Photo: Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash.
The holidays just got a little sweeter. A fresh batch of vegan treats is arriving in US stores and cafes this month, from crunchy vanilla marshmallows heading to Walmart to oat milk gingerbread lattes and three festive frostings, including Cookie Butter.
First up is Yummallo's Vanilla Flavored Dehydrated Marshmallows. These are the tiny, crispy marshmallow bits you find in cereal and hot cocoa mixes, which are usually made with gelatin. Yummallo's are vegan, made with corn starch, carrageenan and hydrolyzed rice protein instead, according to Big Box Vegan, which first spotted the launch.
The 1.75oz (50g) bags are already listed on Walmart's app and are expected on shelves very soon, VegNews reports. Yummallo's classic vegan marshmallows have been on Walmart shelves since the brand's nationwide launch in 2021, so the crunchy version joins a familiar favorite. The bag's own pitch is hard to argue with: "Sweeten up cereal, cocoa, baked goods, trail mix, and more!"
Bakers get a treat too. PiiPER, the frosting brand sold at Target and Walmart, has three holiday buttercream flavors this season: Cookie Butter, Peppermint Chill and Gingersnap. VegNews reports that the new vegan flavors are already on shelves at Target. (Yes, vegan buttercream. No butter required.)
Coffee lovers can head to Gregorys Coffee, the family-run chain founded in Manhattan in 2006. Its Holiday 2026 menu has a Gingerbread Latte and an Iced Gingerbread Latte, both marked vegan and made with the chain's in-house gingerbread sauce, vanilla syrup, espresso and oat milk. The Vegan Supreme breakfast sandwich is on the menu too: vegan sausage, Violife cheese and vegan eggs on a vegan croissant.
Gregorys explains its approach on its website:
You shouldn't have to choose between your time and your standards. That's why we brew coffee fresh every 30 minutes, bake fresh pastries in-house daily, and serve dairy-free milk alternatives at no additional cost.
Every one of these swaps adds up. A University of Oxford study in PNAS found that shifting toward more plant-based diets could cut global mortality by 6 to 10% and food-related greenhouse gas emissions by 29 to 70% by 2050. Cocoa topped with gelatin-free marshmallows is a delicious place to start.
It has never been easier to celebrate the season with plants. A vegan Thanksgiving has never been easier thanks to this year's new roasts and desserts, and Oreo just unveiled four new vegan varieties, including Espresso Creme Thins. Earlier this year Caribou Coffee ditched its dairy-free milk surcharge across nearly 500 US stores.
Pass the cocoa: this is going to be a very tasty holiday season.