The Best Starbucks Holiday Pastries of 2025, Ranked by a Food Editor and Former Starbucks Barista

• What Is It: vanilla cake mixed with buttercream, dipped in white chocolatey icing and decorated with a polar bear face design
• Price: $3

Full disclosure: I’m not a fan of Starbucks cake pops. But even staying as objective as I possibly can, this one’s at the bottom of my list. Like the others I’ve tried in the past, it was so sweet and pretty one-note in its cloying flavor. That said, the design was cute and the filling was tangy in a way that gives mashed-up yellow cake and cream cheese. I liked the salt ratio here but it was still sickeningly sweet, and I wouldn’t want more than one bite.

• What Is It: croissant dough wrapped around warm apple filling, topped with sugar
• Price: $4

Served warm, I imagined this Starbucks holiday pastry would be super comforting. While the dough was impeccably moist, pillowy and soft, there wasn’t much apple filling at all (and what was there was one-dimensionally sweet; it could’ve been a touch tarter, IMO). I also wished there was some flakiness or crunch to the pastry, or turbinado sugar on top.

• What Is It: buttery shortbread cookie with white chocolatey icing
• Price: $3

This year's iteration of last year's penguin cookie is a snowman. I didn't get to try the snowman specifically, but I assume the penguin was pretty similar in flavor and texture since the product descriptions are the same. 2024's was simple, festive and kid-friendly. I liked the cookie itself; it was tender, buttery, a touch salty and nostalgic (it reminds me of frosting cut-out sugar cookies with my mom and sister). But I didn’t think the icing added much besides generic sweetness and a cute design; it was a bit hard, too.

• What Is It: croissant pieces sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, topped with crunchy streusel
• Price: $4

It's like a cinnamon roll or monkey bread without the mess of frosting or gooey filling. The cinnamon sugar on top is crunchy and crystallized, while the inside is soft and supple. It's easy to share, but also small enough to eat on your own. In short, it proves that simplicity can be scrumptious.

• What Is It: flaky pastry filled with cream cheese filling and topped with spiced sugar plum spread
• Price: $4

I was probably most excited about this Starbucks holiday pastry. Texturally, the crunchy sugar made this treat. The cream cheese wasn’t as tangy as I’d hoped, but the contrast between the sweet fruit spread and rich filling was still apparent. Plus, the pastry offered more crispness than that of the apple croissant.

• What Is It: blondie cake with dried cranberries, topped with cream cheese icing, orange zest and dried cranberries
• Price: $4

It was obvious why this is the most iconic Starbucks holiday pastry. It was undeniably balanced—tangy! salty! sweet! sour!—and there were many textures going on. Think an almost fudgy blondie base, silky frosting, dappled with winter citrus, and chewy, sweet-tart cranberries. Did I mention this one’s available by the tray?