13 Best Store-Bought Peppermint Treats To Sweeten Up Your Holidays

After pumpkin spice has had its day in the autumn sun and temperatures bottom out into more wintry territory, grocery shoppers will finally see a resurgence of goodies flavored with the brisk essence of peppermint. Fans of blustery cool tastes will thrill once again to find an avalanche of flavors that have long been associated with winter holidays. You may find peppermint indulgences all year round, but until the calendar strikes December, you might not realize just how much they add to your late-year enjoyment.

Unlike years past when outlets as big as Starbucks experienced a peppermint shortage during its most mocha moments, chain grocery shops will have little trouble stocking a supply of peppermint temptations. Like drinking your peppermint in a chocolate coffee concoction? You'll be covered. Prefer having a creamy candy-coated encounter with peppermint as the main essence? That's on the list for sure. Favor something more elegant, like a butter cookie that keeps its peppermint hidden modestly within? It's a sure thing. In fact, no matter how you choose to spend your peppermint moments, our round-up of the coolest treats infused with this winter-ready flavor has options that are sure to freshen up whatever sweet occasion you're celebrating.

Read more: 12 Popular Ice Cream Brands, Ranked Worst To Best

Trader Joe's Peppermint Pretzel Slims

Crispy with a bit of salty plus sweet with a generous dash of minty; it's an irresistible combination that Trader Joe's has perfected in its Peppermint Pretzel Slims. Delicate pretzels pressed thin like crackers get dressed up in their holiday best, enrobed in white chocolate sprinkled with a sugary candy cane glitter. The baked-wheat base holds the candy coating perfectly, enlarging the profile of every piece just enough to make them feel more like hand-dipped gourmet confections. The result is a candy-cookie-pretzel hybrid that balances the richness of the coating with the bread-like pretzel center. By using white coating, the company adds a visual punch to these fanciful twists. It's a bright, snowy background for the bright-red bits of the candy cane to lay against.

Adding these pretty peppermint knots to a crystal dish gives you an instant snack for unexpected guests to enjoy while doubling as edible décor on your table. That doesn't mean you have to be fancy with them. Eating Peppermint Pretzel Slims straight from the pouch is an equally acceptable method for enjoyment, alone or with friends — provided you're willing to share. There's no harm in keeping them for yourself.

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Peppermint Joe-Joe's

Mixing mint and chocolate may be an age-old practice, but Trader Joe's gives the beloved blend a dollop of contemporary panache with its Dark Chocolate Covered Peppermint Joe-Joe's. Oreo fans looking for something a bit posher for the holidays will adore these crème-centered chocolate cookies slathered in dark chocolate coating and rolled in crushed peppermint candies. It's a bittersweet peppermint package with something familiar at heart, wrapped in a flavor duet complementary enough to be treated as a power couple. The result is a popular cookie style given a gorgeous holiday glow-up that makes eating one feel luxurious.

Observant Trader Joe's shoppers will catch on rather easily to the fact that these delicacies are just Candy Cane Joe-Joe's dressed up in their holiday best. Purists may choose to enjoy the peppermint sandwich cookie that circles back around TJ's way every Christmas season. For those in search of the next level in chocolate-peppermint adventure, the dark chocolate and candy crunch are a fresh and frisky way to take a deeper dive into the frigid waters of peppermint indulgence. It's best to enjoy them with a glass of something warm to keep the frostbite at bay.

Califia Farms Peppermint Mocha Latte

The luscious flavor of peppermint mocha is a coffeehouse favorite when the winter wind whistles through the fir trees. Califia Farms Peppermint Mocha Latte captures the decadent goodness in a dairy-free bottle that tastes like hot chocolate with an extra caffeinated kick. To enrich your chilly mornings, this bottle swirls super-charged cold brew with the company's rich almond milk and creamy cocoa, then blasts it with peppermint. It's a thick pour that feels more like mint chocolate milk with a splash of coffee added for good measure. Make that great measure. Enjoyed cold over ice or heated up like traditional coffee or cocoa, this beverage is like a sippable dessert that waylays Starbucks Peppermint Mocha with a chocolatey sucker punch.

The richness of this drink can make consuming a full mug a bit of a challenge. There's no reason you can't add a bit of water to thin the consistency and still find every swig thoroughly enjoyable. This helps the bottle go a little further as well, extending your festivities in case you're unable to get to the store for a second bottle due to heavy snow, or the lethargy brought on by winter coziness.

Luna Chocolate Peppermint Stick Bar

Fitness fans won't be left out in the cold with Luna Chocolate Peppermint Stick flavored snack bars. These brownie-like treats are fortified with protein and boast a gluten-free, non-GMO, low-glycemic profile that makes them suitable for a range of eaters to enjoy. The plant-based ingredients make them vegan-friendly as well, which ticks off just about every possible box for a health-oriented food! The fact that they taste like a decadent brownie riddled with cooling peppermint flavor in every bite? Well, that's a secret gift-within-a-gift that no proper peppermint fan would ever think of returning.

Grab a few of these bars and throw them in the car or a backpack for a quick and tasty energy source while tackling your holiday errands. If you have runners, CrossFitters, bodybuilders, or bikers on your shopping list, they wouldn't be mad to find a few of these Luna Bars in their stockings to help make their post-holiday workouts a little more joyful. They also make great afterschool snacks for kids who want sweet stuff but whose parents would prefer a more nutritious nosh for them to nibble on. It'll taste like Christmas has come a little early.

Coffee Mate Natural Bliss Peppermint Mocha Oat Milk Creamer

Coffee Mate capitalized on the peppermint mocha coffee craze by introducing its own creamer version of the flavor, which is now captured in a Natural Bliss Oat Milk version for fans of plant-based beverages. The shift is a subtle one, without a hint of flavor lost to the reimagined formula, which uses an oat milk base to avoid the presence of milk-derived sodium caseinate. The difference means vegans can maintain their animal-free enjoyment of peppermint mocha while flavoring coffee, cocoa, and tea.

While the ingredients are different from what the original Coffee Mate Peppermint Mocha creamer includes, the flavor is as direct a duplicate as possible. Though the label shows what might be a dark or milk chocolate nestled among peppermint candies, the tasting notes are more of a white chocolate peppermint. The distinction is clear to true chocolate peppermint fans, and yet it makes perfect sense considering the silken texture of the creamer. The taste leans into the peppermint without overtaking the chocolate entirely, so no matter what you add it to, you'll have a smooth flavor tingling on your tongue as you sip. In other words: you're in for a treat!

Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses

No need to wait for Jack Frost to grace your window panes with an icy peck with Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses in your candy dish! Skipping past the usual dark or milk chocolate of its special holiday flavors, Hershey's heads straight for the snowy-white bark-style chocolate for these delectable drops. Bits of candy cane are hidden throughout, crunching like Christmas snow as you chew. Think of these teardrop-shaped candies as the equivalent of snowflakes, a quick, crisp pop of freshly minted coolness that seems to melt even easier than a regular Hershey's Kiss. They may be shaped the same as the other versions, but this bold bite deserves its own holiday special.

For chocolate cookies usually topped with a Hershey's Kiss, consider replacing traditional chocolate with these instead. And if you've ever experimented with homemade peppermint bark, you know exactly what you're getting with these treats, minus the chocolate layer. But there's no rule preventing you from popping a candy cane Kiss and a chocolate Kiss into your mouth at the same time to recreate the full chocolate bark range. Better buy a bag of each just to be ready when the urge to experiment hits.

Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

What better way to celebrate a frost flavor like peppermint than with Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream? The chips are more like bite-sized candy bars, a fun treasure to bite into while enjoying the smooth, creamy mint ice cream surrounding them. And the mint ice cream is like what you might imagine breathing in Antarctica might be like with a steady blast of cool from both the temperature and the peppermint flavoring. It's a snowstorm in a bowl for anyone brave enough to weather ice cream during the deepest chills of the year. And as long as you're snuggled up all cozy and warm inside, there's no reason ice cream can't hit the holiday sweet spot.

In addition to its traditional version, Breyers has aimed its sled for the plant-based ice cream lane this time around, releasing an oat milk version of Mint Chocolate Chip for dessert lovers watching their dairy intake. Both the ice cream and the chocolate pieces are dairy-free, a gift to anyone who's searched for fully plant-based frozen goodies. You could easily drop a scoop of this into your cocoa or coffee to add creamy-minty spirit to your mug.

Blue Diamond Peppermint Cocoa Almonds

A bit of peppermint, a bit of cocoa, and a whole lot of almond crunch sounds like a winner of a snack for anyone who's into a more upscale presentation of their favorite flavors. Blue Diamond Peppermint Cocoa Almonds gets them all together for a holiday hop in a single can, ready for scattering about on a dessert table or a sweet charcuterie tray. The almonds Blue Diamond uses are always top quality, and the phenomenal crunch at the center of the peppermint-flavored cocoa coating adds a fun dimension to the mix. It's a candy that isn't quite candy all the way, and a nut that isn't entirely a nut, and it happens without the glossy, super-hard coating that a candied nut like Jordan almonds usually has. Let's just call them a triumph of taste and texture.

For home-baked cookies or brownies where almond topping is called for, try chopping these up and sprinkling them on instead. You'll be adding three flavors at once without having to adjust your recipe. And if you're working on a gingerbread house that could use some snazzy shingles or a bit of decorative stonework, these nuggets will work splendidly.

Pepperidge Farm Milano Mint Chocolate Cookies

Adding elegant Pepperidge Farm Milano Mint Chocolate Cookies to your holiday treat selections is like dressing your dessert table in a bow tie and tails. They're the fanciest cookies that you don't have to turn on your oven to create, and they look like a million bucks sitting on a silver tray or a holiday plate meant for Santa. But we all know the elves end up sneaking snacks that are meant for the big guy, and if it's going to happen, shouldn't it be something royally delicious the helpers get to enjoy? Well, these peppermint chocolate biscuits are that kind of cookie.

For home bakers racing to finish their cut-outs and frosted masterpieces, having Milano cookies at the ready can come in handy for filling in the gaps with something sweet yet unobtrusive. This is a recognizable butter cookie that will make a delicious addition without detracting from your hard-won holiday handwork. If you feel like the bare golden tops are a tad plain, you can add a few strokes of frosting to fancy them up without breaking a sweat. Anything that makes the work easier is a cool comfort, indeed.

Celestial Seasonings Peppermint Herbal Tea

Celestial Seasonings Peppermint Herbal Tea is one of the most flavorful mint teas on grocery store shelves. This fully herbal brew includes no actual tea, making it entirely caffeine-free, while providing peppermint leaves as a singular ingredient that turns out to be more than enough. Every tea bag in the box offers a powerful steep that transforms simple hot water into a soothing minty tisane that isn't afraid to show its strength. There's enough mint essence for a second brew, letting you prolong the life of your cup. The resulting drink is so mint-infused, it can clear sinuses and calm sore throats as well as a lozenge. Peppermint is also a known digestive aid that assists in quelling stomach discomfort (via Mount Sinai), so it works well as a morning wake-me-up or an evening settle-me-down.

Anyone who loves chilling out with a nerve-calming cup of mint tea warming their cold hands should have Celestial Seasonings Peppermint Tea in the pantry. Adding milk or creamer brings a fuller body to the tea, and sugar is a more flavor-friendly sweetener than honey. But there's no need to add anything if what you're after is the unbridled power of peppermint in its purest form.

Junior Mints Peppermint Crunch

Junior Mints prefers not to play it cool by being the go-to mint chocolate candy for all the other seasons. No ... this classic boxed candy has to throw snowballs at the other treats by bringing back its Junior Mints Peppermint Crunch variant like Frosty showing back up with the first winter wind. This isn't one of those weird candy cane flavors that don't make sense. It's the opposite — a double-up of creamy peppermint filling and crunchy peppermint bits embedded in the shiny chocolate shell. So, in addition to tasting twice the mint in every candy, you also get the dual sensation of a smooth mint and a crispy mint. If there were any more mint added to the formula, there'd be a full-sized candy cane included in every box.

Junior Mints Peppermint Crunch comes in a movie-size box, which is an ideal addition to stocking candy, as well as being a wrappable shape for stashing under the tree. They're one of the less-expensive mint candies on the market as well, hovering around $1.25 per box. At that price, you can load up for gift-giving and get a few extras to snack on while you wrap.

Favorite Day Peppermint Whipped Dairy Topping

Having a can of Favorite Day Peppermint Whipped Dairy Topping in the fridge means you can add peppermint pizazz to any dessert dish you wish. Made with real cream and skim milk, it comes with all the fluffy creaminess that real dairy whipped cream has. For anyone who hasn't heard of Favorite Day, it's a Target brand, so you'll only find this treat in its stores. Luckily, most Target stores have their holiday products in a separate display for easy access.

Though it may be tempting to run riot and add this topping to whatever you dessert, you should remember that not every flavor makes a cool complement to peppermint. Pumpkin pie has too much earthy spice, apple pie has more of a warm flavor, and pecan pie does its own nutty thing. Treats like chocolate cakes and puddings, hot cocoa, and coffees will welcome a spritz of peppermint whipped cream like a treasured holiday guest. Top sundaes and brownies with a cool cloud and you'll have instant Christmas in a bowl. For adult parties, adding a blast of this topper to creamy cocktails will put the crowd in the holiday spirit.

Holiday Mint Chocolate M&M's

Every holiday season, as predictable as hearing Mariah Carey sing about all she wants for Christmas, M&M's releases its Holiday Mint Chocolate flavor to return a welcome dash of cool to its ever-expanding collection. Green M&M graces the front of the bag, bedecked in a cheery red Santa hat to let you know that this flavor won't last beyond the gift-giving season. Lovers of bite-sized chocolate and mint happiness can take advantage and buy extra to keep in the freezer for the winter days that continue into the coming year. Regardless of the marketing plants, enjoying peppermint doesn't have a Christmas expiration date.

Don't have enough mint in your life yet? How about using Holiday Mint Chocolate M&Ms in place of chocolate chips for a real bell-ringer of a holiday cookie? These frosty buttons look sharp as sugar cookie décor or as add-ons for chocolate-dipped pretzel rods. They're so versatile that this peppermint twist on the classic flavor can replace regular M&Ms in just about anything. Imagine the possibilities! While everyone else has visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads, you'll have visions of Holiday Mint Chocolate M&Ms dancing instead. Now that's a bold way to holiday.

Read the original article on Mashed.