13 Add-Ins To Elevate Your Starbucks Refresher

In the summer of 2012, Starbucks Refreshers joined the fruity drink offerings at Starbucks locations. Since then, flavors have come and gone from the menu, but the Refreshers lineup continues to stake claim over the not-quite-tea-and-not-quite-coffee space.

While it's rather easy to personalize your coffee drinks at Starbucks, customizations may not feel quite as obvious with Refreshers. Even still, there are plenty of ways to up the ante in your Refreshers order. These customizations often involve adding something to your drink that isn't already in the recipe, and some will swap out an ingredient for an alternative. The good news is that even the shyest of Starbucks Refreshers customers can feel comfortable making these tweaks because they're easy to do in the app; no talking to baristas required.

Though I never worked at Starbucks in the Refreshers era, since it began, I have been a frequent customer. I've experienced the heartbreak of losing a favorite Refreshers flavor to the either (RIP Kiwi Starfruit Lemonade Refresher) and the joy of finding a new one to love (the Cran-Merry Orange Lemonade from the 2024 Starbucks holiday menu is next level tasty). My hope is that these add-ins will help make your drink even better.

In the summer of 2016, I fell in love. It happened one bright and sunny day as I went through the drive-thru of my favorite Starbucks. No, it wasn't a handsome barista who I caught my eye, but a new tea drink. It was called the Teavana Shaken Berry Sangria Herbal Tea.

Now a long forgotten shaken tea from a bygone era, the drink used herbal passion tea as a base and also had a sangria syrup that was shaken with apple juice. For inclusions, the drink had an assortment of fruit on top to really bring home the sangria feel. Unfortunately, like so many seasonal Starbucks drinks, this one came and went very quickly at the end of the summer, and I haven't seen it on the menu since. It was there just long enough for me to fall in love with adding juice into my iced teas and refreshers.

Starbucks' apple juice comes from Musselman's or Tree Top, and is on hand in barista's refrigerators all year long, not just for the fall seasonal drink menu. This is helpful to know if you happen to have a child that loves apple juice and you need a kid-friendly Starbucks drink or simply want a bit of sweet juice yourself. To use apple juice in your Refreshers, simply request that the water be replaced with apple juice. You can also make this swap with the peach juice. If you're worried the drink is going to be too sweet, request just a splash of apple juice, or for half of the water to be replaced. That way, you'll still get some of that flavor, but it won't be as sweet and potentially overwhelming.

Many customers turn to Refreshers as an enjoyable alternative to tea because Refreshers intend to offer more of a caffeine punch than a typical iced light. However, there's nothing stopping you from having that burst of tea in your Refreshers as well. Why not have the best of both?

As I'm writing this, Starbucks has three iced teas on hand at any given time; a black tea, passion tea, and green tea are nearly always prepared and ready to use. You can add any of these teas to your Refreshers drink. If you want just a little bit of extra flavor, you can choose to have a splash added, but you can also go and have all of the water replaced with a nice tea of your choice.

If you happen to be sensitive to caffeine, please note that adding the tea in place of water will add more caffeine to your drink in much the same way that adding extra shots of espresso to an espresso based drink increases the overall caffeine content. Of course, it won't be as substantial as adding more espresso, but there will be some increase.

One of the easiest ways to tell that you're drinking a Refreshers is that it'll have freeze dried fruit inclusions. While these fruity bits are very dry and hard when added, with shaking and time to steep in the liquid, they soften substantially. As a result, you'll no doubt end up sipping on some fruit as you drink.

If you love these fruit inclusions and want more texture in your Refresher, asking for more scoops of these inclusions is an easy way to elevate your drink. You probably won't notice too much of a flavor difference if you're adding more of the same flavors, but if you're adding new inclusions, you may notice some subtle fruit flavor changes.

If you like fruit inclusions, but not the ones included in your chosen refresher, swapping them with other inclusions is another great way to personalize your drink. For instance, the newest holiday Cran Merry Orange Refreshers has freeze dried cranberries as its inclusions. I love these little pops of tart flavor and can imagine them working in any of Starbucks' Refreshers lineup.

Starbucks' menu is a fascinating study in how much of an influence customers can have on a menu. Before the popular, viral Pink Drink became a permanent fixture on the Starbucks menu, it was on an unofficial secret menu, making the rounds on social media. It was an ideal secret menu order since the request is simple: Replace the water in a Strawberry Açaí Refreshers with coconut milk. The resulting drink is a lovely pale pink shade that makes the perfect backdrop for Instagram posts.

Since the Pink Drink uses coconut milk, with every new Refreshers that comes out, there's a new dairy free milk drink to join it. Of course, you can swap out this milk for oat, soy, or almond, but this will make the drink feel thicker. However, depending on allergies, texture, or taste preferences, it may also be preferable.

One of the more flavorful ways to alter any Starbucks beverage is to add flavored syrup. Unfortunately, there aren't any strictly fruit based syrups still in the Starbucks syrup lineup. At one time, raspberry would have been a popular option, but even that has gone off the menu, much to the chagrin of raspberry syrup lovers. Even though it isn't solely a fruit flavor, I really enjoy the apple brown sugar syrup and for something of a twist on that old sangria tea, this could make for an enjoyable addition to either the holiday Cran-Merry Orange refresher, or even the Strawberry Açai Refresher.

Don't feel limited to just fruit flavors, however. Vanilla syrup in a Strawberry Açai Refresher, for example, would be some thing of strawberries and cream like refresher. I would avoid anything too heavily chocolate, because it might really struggle to meld with the other fruity flavors. Instead, avoid sauces, and go more for the liquidy syrups.

Ever since Starbucks came out with cold foam, I've been loving adding it to nearly all of my iced beverages. Now, Starbucks has made it easier than ever to include a whole slow of different cold foam toppers to pretty much any iced drink. Chocolate cream cold foam is a great addition to the Pink Drink, but cold foam flavors like the strawberry, sugar cookie, apple brown sugar, or vanilla sweet cream cold foam all have the potential to be delicious additions on nearly any Refreshers type drink.

With adding cold foam on top of your drink, expect an increase in price that is a little more substantial than a simple syrup add. It's normally above a dollar in my experience, but if this is too rich of an increase for you, there are other ways to add a creamy feel to your Refresher. You should also expect a little bit of an odd consistency to form. Because you're putting a milk based item on top of a Refresher, when I've done this I've noticed that there's a little separation and something that looks a little like curdling. It tastes great, but doesn't look altogether fabulous. So, I like to add a drink sleeve, like Sok-It, that'll cover up the drink to order it more appetizing to enjoy down to last drop. You'll notice that since the cold foam will be put on top of your drink after it has been all shaken up, it won't be mixed like the rest of your ingredients. If you prefer to mix it in, of course, you're more than welcome to do so, but expect even more of that odd separation quicker.

When I first started working at Starbucks, I quickly learned that one of the more underappreciated flavors that the chain offers is vanilla bean. It's a powder that is mostly used for making Vanilla Bean or Café Vanilla Frappuccino, but you can also add it in a variety of other Frappuccinos, iced drinks, or even hot drinks. I've noticed that the powders at Starbucks have been getting a little bit more attention since the spring release of Starbucks' lavender drinks that utilized a pale purple lavender powder.

I like adding vanilla bean powder to shaken drinks because it allows the powder to really disintegrate into the drink. One of the reasons that vanilla bean powder is used in Frappuccinos is because everything is all blended up, so all of the little powder particles get mixed in. Shaking isn't quite as effective as throwing it in a blender, it'll get you closer than just mixing the drink with a spoon.

Recently, I stumbled upon a secret menu drink from the starbuckslovers__ TikTok account. The pale pink drink was named for the song "Popular" from "Wicked." As a lover of musical theater and a longtime fan of "Wicked," I'm eager to try this drink. It starts as a venti Pink Drink, and then you'll ask your barista to add two scoops of the vanilla bean powder. It gets topped with brown sugar cold foam, too. The Strawberry Açai Refreshers seems like the easiest target to add vanilla bean powder, but I think the holiday Cran-Merry Orange or even the Pineapple Passionfruit would both be great.

Another Starbucks powder really getting popular is Matcha. Certainly, there are Starbucks regulars who drink matcha on a regular basis, but with a vibrant green color, it's an easy target for Starbucks secret menu to riff on. As a barista, I rarely heard of someone ordering a matcha drink, unless it was their go to. Since then, it's become such a popular item that I frequently see it sold out in stores when I try to order it.

The Golden Edit shares an easy way to add Matcha powder by simply requesting that two scoops be added to a venti Pink Drink. Because the pink coloring is so very light, the matcha will easily overpower it, likely resulting in something like a pale green color.

For those who have never tried much before, it's important to note that matcha is a very unique flavor. To me, it tastes something like sweetened, crushed up leaves, and while that might not sound terribly appetizing, it is definitely one that can grow on you, as many acquired tastes do.

Ever since I was a kid, I've had a real problem with finishing drinks. Even as I've grown up, it hasn't gotten much better, but no longer are the culprits juice and water, now there is my iced coffee order from the morning. As a result, I've taken to ordering my iced drinks with extra ice. This way, even if the ice melts quite a lot, I'm left with some remaining ice to at least give myself the illusion that the drink is somewhat fresh. Certainly, it'll mean that the drink will dilute a little bit more, but it's worth it to me to ensure that the drink stays cold.

I've found that this has been a great addition to my Refreshers orders. As a result of the extra ice, I also request that the drink be made in a larger cup. This way, a barista can comfortably pour in the entire liquid contents of my drink as well as the extra large ice scoop. Since Starbucks has a trenta size, which is even bigger than a venti, you can pull this trick even with the 24 ounce sized venti.

I probably spend too much time staring at the Starbucks app. As a result, I notice when new customization features get added or even taken away. So, when a new preparation method cropped up on the customization features of the app, I had to try it out.

This customization is simple. You can simply request that your Refreshers be make blended instead of shaken. It'll mean that it takes the form of something like a fruity Frappuccino, and while I've noticed that leads to some separation between the iciness and the liquid, if you continue swirling your drink every few minutes during the drinking process, you'll barely even notice it. Of course, you'll want to request a straw with your drink since your barista may still put a Refreshers cup lid on top, which doesn't make drinking a frozen drink all that easy.

When I started working at Starbucks, my friends and family would visit me quite frequently. As a result, they all developed favorite drinks to pick up. For my boyfriend, now husband, that was a Passion tea Lemonade. He always got it with two extra pumps of sweetener, and I must say, it was something of a sugar bomb. Delicious, but definitely too sweet for me. Even still, this was my first introduction to adding lemonade to the beverage. Of course, at the time, we added it to tea, but the lemonade at Starbucks is possibly even better when added to a Refreshers than when added to the teas.

Similar to the line of Starbucks drinks focused on adding coconut milk, you can also order that they be made as lemonades. So this isn't even an addition you need to make to your Refreshers as it's already on the menu. I mention it here because it's easy to forget amongst the Refreshers lineup. If you happen to be ordering this drink in person, make sure that your barista hears that you've ordered it with lemonade. Oftentimes, they won't hear the whole order, and you'll end up with a Refreshers with water instead of lemonade. This isn't necessarily a bad flavor, but if you're expecting lemonade and just get water with it, it is disappointing.

The process to make a Starbucks Refreshers involves taking a specific flavor of Refreshers base, water, and inclusions, and shaking them together in a shaker. Just like the shaken iced teas, the Refreshers get diluted with just a little water. If you want a real flavor bomb, and really enjoy a specific Refreshers base, you can ask for your Refreshers to be without water.

In the app, it'll be under the option that says "Extra Refreshers Bases," and then you'll select one of the options. Just as the cold foam topper can be an expensive edition, asking for your Refreshers be made without water tacts on a dollar. I've noticed that this dollar does not change depending on the size of drink that you get, so you'll definitely want to get a venti to get your money's worth out of that dollar.

While the Refreshers bases are tasty on their own, mixing a couple together is even better. There's a number of different ways you can do this. You can ask for your barista to split the Refreshers base between two different flavors, or, when you go to request that your Refreshers be made without water, you can actually select a different Refreshers base from the options on the screen.

Though surely your barista would happily add more than two flavors, this isn't gonna be something you can request through the app, so for more than two flavor combinations, you'll need to order in person. I also recommend that you also request for the accompanying inclusions to really get the full flavor experience.