McDonald’s Christmas menu 2022: what is new festive hot drink flavour, price - when is it available?

McDonald’s has unveiled its Christmas hot drinks range for this year including a brand new festive flavour.

The warming beverages will be available from this week and throughout the Christmas period, with the drinks to be served in special festive cups.

The fast food chain is yet to announce its food menu for the festive season, but fans shouldn’t have too long to wait to find out what goodies await this year. The food menu last year included the popular Cheese Melt Dippers and the Festive Stack Burger.

What festive hot drinks are on the menu?

New on the menu this year is a caramel waffle latte, priced at £2.09. The coffee drink is blended with caramel waffle syrup, topped with caramel cream and a sugar dusting, and contains 184 calories.

Last year saw the debut of the chocolate fudge latte which was priced at £1.79, meaning this year’s festive addition is 30p more expensive. McDonald’s has said the chocolate fudge version will not be returning this year.

However, the new McCafe menu will see the hot chocolate deluxe make a comeback for 2022. The old favourite is made with chocolate syrup and comes topped with a swirl of cream and chocolate dusting. The sweet drink is priced at £1.49 - a 10p increase from last year’s hot chocolate - and it contains 200 calories.

McDonald’s said: “We are so excited for the new Caramel Waffle Latte to be joining the McCafé menu this festive season. The delicious new recipe includes a smooth latte, blended with a caramel waffle flavour syrup and topped with delicious caramel cream and caramel sugar dusting.”

When will the drinks be available?

Both festive drinks are on sale across the UK from Wednesday 2 November and will be available for a limited period only, so fans need to be quick to give them a try.

All the hot drinks in the McCafe range, including lattes and cappuccinos, will be served in Christmas cups. The cups design this year is all white and features Christmassy cartoons, including snowmen, trees, Santa hats and candy canes.

The seasonal drinks are available in all 1,300 branches in the UK, as well as delivery via the UberEats, McDonald’s and JustEat apps.

It comes after Starbucks also revealed its new Christmas menu for this year, with the coffee chain bringing back some red cup classics, including the Gingerbread Latte and Eggnog Latte, alongside two new hot drinks.

The new additions for 2022 include a Toffee Nut Cream Cold Brew and a Praline Cookie Hot Chocolate. The Toffee Nut Cream Cold Brew combines cool water with ground coffee steeped for 20 hours to create a smooth and rich flavour. It is a new take on the popular Toffee Nut latte and combines vanilla syrup-infused Starbucks Cold Brew with a Toffee Nut cream foam topping, finished off with buttery Toffee Nut sprinkles.

The Praline Cookie Hot Chocolate combines a mocha sauce and velvety steamed milk with a buttery baked cookie flavour and notes of decadent and caramelised hazelnut, almond, and walnut. The drink is then topped with whipped cream and dusted with cookie crumb sprinkles.

For the traditionalists, Starbucks’ seasonal classics are back for another year, including the popular Toffee Nut Latte, Gingerbread Latte, Eggnog Latte and Caramel Waffle Latte, which became a hit after debuting last year. Customised coffees are also still available with a variety of dairy alternatives and vegan whipped topping, and frappuccinos and iced drinks are also an option.