Sulfiting agents are salts with preservative and antioxidant properties.

It’s the signature topping for pumpkin drinks at Starbucks. The seasonal topping is charged if it’s not standard for the ordered drink

4. Salted Brown Butter Cookie Sprinkles

These sprinkles go on the pistachio drinks such as pistachio latte, pistachio creme, and pistachio frappuccino.

The pistachio latte is a limited-time Starbucks winter drink in the United States that came back in 2022 for the second straight year.

Starbucks salted brown butter topping has sea salt, sugars, corn starch, vegetable and fruit color, salt, and natural flavor.

5. Crunchy Caramel Sugar

Crunchy caramel sugar topping is seasonal. It is a caramelized mixture of cane sugar, vegetable flavors, salt, natural flavors, baking soda, and annatto.

It is a vegan and gluten-free topping that is laced with sugar.

6. Java Chips

Although Starbucks usually blends java chips into your frappuccino, you can request these chewy chocolate chips on your drink instead of the standard toppings.

Java chips contain gluten and milk products. Read more about java chips in this complete guide.

7. Cookie Crumble

Chocolate cookie crumbs are toppings for the layered mocha cookie crumble coffee frappuccino and chocolate cookie creme frappuccino.

In both drinks, cookie crumbs go at the base of the drink and at the top.

Cookie crumbles topping contains wheat so it’s not gluten-free. Cookie crumbs are all-year-round toppings.

8. Sea Salt

Sea salt topping is a mixture of smoked sea salt and turbinado sugar. It comes premade but you can make it at home by mixing store-bought ingredients at a ratio of 2:1 for turbinado sugar and smoked sea salt respectively.

Although sea salt topping is seasonal, some Starbucks stores have it throughout the year.

Seal salt topping pairs excellently with caramel and Starbucks uses sea salt in its line of salted caramel drinks such as salted caramel mocha, salted caramel mocha frappuccino, and salted caramel hot chocolate (regular and white chocolate). Read more in this guide about Starbucks drinks that have caramel.

Another way to get sea salt topping on a cold drink is by ordering salted cold foam.

9. Caramel Brulee Bits

These are crunchy pieces that taste like crushed caramel candy. Caramel Brulee topping is made of fruits and vegetable flavors, cane syrup, sugar, and natural flavors.

Crunchy caramel Brulee topping goes in caramel lattes (hot and iced) and caramel frappuccinos. You can also add to any drink to switch up the appearance and flavor.

10. Holiday Sugar Sparkles and Crispy White Pearls

This topping contains oat flour, so there is a risk of gluten contamination although pure oat flour is gluten-free.

These super-sweet holiday sparkles and white pearls make your holiday drink Instagramable. Starbucks uses this topping on toasted white mocha drinks.

11. Dark Chocolate Curls

Dark chocolate curls are permanent toppings which means that you can order them all year round. However, they are not vegan as the ingredients include milk and butter. The other ingredients are chocolate mass, sugar, soy lecithin, cocoa butter, and vanilla extract.

Starbucks usually uses chocolate curls to top peppermint drinks such as peppermint mocha and peppermint mocha frappuccino.

12. Cocoa Powder

This cocoa topping is not regular cocoa powder. Starbucks cocoa powder is made of powdered sugar and alkali-processed cocoa powder.

Both the Irish cream Americano (a hot drink available in Canada) and the Irish cream cold brew in the US get cocoa powder as the standard topping. A strike of cocoa also goes on top of both regular-and-nitro cold brew with dark cocoa almond milk cold foam.

13. Nutmeg Dust

Unfortunately, Starbucks US recently nixed nutmeg powder as it was not a popular topping.

Nutmeg was a free topping together with cinnamon. Some overseas stores continue offering this nutritious spice.

14. Chestnut Praline Crumbs

Spicy praline topping tastes like popcorn or honey nut cheerios. The ingredients are cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cane sugar, baking soda, annatto, vegetable colors, toffee sugar, and salt.

By default, the spicy praline crumbs go on a chestnut praline latte and chestnut praline frappuccino. This topping pairs superbly with toffee nut and nut milk.

15. Chunky Fudge

Chunky fudge topping premiered as part of the holiday flavors in Starbucks overseas in November 2021. It was a third of a three-part topping of mocha whipped cream and drizzled mocha on fudge brownie hot chocolate. This seasonal special was available across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Fingers crossed for the coffee chain to bring this delicious “brownie in a cup” drink back over the coming holidays.

Chunky fudge sprinkles have milk, butter, and sugar and are therefore not dairy-free.

16. Toffee Nut Sugar

Toffee nut sugar sprinkles are a holiday classic in Europe and the Middle East that is part of toffee nut drinks.

Unfortunately, toffee sprinkles are no longer available in the U.S.

17. Cranberry Sugar Crystals

The holiday cranberry sugar crystals keep coming back in the Caribbean and Latin America as a topping for hot and cold cranberry mocha Blanco.

These candied cranberry crumbs pop in your mouth and are every cranberry snob’s favorite.

18. Crunchy Spiced Caramel Waffle

Starbucks launched this topping as part of the caramel waffle latte for the 2021 holiday season for its stores in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

The drink gets espresso, steamed milk, spicy winter waffle sauce, and a topping of caramel whipped cream and crunchy bits of spiced caramel waffle.

The drink tastes like Dutch stroopwafel cookies in a cup.

19. Red Velvet Sugar

Red velvet sugar powder appeared as a topping on the red velvet holiday drinks in the Caribbean and Latin America.

The topping goes on the red velvet frappuccino as well as the red velvet latte (hot or cold).

20. Red Currant

Starbucks South Korea features a colorful holiday drink called the pink chamomile relaxer. The drink combines chamomile, lemongrass, youthberry tea, and lychee over ice cubes. It is garnished with red currants and rosemary.

21. Colored Confetti

Colorful confetti topping is an Asia Pacific holiday special that comes with the confetti cookie latte. The confetti cookie latte is a mouthwatering fusion of delicious toasted white mocha sauce with espresso and steamed milk. It is topped with whip and colored sugar sprinkles.

22. Funnel Cake Sugar Sprinkles

Powdered sugar funnel cake pieces contain enriched wheat flour, sugars, palm oil, water, natural flavor, and salt. These sprinkles have gluten.

It complements strawberry drizzle on a strawberry funnel cake frappuccino.

23. Red and Green Sprinkles

They first appeared as a holiday topping for sugar cookie almond milk latte in the U.S. and sugar cookie oat latte in Canada.

However, the sprinkles are cloyed and can alter the taste of your drink. Almond milk is too watery and the sugar cookie latte tastes much better with oat milk and without the sprinkles.

Another trick is to request half pumps of the syrup to reduce cloying.

24. Cascara Sugar

Cascara sugar looks like brown sugar and it is flavored with cascara extract. It has traces of chlorogenic acids and antioxidants that are good for your health.

See more about cascara topping.

25. Caramel

One of my favorite Starbucks drinks is a caramel macchiato with a generous swirl of buttery caramel sauce on the top. You can add caramel sauce to hot and cold drinks as well as to frappuccinos.

For a rich caramel flavor in a frappuccino or a cold Starbucks drink, swirl a bit of the sauce on the inside walls of your cup and drizzle more sauce on top of the drink.

Caramel sauce is not vegan as its ingredients include heavy cream.

26. Caramel Brulee Sauce

Starbucks mixes the seasonal caramel Brulee sauce into the drink but you can use this sauce as a topping on your favorite hot or cold drink to add a smokey and richer taste than caramel sauce.

Avoid adding extra swirls of caramel Brulee sauce as it tends to leave a bad aftertaste in large amounts.

Caramel Brulee sauce is not vegan as it has skim milk powder among its ingredients.

27. Mocha Sauce Topping

Starbucks mocha drizzle is vegan but not sugar-free. Its ingredients are cocoa processed with alkali, sugar, water, and natural flavoring.

You can use mocha drizzle on Caffe Mocha, mocha frappuccino, or any other drink to add its delicious chocolateyness to your beverage.

28. Honey Drizzle

Honey drizzle was a topping on the seasonal honeycomb lavender latte in the summer of 2019 in Canada.

The drink is yet to come back as it was, most likely, a failure.

29. Strawberry Drizzle

Starbucks strawberry drizzle is, in fact, strawberry puree sauce made from strawberry puree, xantham gum, citric acid, water, white grape juice concentrate, and fruit color.

Strawberry drizzle is a delicious topping for strawberry funnel cake frappuccino. It is seasonal in Latin America as a topping for the holiday merry strawberry frappuccino.

30. Cranberry Sauce

If you are ever in the Caribbean or Latin America during the holiday season, look out for the sweet and tangy cranberry mocha Blanco that comes with white mocha sauce, espresso, and steamed milk.

A swirl of whip goes over the drink and is sprinkled with cranberry sugar and drizzled with cranberry sauce.

Cranberry sauce has a sour flavor that complements the delicious sweetness of the white mocha sauce.

31. Wafer Sauce

Wafer sauce topping is part of a long tradition of gingerbread latte holiday special in Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Africa since 2000.

The gingerbread latte gets gingerbread syrup, steamed milk, and espresso. It is topped with gingerbread-flavored whip cream and wafer drizzle.

The gingerbread latte has a fresh spicy taste with a balanced sweetness.

32. Spiced Apple Drizzle

Starbucks spiced apple drizzle is an autumnal delight that accompanies a crisp apple macchiato. The drizzle tastes like spiced apples with subtle hints of caramel or molasses.

Spiced apple drizzle has brown sugar, cinnamon, ground nutmeg apple puree, apple juice, sugar, caramelized sugar, xantham gum, and water among other ingredients.

You can switch up your holiday special by topping it with this autumnal drizzle for that spicy feel-good finish.

33. Pumpkin Spice Sauce

Pumpkin spice sauce is the magic that created the pumpkin drinks bug that comes back every fall.

Unfortunately, pumpkin spice sauce in North America is not vegan but in Europe, the sauce has no dairy.

In the United States, pumpkin spice sauce has pumpkin puree, condensed skim milk, sugar, annatto, sugar, salt, potassium sorbate, and vegetable and fruit color.

34. Whipped Cream

Whipped cream is the most popular Starbucks topping. It adds creaminess to the drinks and holds well on both hot and cold drinks.

Starbucks uses sweetened (vanilla) whipped cream but you can also ask for unsweetened cream or ask for your choice of flavor-infused whipped cream.

Some examples of flavored whipped creams to try include espresso whipped cream, pumpkin whipped cream, espresso with mocha whipped cream, matcha with white mocha whip cream, and mocha whipped cream.

35. Cold Foam

For cold brew, iced coffee, and iced tea lovers, your topping does not have to be whipping cream all the time.

Starbucks has numerous cold foam drinks to try and you can change up the cold foam to a different flavor.

coffee toppings

Patrick

Patrick is first a coffee lover and then a trained barista. His bucket list includes sky diving and sipping on Java in the Himalayas.

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