Review: Starbucks' Dubai Chocolate Inspired Matcha And Mocha May Just Become My Go-To Order

As champagne glasses clink and kisses ensue, ringing in the new year, Starbucks prepared to release its post holiday lineup of winter drinks. In addition to the regular pistachio drinks, the chain introduced some protein-enriched options, and a duo of Dubai chocolate-inspired drinks. I've been looking forward to trying these drinks since they were announced before even Christmas, and at long last, I got to taste these Dubai chocolate treats and see what potential tweaks they might need.

Admittedly, I felt like I knew what to expect, but these drinks legitimately surprised me. The goal was to find out if Starbucks' newest offerings deserved the viral-like status of the Dubai chocolate food trend (Costco even has boxes of this viral chocolate) or if they were more of a flash in the pan. I planned to answer this question by determining if they were drinks I would be excited to order again, looking to the taste and the mixture of flavors as the deciding elements.

In March 2025, several Starbucks drinks left the menu, but that didn't mean the chain and its customers had stopped innovating. These Dubai chocolate-inspired drinks were a direct result of adding a Dubai chocolate twist to Starbucks drinks. Most of the lattes use Starbucks matcha to create an order to match the green stuff inside of Dubai chocolate.

Starbucks capitalized on the Dubai chocolate popularity with these two drinks: Iced Dubai Chocolate Mocha and Iced Dubai Chocolate Matcha. In both instances, baristas used Starbucks' pistachio sauce to emulate the flavor of the brilliant green pistachio cream inside of the Dubai candy bar. One of the drinks represented all the vibrancy of the Dubai chocolate bar, while the other celebrated its rich flavors. With this winter menu release, you can officially order them by name rather than customizing drinks to achieve these flavors.

With only a few tweaks to a regular iced mocha, you have the Iced Dubai Chocolate Mocha. This drink uses the typical ice, chosen milk, and espresso, topped with a pistachio cold foam and delightful salted brown butter cookie topping. My grande drink had 470 calories, 20 grams of fat, 63 grams of carbohydrates, 57 grams of sugar, and 165 milligrams of caffeine.

The Iced Dubai Chocolate Matcha was a significantly upgraded iced matcha latte. It began with the typical combination of matcha powder, milk, and ice and got an addition of pistachio sauce right in the drink. For the topping, you get chocolate cold foam and the same sugary topping. For a grande, my drink amounted to 400 calories, 19 grams of fat, 48 grams of carbohydrates, 45 grams of sugar, and 60 milligrams of caffeine.

Both drinks also had some protein, with the mocha at 12 grams and the matcha at 10 grams. Should you want to increase the protein load in either instance, Starbucks offers both pistachio and chocolate protein cold foams that you can swap with the included cold foam of the drinks.

Starbucks released its new post-holiday offerings on January 6, 2026. Using pistachio syrup as a key addition, the inspiration behind these new seasonal drinks came from viral orders customers had previously created in 2025. While these drinks would typically fall out of availability following the end of pistachio season, Starbucks is finally bringing the customer-favorite pistachio sauce to year-round availability. Therefore, although these drinks may leave their featured status, they can easily be ordered (perhaps without the buttery topping) through customizations after the season ends.

Each of these drinks come in a tall, grande, or venti. The Matcha was $5.95 for a tall, $6.75 for a grande, and $6.95 for a venti. The mocha was just a little pricier with a tall being $6.45, a grande at $6.95, and a venti for $7.45. Please note that prices can vary from location to location, and the prices I listed here were from my closest location in central Florida.

I fell in love with the Iced Dubai Chocolate Mocha immediately. It was one of those love at first sip sort of experiences that blew me away. The flavor was obviously mocha, but with that pistachio cold foam, all of the bitterness of the bittersweet chocolate had been stripped away.

Initially, I found it strange that this Dubai chocolate-inspired drink was missing just the smallest kiss of green coloring. Even still, one sip and my concerns quickly fell away. For those wanting a smooth chocolate drink, this is a fabulous choice, and it has the potential to be made even smoother by replacing the signature espresso with blonde roast. 

If you want even more pistachio flavor, I recommend replacing one of the mocha sauce pumps with pistachio sauce so that the flavor is in the cold foam and the drink itself. I also noticed little flavor coming from the salted brown-buttery topping, and can imagine requesting extra to pull that flavor out more.

While the white and brown Iced Dubai Chocolate Mocha didn't quite look like the brown and green Dubai chocolate bar, the Iced Dubai Chocolate Matcha certainly did. I appreciated the additional tweaks this drink had, and it gave a feel of being intentionally crafted.

Matcha has a strong leafy taste to it, and it's one that can be hard to get over. However, this drink had enough additions that the matcha flavor was toned down to a point that made it much more enjoyable with just the right amount of sweet and creamy flavor. However, for even more of a toned-back matcha, I recommend an additional pump of pistachio sauce. 

More than the mocha, this matcha's topping has a stronger flavor I quite enjoyed as an accent. Even better, as the chocolate cold foam melted down into the matcha, it became an even better-tasting drink.

It's not often a new drink comes out that absolutely blows me away, but the Iced Dubai Chocolate Mocha is crave-worthy. I am absolutely thrilled to hear that the pistachio sauce will become a permanent addition to the menu, because I can see myself ordering this drink on repeat.

While I preferred the mocha drink, I found the Iced Dubai Chocolate Matcha grew tastier and more enjoyable as I drank it. The layers pulled together, creating a drink that didn't really taste like a chocolate bar like the mocha offering, but it was a delicious take on otherwise leafy matcha. 

I recommend trying both drinks to see which you prefer. Personally, the richness of the mocha feels most suited for the winter, while the matcha feels better for late winter, early spring.

The best way to determine if the drinks are worth their hype was first to decide if they would be drinks I would want to reorder. Such a drink should have great taste with a balance of flavors. For the purposes of this tasting, I made the decision not to tweak the recipes at all. Still, the best-case scenario would be that these potential tweaks would be minimal, pointing toward an enjoyable unaugmented sip.