Peanuts are passé. Almonds are overdone. But the hot new nut on everyone’s mind? Pistachios. At least according to our friendly neighborhood coffee conglomerate, and the Starbucks Pistachio Cream Cold Brew and Pistachio Latte.
This new menu addition has people across the country wondering, what exactly does this little green nut taste like with coffee? Does it also come contained in an impossible to open shell? And wait…the drink isn’t actually green?!
If you’ve asked any of these questions, you came to the right spot. (If you’re looking for Samantha’s house, that’s two blocks over.) We tried the Pistachio Cream Cold Brew and have a full review on how it tastes and if it’s worth trying yourself.
What Is the Pistachio Cream Cold Brew?
According to Starbucks, the Pistachio Cream Cold Brew is their classic cold brew “sweetened with vanilla syrup, topped with a silky, pistachio cream cold foam and finished with salted brown-buttery sprinkles.”
After reading this description, we felt kind of sad for the little not-so-green nut. Would it get overshadowed by the vanilla flavor and salted brown butter sprinkles? Because were prepared to be smacked in the face with pure, 100% pistachio. But apparently it would be sharing the spotlight.
Now, we’re not ones to make snap judgements. If we were, we would be way more efficient at grocery shopping. So we drove to the nearest Starbucks, fought off a mermaid, and ordered up this new drink.
What Does It Taste Like?
As with any of the cold foam cold brews, the first sip is entirely cold foam. Lucky for us, we’re the kind of people who like to eat the frosting off of cupcakes first, and this is pretty much the same thing. Also, we mainly got this to try out the pistachio cold foam flavor, so it brought us right to the point.
But instead of a strong pistachio flavor, this was giving…eggnog? Marshmallow? Whipped cream with a superiority complex?
In short, not a lot of pistach’.
After a few confusing sips, we did start to think about what a plain, fresh out of the shell pistachio actually tastes like. We dug up our memories of playing softball in seventh grade and pounding these little pods, we decided that they were nutty, buttery, and salty.
With that perspective, maybe the Pistachio Cream Cold Brew was closer to reality than we initially thought. But if Billy Eichner stopped us on the street and asked us to identify what the cold foam flavor was, pistachio would not be in our top 10 guesses.
As for the cold brew portion of the drink? It tastes like a lightly sweetened cold brew. Not overly vanilla-y, but pleasant. And caffeinated! Win! Did we mention caffeinated?
Our Final Review of the Pistachio Cream Cold Brew
So, should you try the Starbucks Pistachio Cream Cold Brew? If you like cold brew with a little party on top, sure! But if you skip it, you’re really not missing anything special.
We did enjoy the little crunchy salted brown-butter sprinkles on top. And this drink could be a fun way to switch up your coffee routine. But we probably won’t be ordering it again.
However, we are tempted to try the Pistachio Latte. If only for the little nut to get some redemption and have more of a starring role in the drink. So tune back in for more! Or just DoorDash one to us now and we’ll try it right away. Oh oh, with a cake pop please!
When not sitting behind a computer writing and editing, she’s an avid runner and yogi with an RYT 200 certification. Follow her on Instagram @hannah_rex and LinkedIn.
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