We Spent $90 on Holiday-Flavored Coffee Creamers So You Don’t Have To

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If you’re in the market for some holiday-inspired coffee creamer, we’ve got you covered. We put eight holiday-themed coffee creamers to the test with our reviewers (aka two of us). We tried everything ranging from pumpkin spice to peppermint mocha to gingerbread. We give our unfiltered, honest opinions below and tell you which ones were our favorite and which ones weren't.

Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamers

This was our favorite creamer out of all of the creamers we taste-tested. This creamer smells wonderful. It smells very spiced, with hints of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, and it has a strong pumpkin smell.

Tasting the creamer without coffee, we noted that it tasted less like a pumpkin than it smelled. It tasted more like maple syrup with cinnamon than it did pumpkin pie. It was still delicious, although it was very sweet. The cream taste reminded us of the flavor in Chobani yogurts, but without the tartness of yogurt.

With coffee, the creamer shined. It had a delicate smell and taste in the coffee. Our coffee smelled like cinnamon and nutmeg with the creamer added. It also had a wonderful, light flavor in our coffee – for lack of a better expression, it tasted like a holiday in a cup. It tasted like we added spices to the coffee ourselves instead of pouring something out of a bottle.

We also liked that the creamer has real ingredients. The only ingredients in the creamer are milk, cream, cane sugar, and natural flavors. Out of all the creamers we tried, it tasted the least artificial.

Overall, it’s a great option if you like pumpkin pie spice flavor and want a creamer that has fewer artificial ingredients.

This was one of our least favorite creamers that we tasted. In fact, all of the Starbucks creamers were among our least favorites.

First, we smelled this creamer. It smelled slightly sour with a hint of cream cheese. The smell, thankfully, was not strong. When I first smelled it, I was concerned the creamer might be expired, but that was not the case.

We then tasted the creamer. It tasted artificial to both of us. It had a plasticky and even metallic taste. The pumpkin flavor tasted fake. One reviewer noted that it tasted like the bottom of a whipped cream can.

Overall, it was unpleasant. We didn’t even try it in our coffee because no one wanted to taste it again. If you’re looking for a pumpkin pie or pumpkin spice creamer, the Chobani option we listed above was our favorite.

Holiday Mocha Coffee Creamers

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When we opened and smelled this Coffee-Mate creamer, we thought it smelled exactly like an After Eight or Andes mint. It smells very pepperminty but with undertones of chocolate. Despite the strong peppermint smell, the peppermint taste is not overwhelming.

The chocolate in this creamer tasted similar to Nesquick chocolate powder, which, depending on your preferences, is either a pro or a con. We both enjoyed the taste. This creamer, however, is very sweet.

In our coffee, we noted that the peppermint flavor is milder but pleasant. It tasted like peppermint hard candies. The chocolate flavor was more pronounced in our coffee.

Compared to the International Delight Peppermint Mocha creamer, this creamer tasted less artificial. It did not have a strong aftertaste like many of the creamers we tried.

While this creamer advertises as nondairy, it contains a milk derivative (casein) so it is not suitable for anyone completely avoiding dairy, like vegans or those with a casein allergy.

Overall, this is another good option for a holiday-flavored coffee creamer. Despite not liking peppermint, I actually enjoyed this creamer.

We first smelled this creamer. It smelled more like peppermint than chocolate. However, the peppermint smell was artificial. Oddly enough, it smelled similar to eucalyptus. The color of this creamer is light brown, which surprised us as most creamers were white or cream-colored.

When we tasted this creamer, it had a good balance between peppermint and chocolate, but a strong peppermint aftertaste. Like most of the creamers we tried, it was also very sweet.

With coffee, this creamer was mild and light in flavor. When you taste it, the peppermint hits your tongue right away, disappears, and then comes back as an aftertaste. The mocha flavor is lost against the taste of the coffee.

Similarly to the Coffee-Mate version, this creamer had a taste profile like an After Eight mint. However, it tasted slightly more artificial than the Coffee-Mate version.

Overall, this is not a bad option for a holiday-flavored creamer. It tasted more like peppermint than chocolate, but it was still pleasant in our cup. However, if you can find Coffee-Mate Peppermint Mocha creamer, we think that’s a better option than the International Delight version.

Similar to the other Starbucks creamers we reviewed, the smell of this creamer was unpleasant to us. It had a slightly sour milk smell and it smelled extremely artificial.

It also had a thicker consistency than any of the other creamers we tried. The consistency was closer to whipping cream than milk or half and half. We found this slightly offputting considering the smell and taste.

We found that this creamer tasted extremely plasticky and artificial. It had a strong plasticky aftertaste. It also, weirdly, tasted like coconut mixed with white chocolate.

We didn’t try it with our coffee because no one wanted to taste it again. Overall, we wouldn’t recommend this creamer to anyone. You’re better off sticking with Coffee-Mate, Chobani, or International Delight if you’re looking for a white chocolate or mocha flavor.

Caramel and Maple Coffee Creamers

This was a slightly controversial creamer–we think this is a love-it or hate-it situation depending on how much you like maple-glazed donuts or pecan pie. When we opened this creamer, it smelled exactly like the maple-glazed donuts you find at a donut shop. In our opinion, it smelled great.

We first tried it plain without coffee. It had a very nutty taste, it was not quite what we were expecting. It tasted similar to toasted pecans with maple syrup, or even like a pecan pie, with hints of donut.

It wasn’t as sweet as we thought it would be given the name. The flavor was lighter than expected and it went down easily.

With coffee, this creamer tasted exactly like dunking a donut into coffee. That said, the maple flavor wasn’t as pronounced with coffee. It tasted more like a regular glazed donut than a maple-glazed one. It still had a nutty flavor with coffee.

It also had a strong aftertaste that lingered for a while after drinking. But the taste wasn’t artificial at all.

If you like donuts, especially maple-glazed donuts, you’ll probably love this flavor. If you don’t, it’s probably not going to be for you. Overall, it’s a solid holiday creamer.

This creamer, like the other Starbucks creamers we tried, was a disappointment. We can safely say that we would avoid Starbucks creamers. In our opinion, Coffee-Mate, International Delight, and Chobani were all much better than any of the Starbucks creamers we tried.

This creamer smelled the most unpleasant of all the creamers we tried. It smelled sour, rotten, sugary, and plasticky. I worried that it was expired, but after checking the best-by date and tasting it, I think the creamer just smells like that.

Tasting this creamer without coffee was an unpleasant experience. It tasted like burnt caramel and burnt plastic mixed with a lot of sugar. There was a strong aftertaste of plastic and sugar. It all tasted burnt.

Everyone refused to try this with coffee because it was that unpleasant. The other Starbucks options were better, albeit not by much.

Overall, our recommendation is to avoid this creamer. Unfortunately, we didn’t try other caramel-flavored creamers, so we don’t have specific recommendations for you. However, you probably can’t go wrong with Chobani or Coffee-Mate.

Holiday Cookie Coffee Creamers

I was excited to try this creamer, but it was, unfortunately, a disappointment in multiple ways.

First, we smelled this creamer. There was no smell of gingerbread. Instead, it smelled like yogurt mixed with pumpkin pie spices, specifically cinnamon and nutmeg. It smelled good, but it didn’t smell like gingerbread at all.

Tasting this creamer without coffee, the first thing you taste is sugar. It was super sweet, even sweeter than we were expecting. This was the second-to-last creamer we tried, so we had become accustomed to the sugar levels and it still surprised us with how sweet it was.

After the sugar taste, this creamer tasted like heavy cream mixed with pumpkin pie spice. There was no taste of gingerbread at all.

Trying it with coffee helped the flavor profile a bit. With coffee, it tasted like pumpkin pie spice with a hint of hazelnut. I thought there was a hint of ginger flavor with coffee, but the other reviewers didn’t agree with me.

The coffee also highlighted the artificial flavors of the creamer more. While we didn’t think this creamer tasted artificial on its own, it tasted more plasticky when mixed with coffee.

Overall, this isn’t a bad creamer, but it doesn’t deliver the flavor it promises.

Our Methodology

We had two reviewers. We smelled and taste-tested all of the creamers by themselves. We then smelled and tasted them in coffee (with a few exceptions for creamers our reviewers didn't want to taste again). We discussed the creamers as a group and assigned a star rating for each creamer based on our overall opinion.