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Nothing makes you feel Christmassy like a festive drink, so I've decided to bring you a list of gluten free Starbucks holiday drinks!
I've already published my guide to gluten free drinks at Costa so thought it made sense to follow up with a UK Starbucks guide as well.
And while you might be mourning the loss of the Pumpkin Spice Latte (which is gluten free, yay) there are some new Christmas drinks to try.
Unfortunately Starbucks does use Oatly milk, which is not gluten free, and so many people with coeliac disease choose not to drink there.
However if you're confident in your local branch or gluten free for another reason, you might like to know which Starbucks Christmas drinks are gluten free.
I was actually really surprised that the short answer is: not a lot!
The dreaded 'malt extract'
A lot of the Starbucks holiday drinks come with wheat-y toppings (which you can ask to omit to make the drink gluten free) and a lot of the syrups have barley malt extract.
Barley malt extract is a tricky one as sometimes the levels can be low enough to be deemed gluten free in the UK.
However, the Starbucks Allergen Menu highlights these as containing gluten so I am going to err on the side of caution here.
And I wouldn't hold your breath for any gluten free Starbucks food options, I'm afraid.
While Starbucks have brought back their gluten free cheese and ham panini post-pandemic, there aren't any gluten free festive options at all.
But nonetheless, if you want to give Starbucks a go, here's my guide to what is gluten free in the UK as of Christmas 2021.
Starbucks gluten free Christmas drinks
All the following information has been taken from the Starbucks UK allergen menu as of November 2021.
As always, please use this as a guide but always double check.
Recipes do change over time so it's always worth being on the safe side and checking that the information is still correct when you order.
The following Starbucks UK holiday drinks are gluten free:
- Egg Nog Latte
- Gingerbread Latte ONLY WITHOUT waffle pieces
- Iced Gingerbread Latte ONLY WITHOUT waffle pieces
- Iced Gingerbread Frappuccino ONLY WITHOUT waffle pieces
- Caramel Waffle Latte ONLY WITHOUT the caramel waffle crunch
- Caramel Waffle Frappuccino ONLY WITHOUT the caramel waffle crunch
Be aware that you'll have to specify you don't want the waffle or caramel crunch pieces if ordering those drinks.
If you have coeliac disease you have to be careful about contamination, no scraping them off if you forget!
The following Starbucks UK Christmas drinks are NOT gluten free:
- Toffee Nut Latte (contains malt extract)
- Iced Toffee Nut Latte (contains malt extract)
- Toffee Nut Latte Frappuccino (contains malt extract)
- Gingerbread Latte WITH waffle pieces
- Iced Gingerbread Latte WITH waffle pieces
- Gingerbread Frappuccino Latte WITH waffle pieces
- Caramel Waffle Latte WITH caramel waffle crunch
- Caramel Waffle Frappuccino WITH caramel waffle crunch
- Fudge Brownie Hot Chocolate (contains barley malt extract)
Don't forget that unlike Costa, Starbucks does NOT use gluten free oat milk which means none of it's oat milk drinks are gluten free.
You'll also have to ask questions about cross contamination and ensure you're happy the steamers have been cleaned down properly.
I was actually really surprised how many of the Starbucks drinks contain malt extract and are not gluten free!
And of course, there are absolutely no gluten free food options either in the festive range either.
It's such a shame as it really wouldn't be difficult to offer something gluten free.
Need more gluten free Christmas inspiration?
Don't forget my Gluten Free Christmas page has everything you need to get you through the festive period!
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE...
- 45+ gluten free Christmas foods I’m excited about this year (2019)
- Gluten and dairy free Christmas food in Co-op
- Gluten and dairy free Christmas food in Sainsbury’s
- Gluten and dairy free Christmas food in Waitrose
- Gluten and dairy free Christmas food in M&S
- Gluten free Christmas food in Morrisons
- My Gluten Free Christmas ebook – check it out here!
Thank you so much for heads up! What about Costa?! as their almond milk now doesn’t agree with me what would you suggest?
So wish I had see. this before we attempted to buy drinks from 2 separate Starbucks in central London!! The first one didn’t really understand what gluten free was and the second couldn’t even be bothered to try and help us!!!! Definitely won’t be giving any future business to Starbucks out of principle, but thank you so much for all the amazing information and advice you share, very much appreciated ❤️