Your Guide To Vegan Starbucks Drinks

Which Starbucks drinks are vegan? If you're just beginning your vegan journey, you might be wondering how to order vegan friendly drinks at the world's most popular coffee chain.

This guide will give you all the you intel you need to confidently order your favorite brew, vegan style! Let's get started...

Best Vegan Drinks At Starbucks - AS IS

Before we get into how to modify your Starbuck's drinks to make them vegan, let's cover all the drinks you can order that are vegan friendly as-is.

Peach Tranquility Tea- This tea is brewed with notes of peach and citrus, chamomile blossoms, and rose hips.
Mint Majesty Tea- Mint tea with lemon verbena
Steamed Apple Juice
Americano- This is steamed espresso topped with water
Brewed Coffee- Any of the brewed coffees (black) on their menu are vegan friendly
Espresso
Earl Grey Tea
Royal English Breakfast Tea
Emporer’s Clouds and Mists Tea
Matcha Lemonade
Cold Nitro Brew
Pink Drink and Violet Drink- This insta worthy drink is vegan as is!
The New Sugar Cookie Almond Milk Latte

How to Customize a Vegan Friendly Starbucks Drink

It really isn’t that difficult to customize a Starbucks vegan drink.

The main thing to watch out for is, of course, which milks and creamers are used in your drink. However, there are also certain syrups on the menu that aren’t vegan, so you’ll want to watch out for those.

Because Starbucks’ is continually adding new syrups to their menu, it’s difficult to list everything that isn’t Vegan. So, instead, here is a list of what is, and you can safely assume that everything else is not. If in doubt, ask!

Starbucks Vegan Options - Flavoring Syrups

The following flavoring syrups, which can be found in many Starbucks drinks are safe for vegans to consume:

Vanilla
Caramel
Apple Brown Sugar
Hazelnut
Raspberry
Macadamia Syrup
Fudge Syrup
Almond Syrup
Peppermint
Gingerbread Syrup
Irish Cream (MAKE SURE IT IS THE SYRUP AND NOT THE CREAMER)
Brown Sugar
Pineapple Ginger
Cinnamon Dolce
Toffee Nut Irish Cream

Vegan Starbucks Cream and Milk Options

The following vegan options make great substitutions for milk or cream. These are available at most Starbucks. Order drinks that already contain non-dairy options, or customize your drink by making a vegan swap.

Soy Milk
Almond Milk
Oat Milk
Coconut Milk

How To Order A Vegan Starbucks Frappuccino

Frappuccinos are arguably Starbucks' most popular drink. I mean, who doesn't love a good frappe? But are frappuccinos vegan? The good news is, with a few straightforward vegan swaps they can be!

The rules for ordering a vegan Starbuck's Frappuccino are as follows:

No Cow's Milk : Order soy milk, almond milk, coconut milk or oat milk.
No Whipped Cream : Unfortunately, whipped cream is not dairy free, so you' have to forgo the whipped cream topping.
No Java Chips : Java chips are basically chocolate chips that aren't dairy free. You'll find them in the java chip frappuccino.
No Caramel Sauce/Drizzle: Instead, swap for caramel syrup.
No Pumpkin Spice Sauce: Pumpkin spice topping is vegan, but not the sauce.
No Cinnamon Dolce Topping
No Butterscotch Sauce - Replace with smoky butterscotch sugar.

Here's an example of how to make your favorite Starbucks Frappuccino vegan:

Caramel Frappuccino: Order with non-dairy milk and no whipped cream or caramel drizzle.
Mocha Frappuccino: Ask for non-dairy milk and no whipped cream to make the mocha frappuccino vegan.
Strawberries and Creme Frappuccino: Order with dairy free milk and no whipped cream for a vegan frappuccino.
Espresso Frappuccino: This one doesn't come with a whipped cream topping, so all you need to do is order it with your preferred vegan milk. Easy!
Vanilla Bean Crème Frappuccino (this one is coffee-free!) - Simply order with your favorite plant based milk and no whipped cream.
Matcha Green Tea Frappuccino: If tea is more your thing, this is the frappuccino for you. As always, opt for a vegan milk substitute and no whipped cream.
Salted Caramel Mocha Frappuccino: Replace the caramel sauce with caramel syrup, swap dairy for non-dairy milk, and ask for no whipped cream.
Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino: Veganize this frappuccino by opting for a non-dairy milk, hold the whip cream and frappuccino chips.
Peanut Butter Cup Frappuccino: All you need to do here is swap the cow's milk for a vegan alternative and hold the whipped cream.

Non-Vegan Starbucks Items to Avoid

The following items can be found in some Starbucks' coffee drinks , and they are not vegan:

Whipped Cream

There are a lot of Starbucks drinks that come with whipped cream but don’t say so on the menu. I recommend ordering any drink on the menu “without whipped cream.”

Anything White Chocolate Mocha or Pistachio

There’s no shortage of white chocolate and pistachio drinks on the menu and, unfortunately, these drinks are so chock-full of non-vegan ingredients that they can’t simply be substituted out. For this reason, I recommend staying away from anything that says white chocolate mocha or pistachio.

Caramel Sauce

This one is tricky because most people think the caramel sauce and the caramel topping are the same things.

Spoiler alert: They aren’t.

In reality, the topping is vegan while the sauce is not. So, if you’re a fan of Starbucks' caramel drinks, make sure you get them with no sauce.

Cinnamon Dolce Topping

This one is another tricky one and for obvious reason. After all, the cinnamon dolce syrup is vegan, so it only makes sense that the topping would be as well.

Unfortunately, however, that is not the case. Rather, the topping is very non-vegan. To be safe, make sure any cinnamon dolce drinks you order are made without the topping.

Certain Chai Teas

The chai tea beverages at Starbucks are either made by brewing chai tea leaves or using a chai tea concentrate. As you may have guessed, the leaves are most definitely vegan friendly (you can have as much chai tea as you want! Yay!). The concentrate, however, is not.

Fortunately, the concentrate is only used for a few specific drinks (i.e, the chai tea latte and the iced chai tea latte).

Keep in mind, though, that the only reason the concentrate isn’t vegan friendly is because it has honey in it. So, if you’re a part of the subset of vegans that excludes honey from the list of foods to avoid, this tea would be perfectly fine for you.

Java Chips

Java chips are usually only used in the java chip frappuccino, but you should still be on the lookout and make sure the item you’re ordering doesn’t contain them. Namely, make sure to check for them in any of the mocha frappuccinos.

Pumpkin Spice

This extremely common autumn drink is, unfortunately, not on the menu for vegans. I recommend avoiding anything pumpkin spice when ordering from the Starbucks menu.