If you’re in a sun belt state, you might notice that as of March 4, 2014, you have Starbucks sweet tea available to you. Last fall, Starbucks tested their cane sugar sweetened Sweet Tea in a limited number of places, such as North Carolina. It’s now a regional product offered in numerous cities in warmer climates such as Atlanta, Austin, and other sun belt locations. The official Starbucks menu item page for the Sweet Tea is here.
Real cane sugar is added to the black tea as its brewing. There are no pumps of classic syrup added later, as is the case with how Starbucks has traditionally sweetened their iced teas. Because the sugar is added while brewing, the Sweet Tea is available as a black tea only. From what I hear, this has been very popular in the southern areas. I haven’t tried this item because it hasn’t made its way to Seattle. Somehow I see Sweet Tea as more of a regional product offering. I suppose it could be launched nationally but I would assume that there are certain regions where it would sell the best.
A big thank you to the reader in Austin, Texas who emailed me this photo of the large banner sign.
If you like reading about Starbucks test items, scroll through this category of articles here.
This is an open thread. Talk about anything Starbucks related.
(PS: As a few readers know, I’ve written a book about Starbucks. Tales of the Siren: A StarbucksMelody. It’s a relatively short book, coming in at about 44,000 words. All the main sections of the book are done but I’m going through and carefully editing. I got some help from a professional editor who suggested both a few developmental changes as well as numerous grammar, typo, and tense changes. It goes without saying, but writing a decent book takes a heck of a lot of work. I realize that’s obvious. I’m getting there. There are still a number of steps involved in this project. I hope that in the next month or two, I’ll have a great book available for sale at Amazon.com. It includes many stories that never made it into the blog. If I seem to slow down on updating this blog, I apologize. Finding the time for the blog and the book is a bit of a challenge. I wanted to apologize in advance if articles slow down on this site. Nonetheless, I hope you’ll tell your friends about StarbucksMelody.com and check back regularly. Thank you.)
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We have the new sweet tea here in the Dallas metroplex. I love it. I’m from TN originally and we only drink sweet tea, none of this “iced tea” business! My hubby is a kind of sweet tea connoisseur and he too thinks it is delicious.
Unfortunately, the promo material for this item is secondary to the macchiato platform and hasn’t attracted a lot of attention. It will only get further pushed back because the metroplex (finally!) launches LaBoulange on the 18th and the signage will reflect that change. So, unless you have a barista suggest you try it or you actually read the menu and discover this new tea (which just looks like the old teas description-wise) I don’t really see this taking off until summer time. (And we all know what’s been hinted at for summer promo so it might still not gain the momentum.)
The only people I’ve seen order the new are myself and a fellow partner who just happens to be from North Carolina. It’s kind of a cross between Raising Cane’s (chicken chain) and McD’s.
Brilliant in my opinion. From what little I know about tea, this is how all my southern friends say it’s done. People will pay up for things that are real…and this includes sugar.
claire, is the sweet tea a core tea, or is it seasonal?
Have you heard anything about the new Seattle store on Aurora at 83rd? It’s just down the street from my house. I thought they might do the shipping container style like in Ballard but now I see they have a pretty standard steel framing up. It might be the most dangerous thing to move so close to me in forever.
Hi Sera! I’ve heard of that store going in, and I’ve been meaning to drop by and see what’s there. It’s amazing how many Starbucks there are in Seattle! But that location is one where there isn’t another Starbucks around, so maybe it’s perfect. I have to assume it will be a drive thru. Thank you for the heads up. And I visited your blog too.
Aw, thanks for checking out my blog. Yes! There has been a starbucks dry spot between 135th (?) and downtown for ages which seems impossible. And contrary to popular belief, the licensed concept stores in grocery stores do not fill that role. And those breakfast sandwiches are a bit too important in my life so hitting that new starbucks on my way to work may be too hard to resist!
Sweet tea doesn’t apply to me but I know it definitely belongs in the south! All my visits to my grandparents as a child were all days of sweet (SWEET) tea.
and, very excited @Melody, for your book to come out!
It is really a great sweet tea. Like the sign, we didnt get something cool like that.
Got a great tip from a barista in Atlanta when I asked about the new Shaken Sweet Tea recently (this is Georgia, so of course we have sweet tea here): try it with half sweet tea, half lemonade – an Arnold Palmer at Starbucks! I loved it.
Does anyone know the recipe? I’d love to try making it at my store
I was born and raised in Alabama, where “tea” means “iced sweet tea.” Everyone in the south knows you cannot just add sugar to unsweetened iced tea! I’ve been in central Florida now for almost 10 years, where my sweet tea is largely limited to McD’s or Chick-fil-a. I tried the Starbucks sweet tea yesterday. Wow! Exactly like my mama used to make! This is definitely my new favorite sweet tea. And for Disney fans, an even bigger bonus. Sweet tea was previously nonexistent on WDW property (Nestea from concentrate does not count!). Now we can get our tea at the in-park Starbucks.
I have tasted this before at Starbucks but it’s been a while. It may have been somthing different – I know these comments are about tea but I wanted to say a HUGE CONGRATS ON YOUR BOOK! I teared up a little bit when you said it will be out in 1-2 months I’m OVERLY exited and I’m diying to read it. If you could please post a blog article when your book is avali. I look forward to reading it (as I mentioned) and hopefully doing a review for my blog.
-Back2Starbucks
-George
Although I’m from the south, sweet tea isn’t something I regularly drink. However, I’ll give it a try when it warms up just to see if it tastes like the real thing. 😉
Congrats on the book, Melody! I’m curled up with a cup of coffee and a book now (a Sunday ritual) and I look forward to one day reading yours!
We have had the sweet tea for months and I love it. I get it even more during the summer and it tastes authentic and I hope they keep it on the menu.
I used my 20% off coupon to buy home coffees this week and bought a bag of Komodo Dragon blend which is my favorite but I would LOVE it if they would come out with the K cups version. Any input on this happening any time in the future?
Nice to hear that the sweet tea is a hit! Maybe they’ll do a test run up here in the north sometime?
Does anyone know why Starbucks is now promoting their bagged beans at the Starbucks stores? Two weeks in a row I got codes to save 20% off on bagged beans.
@IzzyJ – Good question. The coffee lineup is changing very slightly: there will be a seasonal Colombia coffee next month.The usual answer would be something like Starbucks wants to make room for other coffees, whether seasonal or not, but I don’t see any huge change coming to the Starbucks coffee lineup. Just adding one new whole bean, unless I’ve totally missed something…
I love sweet tea, but living in Northern California, I kind of doubt it will make it here. Darn. But glad to hear it sounds like a quality product; I’m sure it will be ultimately quite popular in its local markets!
Best of luck with the book @Melody!
@CD – Thank you. I need a few words of encouragement here and there. 🙂
I would be very interesting depending on the ingredients. I stopped getting the syrups because of the ingredients. Cane Sugar = non GMO & that makes me happy
as a southerner, I just say YESPLEASE. ‘Iced tea’ is not a drink I would ever pay for- ‘sweet tea’ is a completely different product and oh so delicious. But you already knew my feelings on this issue 🙂
The picture looks like my old store! 🙂
So, I decided to go ahead and give the sweet tea a try and boy is it sweet! A little too much for my liking, but I know it all be a hit in the southern states for sure. Actually, as someone mentioned previously, it would be delicious mixed with lemonade…I’ll try that next.
Congratulations on finishing your book, Melody! Will have to remember to click on the amazon limk here to buy it when it’s available.
Hope it’s the first of many! 😉
Oops, *link.
The online store lists a “new” Brasil Blend coffee (8.8 oz.), exclusive to the store and Brasil. You wrote about it a few years back. I like the package art – it’s more colorful, like the Puerto Rico or Muan Jai coffees. I buy way too much coffee, more than I can consume, but might have to try it, plus I’m a sucker for packaging.
@jocelyn and company:
Good news! I had to go back and research if it was a core item and it is! It explained which regions this applies to in an action item. In lay terms, Florida, Sunbelt, and the majority of the Southeast gets it as a core. Look for it in your store with the purple lids!
Also, my store just switched over to Teavana iced teas! Haven’t had the new passion tango yet because I’m so in love with the Shaken Sweet Tea!
I am from NC originally and live on Sweet Tea. The problem with the SBUX sweet tea is that is a bit too sweet. After a bit of world and US travels, my SO currently works for SBux and I did until this January. We were both with the company during the test market phase.
@Kristin, we figured out that if you mix half sweet tea and half plain black tea then it is near perfect. Sweet, but not overly sweet.
@Kei Sakura Thanks, that’s a good idea! I’ll try that combo the next time I order the sweet tea.
First of all, Congrats on the book, Melody.
I would like to try the sweet tea. It looks great.
This sweet tea sounds great, but do you know if it’s available in Western Washington yet? Or when it will be? I’m dying to try it. (:
I need the at home recipe. We currently live in NC and I am hooked on this sweet tea. But we are moving to Anchorage Alaska in 2 months and I will miss it!
How does this work with the Teavana tea? I’ve always gotten the Shaken Black Tea Lemonade with 2 pumps simple syrup but lately it tastes like there’s artificial sweetener in it. Is this because they exclusively use Teavana black tea? No one at my Starbucks could answer this.
@Laurie – Hi! Thank you for the comment. The standard sweetener at Starbucks is a classic syrup, which is indeed a basic sugar water. The black tea itself did change to a Teavana brand black tea, but I can’t even taste the difference. The classic syrup has not changed.
The Starbucks “Sweet Tea” uses actual cane sugar, but it’s a regional product only. If you ask your local barista about the “Sweet Tea” they might be very confused, unless they happen to be in a sun belt state where it’s offered, or happen to read web sites like this one.
Hope that helps.
I live in Fl and have been addicted to the Shaken sweet tea, but they just discontinued it. 🙁 I’m devastated because it was my daily ‘fix’. I don’t drink coffee. So I am trying to figure out which tea it is they used for it? Also, adding the cane sugar during brewing…maybe it’s my processing but how does the sugar affect the tea bags as they are brewing?
I’m in Georgia, and they just discontinued the shaken sweet tea here too!! I’m so disappointed, I loved this drink sooo much. Anyone have a recipe to try?? Anyone work at a southern Starbucks that’s made this before?? I seriously hope they bring it back in the spring!