Starbucks' New Ready-To-Drink Product May Not Impress

Starbucks has mixed up, well, everything recently. It’s changed how you order drinks, how you tip, and what your chai latte tastes like. And, in one move that customers really did not like, it altered its Strawberry Açaí Refresher by removing the caffeine in the drink, which promptly changed its flavor and sent people straight to Reddit to voice their anger. As is the modern way.

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It doesn’t seem like Starbucks is phased by the criticism, though. It’s just announced the release of a ready-to-drink version of this beverage, and it looks as though it’s made the same way as its store-bought option. Let’s discuss.

Starbucks Strawberry Açaí + Lemonade Refresher

Starbucks’ new product is a ready-to-drink bottled beverage that joins its line of Refreshers concentrates, which it brought out at the end of last year. The Strawberry Açaí + Lemonade Refresher is, according to information shared with Parade, made with real fruit juice and natural flavors, and it’ll be available in 40-ounce multiserve bottles in grocery stores and national retailers.

In fact, it’s already available in some of them: This product has already shown up on the Target website, where it’s collected some reviews already. Customers are, it’s fair to say, slightly mixed on it. “Tastes nothing like the refresher at Starbucks. It has an odd after taste, almost like a drink that uses artificial sweeteners,” said one recent review. “I will not buy again.”

We’re not sure if that customer’s referring to the former refresher or the current one, but it’s a criticism that’s repeated in other reviews, too. Like the now-standard drink at Starbucks, its bottled Strawberry Açaí beverage doesn’t have any caffeine in it, which is potentially causing the same problems with its flavor that customers had with the rejigged recipe. Sorry, Starbucks; this may not be fully winning people over.

How Refreshing…

Starbucks’ further push into the ready-to-drink refreshers market is very much in keeping with what everyone else is doing this year. Everyone’s talking about refreshers, and restaurants from McDonald’s to Dunkin’ are expanding their lines and making them more available. The latter is also increasing its RTE refresher offer, having just dropped its Refreshers Singles To Go! (exclamation mark mandatory) in stores everywhere. Unlike the new bottled refresher, those ones do have caffeine in them.

As for Starbucks, it remains to be seen whether this one’s going to be a hit. We’ll wait and see. Maybe include the caffeine next time, though.