The Copycat Starbucks Gingerbread Latte You Can Hack in Summer

Look, I understand that gingerbread is technically a holiday flavor. I understand that it’s June. I understand that there are people out there drinking iced strawberry refreshers, frozen lemonades, blue coconut drinks, and generally behaving in a seasonally appropriate manner. I am not one of those people.

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If Starbucks brought back the Gingerbread Latte tomorrow, I’d order it in a heatwave without a second thought. Unfortunately, Starbucks still hasn’t brought the classic Gingerbread Latte back to U.S. menus, despite discontinuing it in 2019 and despite years of customers asking for its return. The chain has brought gingerbread flavors back in other holiday drinks over the years, but the original Gingerbread Latte remains firmly in the Starbucks vault.

Which explains why people are still finding ways to hack it.

The Gingerbread Latte Refuses To Be Forgotten

Most discontinued menu items disappear quietly. The Gingerbread Latte did not get that memo. Years after it left menus, people are still talking about it online, sharing copycat recipes, swapping Starbucks ordering hacks, and generally refusing to accept that their favorite holiday drink is gone. I get it. I live it.

The Gingerbread Latte had something a lot of seasonal drinks don’t. It wasn’t just sweet. It had warmth. Spice. Actual gingerbread flavor. It felt festive without tasting like somebody accidentally emptied an entire bag of sugar into your cup. That’s a surprisingly difficult balance to find.

The Starbucks Hack

According to Starbucks fans, one of the easiest ways to get surprisingly close to the original is to order a Chai Latte and add one pump of Cinnamon Dolce syrup. Simple. No complicated customizations. No ten-step secret menu order that requires a dedicated translator. Just good old chai and cinnamon.

Other fans have come up with more elaborate versions over the years. Some recommend adding White Mocha and Cinnamon Dolce syrup to create a sweeter, richer drink. Others swear by a soy chai latte with Chestnut Praline syrup.

But the chai-and-cinnamon version has remained one of the most popular because it’s easy and doesn’t turn a coffee order into a group project.

Why Are We Still Talking About A Drink From 2019?

That’s probably the most interesting part of this story. The hack itself isn’t new. The Gingerbread Latte isn’t new. The fact that people are still looking for ways to recreate it six years later is. Most seasonal drinks have a fairly short shelf life in the public imagination. They arrive. People enjoy them. They leave. Everyone moves on to the next limited-time obsession. The Gingerbread Latte seems to have skipped that last step entirely. At this point, it’s less of a coffee order and more of a legend.

The Bottom Line

Will a Chai Latte with Cinnamon Dolce syrup perfectly recreate the original Gingerbread Latte? Probably not. But until Starbucks decides to stop acting like gingerbread is only relevant for six weeks of the year, it might be the closest thing fans have.

And if you’re wondering whether it’s acceptable to crave a Gingerbread Latte in the middle of summer, I have excellent news: it absolutely is. In fact, some of us are still holding a grudge.