As the seasons change, so does Starbucks’ seasonal drinks. Every year the winter season drinks are the star of winter. Forget the Pumpkin Spice Latte, peppermint and white chocolate are taking over.

The newest drink spoke to me instantly, a Toasted White Chocolate Mocha. At first I thought it sounded good, normally a white chocolate mocha is a sweet milky drink with a hint of espresso.

This drink was a mess.

The first taste was great, of course the drink was piping hot and I didn’t get much of the toasted flavor. But the whipped cream mixed with the warm milk and white chocolate was good in the beginning.

I’m not sure what Starbucks means when they say “toasted white chocolate”, how do you toast chocolate? Wouldn’t the white chocolate just melt and caramelized into a burnt sugary mess?

Moving past my logic questions on how white chocolate toasts, the drink was not enjoyable.

Starting with the flavor, when you take a sip you are hit with a sweet wall of milky white chocolate. Then comes the slight espresso taste which I barely noticed at first. After you swallow, your mouth is left with an odd almond-like flavor.

I couldn’t stand the aftertaste. I’m not quite sure how to describe it but to me it tasted like an almond flavor syrup. I personally don’t like almonds so I was rightly revolted by the lingering flavor.

The mocha is topped with red sugar sprinkles and what I found out to be puffed rice. The red sprinkles tasted just like sugar sprinkles, nothing special. The puffed rice shocked me. I didn’t know that they were an aspect of the drink.

After I was almost done with it, some slimy round ball found its way out of the bottom of the cup and into my mouth. I was appalled, what in the world was that thing, I spat it out immediately. Upon further inspection I soon realized it was a white rounded rice puff. The puffed rice is an unneeded and unwanted topping.

After looking into the drink more, I could not figure out what the “toasted’ facet of the drink was. On Starbucks’ website, the ingredients listed are milk, toasted white chocolate sauce, espresso, whipped cream, and sugar sparkles with crispy white pearls. It’s confusing as to what the toasted part is supposed to be, but all I know is that it tastes gross.

I also don’t understand how this is a seasonal drink, the toasted white chocolate flavor doesn’t seem like something that I would connect to winter or the holidays. The only seasonal thing that I would understand is the red sprinkles on top of the white whipped cream.

Overall the drink wasn’t enjoyable. I would rather order a white chocolate mocha because it doesn’t have an aftertaste. It’s almost as if Starbucks is just throwing out drinks that they already have but putting some stupid twist on it.