Starbucks has ignited its own rainbow with its social media-influenced colored drink collection. You may have seen the hashtags for the drinks accompany a picture of a vibrant colored Starbucks cup on Instagram, Snapchat, or Twitter.
According to US Weekly, comments by Instagram users regarding the drinks have all been of great praise, complete with numerous thumbs-up emojis. Because this trend seems to be growing viral, I decided to try it myself and share my experience for those like me who wonder what all the fuss is about. Spoiler -- not much.
As a disclaimer, I am not much of a tea drinker. I do not stray far from my Bigelow Red Raspberry tea and I can hold on to a single box of it for more than a year. After reading the ingredients for the #PinkDrink, #GreenDrink, #BlueDrink, #OrangeDrink, and #PurpleDrink, I was a little skeptical about whether I would like any of them when three out of the five drinks listed tea as the main ingredient.
Before I went through with my purchase I did some research to see how legitimate this phenomenon was. Most of the time, it seems when one orders from Starbucks' secret menu, he receives a look of confusion from the barista in reply. An article by The Seattle Times claims that the coffee mogul provided baristas with recipes for each of the festive drinks because of their growing popularity among fans and customers. The recipes were posted to Starbucks' Instagram account last week.
Being that the company itself came up with recipes to create its edible rainbow, I decided to go ahead, drag my mom into the car with me, and try one. My brother, who was wise enough to just go with a mocha frappucino, came along for the ride, but said they sounded gross. We're chocolate lovers in my family--not so much into tea.
With that aside however, my mom looked at the recipes and decided on the #OrangeDrink ("Orange mango juice with vanilla bean powder and a splash of coconut milk") while I dared to try the #BlueDrink ("Iced Passion Tango Tea with no water, sub soy milk and vanilla syrup").
Before ordering, I double checked with the barista if she knew what the colored drinks were and she retorted that she would need me to list the ingredients. This made me think that this colored drink craze isn't as big as I thought it was.
The #OrangeDrink looked as it should: the color of orange juice with vanilla beans floating around the ice cubes. The #BlueDrink though, was not #Blue at all. Pictures showed this...
And I got this...
The #BlueDrink was very watery. I could definitely taste the tea, but it seemed like a background flavor--like an aftertaste. It was a cinnamon taste that I would probably enjoy as a regular hot tea, but mixed together to make the #BlueDrink it was nearly tasteless and even difficult to drink.
However, it is difficult to judge as these are drinks not officially on Starbucks' menu and not each location will make it the same. While I will never order the #BlueDrink again, the #OrangeDrink seems like the refreshing partner to your morning bagel. It's something I would consider buying again if I were really in the mood for it, and saved me from swearing off the colored drinks entirely. If I'm feeling really adventurous one day, I may even try a different color. But for now, I think I'll stick to my grande vanilla iced coffee with half and half and sugar.
