REVIEW: Starbucks Dragon Drink

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Starbucks Dragon Drink

What is the Starbucks Dragon Drink?

Last year, Starbucks debuted a new Refresher, the Mango Dragonfruit. As part of the new summer menu, the chain has mixed the Mango Dragonfruit Refresher with coconutmilk for the beautifully colored Dragon Drink.

It’s a sister drink to the Pink and Violet drinks, which mix the Strawberry Acai and Very Berry Refreshers with coconutmilk, respectively. If you’ve never had actual dragonfruit before, it includes diced dragonfruit on top.

How is it?

While I typically go for coffee, coffee, and more coffee at Starbucks, I’ve been gravitating more toward the Refreshers these last few months for something sweet and caffeinated. So needless to say, I was thrilled to see this one go on the menu, as I’m a huge fan of the Mango Dragonfruit Refresher.

Starbucks Dragon Drink Closeup

The Dragon Drink did not disappoint. Not only does this drink look pretty, it also tastes pretty. (I have a feeling this will be the summer’s most Instagrammed drink.) It’s much sweeter than the Pink and Violet drinks – in a good way. I often feel the coconutmilk outweighs the taste of the Refresher flavors in the Pink and Violet, but this was not the case with Dragon Drink. The mango and dragonfruit flavors shined through, with the right hint of creaminess from the coconutmilk. It truly was refreshing and had me wishing I was sitting by the pool instead of at my desk.

Is there anything else you need to know?

Since it is pretty sweet, I think I’ll stick to a grande when I get this instead of upgrading to a venti. The grande was just enough.

Conclusion:

Try this! If you’re a Refresher fan, it will be a hit.

Purchased Price: $3.85
Size: Grande
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 130 calories, 3 grams of total fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 60 milligrams of sodium, 26 grams of total carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 23 grams of total sugars, and 1 gram of protein.

REVIEW: Starbucks Tripleshot Energy Coffee Beverages

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Starbucks Tripleshot Energy Coffee Beverage

What are Starbucks Tripleshot Energy Coffee Beverages?

They are extra-strength versions of Starbucks’ Doubleshot Energy canned beverages. While the Doubleshots have 145 milligrams of caffeine per can, the Tripleshots have 225 milligrams. There are three flavors: Caramel, French Vanilla, and Caffe Mocha.

This review covers the first two.

How are they?

If your taste buds are familiar with Starbucks’ Doubleshot Energy or even Java Monster, then these will also be familiar to them. There’s enough cream, sugar, and flavoring in both to hide the coffee flavor and energy ingredients, like ginseng and guarana. So if you’re into sweet, dairy coffee drinks, then you’ll enjoy these. I did.

But, maybe it’s just me, they’re not as flavorful as Starbucks’ Doubleshot canned beverages, which I drink regularly. The new beverages are sweet and creamy like their less caffeinated cousins, but the flavors don’t seem pop as much as the Doubleshots. Maybe to stuff more caffeine into each can, the flavor level needed to be affected.

Is there anything else you need to know?

Two hundred twenty-five milligrams of caffeine is a lot. To give you an idea of how much that is, it’s a little less than what’s in a Venti-sized Starbucks Iced Coffee. Here are more numbers: Most Java Monster flavors have 188 milligrams of caffeine per can.

Caramel, vanilla, and mocha are the usual staid varieties when it comes to coffee energy drinks. I wish one of the flavors wasn’t one of the usuals. Unicorn Tripleshot, perhaps?

I didn’t include a photo of the actual liquid because I figured if you’ve seen one canned coffee drink you’ve seen them all. Think dirty storm river water. Okay. Okay. You got me. I forgot to take photos.

Conclusion:

Again, if you’ve had other coffee energy drinks, these Starbucks Tripleshots will taste familiar to you. Getting an extra 80 milligrams of caffeine over Starbucks’ Doubleshots at roughly the same price is nice if you need the added energy because you were up all night watching YouTube videos about the Easter eggs in Marvel movie trailers or something like that.

Purchased Price: $2.78 each
Size: 15 fl. oz. cans
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 7 out of 10 (French Vanilla)
Rating: 7 out of 10 (Caramel)
Nutrition Facts: (1 can) French Vanilla – 210 calories, 3 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 15 milligrams of cholesterol, 180 milligrams of sodium, 36 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 29 grams of sugar, and 10 grams of protein. Caramel – 210 calories, 3 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 15 milligrams of cholesterol, 200 milligrams of sodium, 36 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 29 grams of sugar, and 10 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Starbucks Vanilla Almondmilk Frappuccino

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Starbucks Vanilla Almondmilk Frappuccino

What is the Starbucks Vanilla Almondmilk Frappuccino?

Imagine a bottled Starbucks Frappuccino with, instead of reduced fat and skim milk, a liquid made from almonds that are treated as if someone is trying to extract top secret information from it. They’re drowned, chopped into tiny pieces, and then drowned again.

Besides this vanilla flavor, there’s also a mocha version.

How is it?

Full disclosure: I drink almond milk. More specifically, organic Silk Almondmilk from Costco that comes in a pack with three half-gallons, which I drink even though there’s a Silk’s Vanilla Soymilk multi-pack that’s cheaper and better tasting. I mention that to show I have no issues with the nut milk.

With that said, Starbucks’ Vanilla Almondmilk Frappuccino is something I wouldn’t buy again. At first, it’s decent coffee drink. But in the middle of every sip, a weird, acrid taste pops up in my mouth. It’s similar to what I experienced with

I’m not sure if it’s the nut milk that’s causing this or something else because the Smoked Butterscotch Latte doesn’t have almond milk and I also recently tried

Is there anything else you need to know?

Because the almond milk tends to be thinner than cow milk or soy milk, I thought this would also be that way. But thanks to our friends carrageenan and cellulose gum, it’s as thick and creamy as regular bottled Frappuccino beverages.

Some of you astute readers might’ve noticed I’ve used two different spellings for almond milk. When used in product names, I’ll respect the one-word spelling, but I’m on Team #AlmondSpaceMilk and used the two-word spelling for all other instances. Eh, maybe I’m just a fuddy-duddy.

Conclusion:

Starbucks’ Vanilla Almondmilk Frappuccino has fewer calories and fat than its dairy version, but its flavor makes it my least favorite bottled nut milk coffee drink. Thankfully, there are better options from Starbucks.

Purchased Price: $2.89
Size: 13.7 fl. oz.
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 4 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 bottle) 180 calories, 5 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 120 milligrams of sodium, 32 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 28 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Starbucks Frappuccino with a Splash of Cold Brew

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Starbucks Frappuccino with Cold Brew Salted Dark Chocolate and Toasted White Chocolate

What are Starbucks Frappuccino with Cold Brew?

Bottled beverages that mostly contain brewed Starbucks coffee with a splash of Starbucks cold brew coffee, reduced fat milk, skim milk, and sugar. The line debuted with three flavors — Salted Dark Chocolate, Toasted White Chocolate, and Caramelized Vanilla Honey. The review below is for the first two.

How are they?

The good news is that they taste like bottled Starbucks Frappuccino, which is perfectly fine because I happen to like the line as a whole.

However, the flavors are so nondescript among other ready-to-drink Starbucks beverages that I could secretly pour the Toasted White Chocolate one into a bottle of Starbucks Mocha White Chocolate Frappuccino or a can of Starbucks Vanilla Doubleshot Energy and the Salted Dark Chocolate one in a bottle of Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino or a can of Starbucks Mocha Vanilla Doubleshot Energy, then hand it to you, and you wouldn’t know any better after taking a sip.

I notice a slight saltiness with the dark chocolate one, but I can’t tell there’s cold brew in either flavor. But we have no idea how much a “splash of cold brew” is. It doesn’t sound like much, though.

Even though these are creamy, sweet, and delicious bottled coffee beverages, I find these Starbucks Frappuccinos with Cold Brew to be dumb. What? I’m dumb? No, you’re dumb, Starbucks Frappuccinos with Cold Brew.

A “splash of cold brew” in a beverage that already contains coffee sounds like adding a splash of tap water to seltzer. There’s a difference between the two, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference. If it had only cold brew, then that would be significant.

Is there anything else you need to know?

If I didn’t know PepsiCo makes these and that the PepsiCo Beverage Facts website exists, I might’ve had a hard time finding out how much caffeine these have, which is 95 milligrams in each one. The glass bottles don’t mention anywhere this critical information that caffeine-needy minds want to know.

Conclusion:

If you’re a regular bottled Starbucks Frappuccino beverage drinker, you’ll enjoy these. But if you’re expecting something different from what you’ve been already drinking, these may disappoint you.

Purchased Price: $2.63 each
Size: 13.7 fl. oz. bottles
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 6 out of 10 (Salted Dark Chocolate)
Rating: 6 out of 10 (Toasted White Chocolate)
Nutrition Facts: (1 bottle) Salted Dark Chocolate – 260 calories, 5 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 20 milligrams of cholesterol, 270 milligrams of sodium, 46 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 43 grams of sugar, and 9 grams of protein. Toasted White Chocolate – 290 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 20 milligrams of cholesterol, 230 milligrams of sodium, 52 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 44 grams of sugar, and 9 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Starbucks Cloud Macchiato

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Starbucks Cloud Macchiatos

What are the Starbucks Cloud Macchiatos?

Starbucks’ new Cloud Macchiato is a new fancy take on an O.G., the macchiato, inspired by a classic Spanish summer drink (leche merengada or meringue milk). To achieve the frothy Instagram-worthy clouds, Starbucks’ R&D created a new “cloud powder” out of egg whites. In my mind, they just added egg whites to their existing cold foam offering, but maybe I’m oversimplifying it.

There are two new flavors: the Caramel Cloud (whipped cloud cold foam, vanilla syrup, espresso, caramel drizzle) and the Cinnamon Cloud (whipped cloud cold foam, cinnamon lemon syrup, espresso, caramel drizzle, a dusting of cinnamon). The latter seems to be more faithful to the Spanish’s meringue milk as it includes cinnamon and lemon.

Starbucks Cinnamon Cloud Macchiato Crosshatch

The crosshatching of the caramel drizzle on both is apparently a key Starbucks touch, but that’s not something I think of when thinking of when ordering caramel-topped drinks from here.

How are they?

They were way too easy to drink because I’m basically paying almost $5 for 1/2 cup of foam and an espresso shot, but I enjoyed it.

The Caramel Cloud had everything I enjoyed about the indulgent

In addition to being less sweet, the cloud foam added a luxe aspect to the drink like the cold brew whipped cream did for the Ultra. I liken it to eating a delicious, guilt-free lite whipped cream.

Starbucks Cinnamon Cloud Macchiato Clouds

Watch out for the cloud ‘stache though! Your first sip will be all foam, but the espresso catches up on the 2nd or 3rd sip depending on the size of your gulps. When the espresso broke through the clouds like a ray of sunshine, it packed a wallop because of the bold contrast to the fluffy light sweetness.

As for the Cinnamon Cloud, I didn’t pick up on any cinnamon or lemon at all. All I could discern was that it wasn’t as coffee-forward as the Caramel version. Maybe this one could’ve benefitted from an extra pump of syrup!

Is there anything else you need to know?

It’s available both iced and hot. The hot version comes in a plain, white cup like all the other hot drinks, which defeats the purpose of the frothy cloud concept. Why even introduce it in hot?

Starbucks Caramel Cloud Macchiato Glob of Caramel

Note that the iced version comes with the new straw-less lid, but I had to grab a straw anyway to get the globs of caramel at the bottom.

Conclusion:

All in all, it’s no surprise that it’s another winner from Starbucks! But these new drinks stand out because they’re not just another flavored syrup, but truly game-changing innovation in the coffee space. I’m already thinking about all the other flavored cloud possibilities with this new fluffy goodness!

Purchased Price: $4.45
Size: Tall (12 fl. oz.)
Rating: 9 out of 10 (Caramel)
Rating: 6 out of 10 (Cinnamon)
Nutrition Facts: (12 fl. oz.) Caramel – 210 calories, 6 grams of fat, 20 milligrams of cholesterol, 150 milligrams of sodium, 31 grams of carbohydrates, 28 grams of sugar, and 9 grams of protein. Cinnamon – 210 calories, 6 grams of fat, 20 milligrams of cholesterol, 150 milligrams of sodium, 32 grams of carbohydrates, 29 grams of sugar, and 9 grams of protein.
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