Starbucks Announced Its Summer 2025 Menu, Starring a New Espresso Drink—and Our Food Editor Got an Early Taste

• What’s In It: blonde espresso, horchata-flavored syrup, oat milk, ice
• Price (grande): $6

This drink is super fall-coded to me, but tasty enough to sip in the summertime, too. (If you like horchata, odds are you’d want to drink it on a warm Mexican beach anyway, no?) I love the color and gentler roasty notes of the blonde espresso; it makes for a smoother overall flavor, rather than a bold, bitter taste at the forefront. The espresso’s warm earthiness plays beautifully with the spices in the horchata flavoring. 

Speaking of, I was very impressed with the syrup. I expected it to be cinnamon-forward and kissed with vanilla (which it was, BTW), but what I didn’t see coming was the rice milk-inspired sweetness. Between that and the oat milk, the drink is notably horchata-like with its subtle nuttiness and starchy, silky mouthfeel.

If you want it sweeter (or to amp up the cinnamon notes), add a pump of Cinnamon Dolce syrup. Vanilla, caramel, hazelnut and even mocha would work, too.

• What’s In It: strawberry cream cake mixed with buttercream, dipped in chocolaty icing and finished with a summer strawberry design
• Price: $3

As a berry stan and a lover of fruit desserts, I couldn't *wait* for this warm-weather confection to hit stores. I didn't get to taste it in advance, but hoped it would be sweet-tart and balanced with slight sourness from the strawberries. (I find the birthday cake pop to be way too sweet.) Upon finally trying it, I determined it was definitely less cloying than the OG, but still not as acidic as I'd hoped. Its flavor reminded me a lot of Special K Red Berries cereal, down to the bits of strawberry in the filling.

• What’s In It: raspberry-blueberry-blackberry Refresher blend, lemonade, raspberry-flavored pearls
• Price (grande): $6

I’ve sipped many hibiscus and green tea lemonades in my day...but I wasn’t a fan of this particular mashup. I felt the lemonade overpowered the Refresher’s flavor, even with the help of the sweet-tart, berry-flavored pearls.

• What’s In It: raspberry-blueberry-blackberry Refresher blend, raspberry-flavored pearls
• Price (grande): $6

It gave melted blue freezer pop in a plastic sleeve. Its flavor was sort of like diluted Glacier Freeze Gatorade—not bad, but not outstanding. As for the pearls, they were super fragile and sort of fell apart once they sat for a while. They have a vague, strawberry lollipop-ish flavor (not tart enough to pass for raspberry, IMO), and their skins get left behind in your mouth sometimes without offering any chew or noteworthy texture. I liked this one better than the lemonade, but not as much as...

• What’s In It: What’s In It: raspberry-blueberry-blackberry Refresher blend, coconut milk, raspberry-flavored pearls
• Price (grande): $6

This was my favorite of the summer Refreshers. Evidently inspired by the ever-popular Pink Drink, the coconut milk base enhanced the berry flavor of the refresher, so it was more complex and rounded without being cloying. (Plus, the tropical notes were decidedly summery.) I still wasn’t wild about the pearls, though.