Hi, I’m Hannah, and as a basic girl, I love Starbucks. While I typically enjoy my usual salted caramel cream cold brew, in the summertime I like to mix it up with the stellar refreshers — or, if I’m feeling particularly basic, a pink drink.
As a certified Refresher Lover™, my whole world changed when I saw this tweet highlighting the new drinks. I basically ran to my nearest Starbucks…because obviously, I HAD to try all three immediately.
Without further ado….here are my first impressions!
Right off the bat…I was a little disappointed with the presentation. Even in the 10-minute walk home, the drinks had melted and separated a bit, so they didn’t taste all that *frozen*. And they didn’t have the nice swirly swirl from the press photos. But hey, don’t judge a book by its cover, right? (Get it? Because I have books in the background?) So with that, I got to trying them!
First up: the Frozen Pineapple Passionfruit Lemonade!
It definitely tasted sweeter than expected…I was expecting a more tangy taste (because y’know, it’s frozen lemonade). The pineapple definitely came through way more than the lemon, and it reminded me a bit of a piña colada in that way (which made me want the coconut milk version of the beverage but frozen…but also, just a piña colada).
I tasted a bit of the passionfruit, but it’s mostly pineapple and a very sweet lemonade…like the powdered kind I had as a kid. Honestly, this one was not a winner to me! It was fine, but I don’t think I’d want to pay the $5.75 for a tall. Although, to be fair, I never order the pineapple passionfruit refresher, so I’m already biased here.
I do wanna bring up a slight concern here. The pineapple passionfruit refresher is completely yellow. So how come the frozen lemonade version is mostly pink? WHERE DID THE PINK COME FROM???
Next up was the Frozen Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade! This one was by far the prettiest, but maybe I just love purple. As you can see by my expression, I didn’t have that high of hopes. But…I was actually pleasantly surprised once I gave it a chance!
I’m not the biggest dragon fruit fan (I do get the refresher occasionally though!), but sometimes it just hits, and y’all…this was hitting. It definitely has a strong dragonfruit flavor and feels less sweet. It has a much more tangy taste which I like…but again I can’t really taste the lemon. Still, overall I liked this one!
And finally…the Frozen Strawberry Açaí Lemonade. I mean, no surprise here, but this one is my favorite. First of all, it has the strongest lemon taste, and it doesn’t taste as powdery as the first one (though it still has a really sweet aftertaste). I don’t know what Starbucks puts in their strawberry açaí refreshers, but it has an absolute chokehold on me. And this one does not disappoint.
This one was even my cat’s favorite, seeing as she tried to drink it.
But all in all…y’all, I was a little disappointed! The drinks weren’t bad, but they lacked the summery frozen lemonade at a baseball game kind of vibe I was going for, and I’d honestly rather just get the regular refresher or a pink drink. HOWEVER…the strawberry açaí one was by far the best, and I could definitely see myself ordering that one on a particularly hot day when a normal refresher just won’t cut it.
What do you think of the new frozen lemonade refreshers? Let me know in the comments!
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahmarder/starbucks-fourth-of-july-summer-drinks