Given that Starbucks is primarily a coffee house, you probably expect that there will be an abundance of popular drinks like iced coffees, cold brew, and the iconic Starbucks Frappuccinos. You may have even enjoyed some of the iced teas Starbucks has created — but have you tried any of the Refreshers? In the blistering heat, they may be just what you need to cool off with a fruity pick-me-up.
If you haven’t heard of or experienced any of the Starbucks Refreshers, here’s the rundown: They’re essentially fruit drinks that are a bit lighter and more delicate than fruit juice. Like an agua fresca, but fancy. There are currently three flavors: Mango Dragonfruit, Strawberry Acai, and Pinapple Passionfruit. Each of these flavors is made with a similar “base” of water, sugar, white grape juice concentrate, and natural flavors and colors. While these drinks don’t pack as strong of a caffeinated punch as a nitro cold brew, they all include green coffee extract, so some caffeine is present. From there, your base flavor of choice can be mixed with one of three different drinks: water, lemonade, or coconut milk, for a total of nine flavor combinations. There are also plenty of additional combinations you can make, and there are even some secret menu options created by some clever Starbucks connoisseurs. Out of every Refresher we tried, we genuinely thought they were all tasty. But, to give you an idea of what to order, here’s every current Starbucks Refresher, ranked worst to best. 카지노사이트
Pineapple Passionfruit
If you aren’t seeing the Kiwi Starfruit Refresher on the menu at your local Starbucks anymore, there’s a good chance it’s been replaced by the Pineapple Passionfruit Refresher, which was released in late June of 2022 — just as intense summertime heat waves began in earnest across the country. While we think all of the Refreshers are warm weather drinks, there’s no mistaking this bright yellow drink as a summery stand-out. It certainly looks like an icy cup of sunshine, but we’ll admit that it didn’t quite meet our expectations.
We had visions of freshly squeezed pineapple juice that’s both intensely sweet and mouth-puckeringly acidic and that tingling sensation on the tongue from the acids and enzymes. Then the passionfruit would provide a sweet, citrusy, and slightly musky punch it all together for a richly tropical burst of flavor. What we actually got was more of a platonic impression of those flavors, watered down and mellowed out. That’s not an inherently bad thing. Walking around drinking harsh pineapple juice spiked with bitter passionfruit in large quantities would probably wreak havoc on your stomach anyway.
Not only is this particular Refresher more subtle than we expected it to be, but it’s not especially sweet. It’s more like a slightly more complex lemonade with not enough sugar in it (yes, really — a Starbucks drink that isn’t super sweet). We’d consider adding a few pumps of vanilla or brown sugar syrup to this drink to sweeten it up a little bit and help boost the overall flavor. 안전한카지노사이트
Kiwi Starfruit Lemonade
We tasted the Kiwi Starfruit Refresher and the Kiwi Starfruit Lemonade side-by-side because we weren’t sure how much of a difference the lemonade would make to the drink as a whole. We’ll get to the plain version of it in a moment, but our first sip of the Kiwi Starfruit Lemonade was intense. Not necessarily in a bad way, just in a strong citrusy kind of way. The kiwi flavor is both sweet and tart, but the entire sweet-tart experience was amplified by the inclusion of the lemonade. Starfruit is naturally acidic as well, but any starfruit flavor was overpowered by the lemonade. The bit of kiwi floating in the drink was a fun touch, but also added another hit of acidity when you bite into them. With all of that said, we didn’t dislike this version of the drink. Next time we order it, we’d probably ask the barista to cut the lemonade with either half water or half green tea to bring it down a notch while keeping that sweet and sour flavor action going.
We ordered a tall (12-ounce) version of this drink, which cost us $4.95. Like most of the other Refreshers, the calorie count is relatively low, especially compared to some of the other beverage options. The versions of these drinks that include lemonade tend to have the most calories, but this one was 110 calories — which we thought was reasonable for a drink that’s got so much going on.
Dragon Drink
For each of the three Refreshers flavors, one of the drink mix options is coconut milk, and each of the coconut milk-based Refreshers has a special name that differs a little bit from the rest of the Refreshers. The Dragon Drink is made with the mango dragonfruit base, the Pink Drink is made with the strawberry açaí base, and the Star Drink is made with the kiwi starfruit base. Can that be a little bit confusing when it’s your first time ordering? Yes, especially since all the current refreshers are listed on the Starbucks website, but not necessarily on the drink board at your particular coffee shop — it might feel like a lot of guesswork. But rest assured that you’re not getting an entirely different drink.
Kiwi Starfruit
Kiwi has an enzyme in it called actinidin, notes the National Library of Medicine, that’s also found in pineapple and papaya. Some people may notice a tingling sensation in their mouths when eating those fruits, which is partially due to this particular enzyme, as well as the acid content. Given that kiwi and starfruit already lean slightly towards the acidic end of the spectrum, we thought the water drink mix-in for this flavor is a nice choice. It almost tastes like a kiwi green tea, even though we know there’s no tea in it. It’s lightly tropical and easy to drink. The freeze-dried kiwi bits have a nice crunch and pop of flavor to them whenever you manage to snag one.
Star Drink
As we’ve mentioned, the Star Drink is just the Kiwi Starfruit flavor base mixed with coconut milk. Interestingly, where we thought the addition of coconut milk to the Dragon Drink diluted the flavors (making it a bit boring), the addition of the coconut milk to the Star Drink seems to bring a nice balance to the Kiwi Starfruit flavor, which we appreciated. It’s still plenty sweet and acidic, but some of the greener vegetal notes are toned down by the coconut, and that neon green color becomes a pleasant pastel. It’s also worth pointing out that the coconut milk in it isn’t heavy or especially creamy like traditional dairy. It keeps the entire drink light and easy to drink with a well-rounded finish. Of all of the kiwi starfruit drinks, we think the coconut drink mix-in is the best. 카지노사이트 추천
The biggest problem with the Kiwi Starfruit Refresher is that it was often out of stock. After a quick chat with our barista, we found that some locations receive a smaller quantity of the Kiwi Starfruit flavor than the other flavors. The Kiwi Starfruit Refreshers weren’t listed on any of the menu boards we looked at, although they are listed online and in the app. But even though the online menu may say the Kiwi Starfruit is out of stock, it doesn’t hurt to ask your barista in-store. Sometimes if the mix is low, it’s removed from the online ordering system to keep from completely selling out.