When summer comes, I start ordering a large variety of beverages at Starbucks. I like iced Tazo tea, iced chai, and even sometimes a Frappuccino. Of course, I do like iced coffee too I wondered what is your favorite non-coffee beverage at Starbucks? There is an incredible amount of choice in drinks that don’t contain coffee. Actually, I am always a little surprised when people say to me, “I don’t go to Starbucks because I don’t drink coffee.”
This morning (May 26, 2012) I tweeted that question, wondering what kind of answers I’d get. What is your favorite non-coffee beverage? Here’s what a few people on twitter said:
- Kristina tweeted, “Chai Latte, green tea latte, and green tea lemonade.”
- Ensanguin wrote, “The frozen strawberry lemonade! Tastes just like a strawberry starburst. Soooooooo yummy!“
- Sarah Andrews, who is a very Starbucks-passionate partner in Canada, likes the black tea: “Iced Venti One Pump Classic Black Tea Lemonade! I am addicted! You?“
- Earl Dizon picked these beverages: “Probably a vanilla roibus latte or a vanilla frappuccino with hazelnut, whipped cream and chocolate drizzle.”
- Adam Gears likes a “Vanilla Bean Frappuccino with a Banana in it.” By the way, I have tried that many times and it is delicious. If you blend in some honey, it’s even better.
- Briana Saunders has her own favorite blended creation involving some tea and apple juice: “Ohhh, my fave is my own creation: passion tea, a little green tea & apple juice. Also love blended strawberry lemonade.“
- Darkkatpouncing replied, “ooh…my fav non coffee drink at sbux has to be the “sugar free” iced chai latte 🙂
#yummy!” I’ve never tried the sugar-free version of the Chai beverage, but if you’re interested, Starbucks recently posted (in their blogs) an official “how to” order a sugar free Tazo Chai beverage. - April tweeted this for her favorite beverage: “favorite noncoffee drink at Starbucks: passion tea lemonade.” That’s a great standard. I drink plenty of those in the summer! Just as an aside, April produces a blog about coffee with a strong interest in Starbucks. Click here to read April’s blog.
- Kenneth‘s favorite beverage is the “strawberry banana Vivanno smoothie.”
- Marc Flores tweeted at me, “I’m sipping on a Soya Chai Creme Frappuccino.”
- Tammy tweeted these drinks as her faves: “Sweetened iced passion fruit tea and Iced Chai Latte with soy are my afternoon choices.”
- Danny tweeted that his favorite drink is the “earl grey tea latte!“
- Amalia likes this one! “the strawberry blended lemonade with one pump of raspberry. Delish and refreshing. Or just a blended passion tea (tea,water,ice).” I don’t think I’ve ever tried just blending the passion tea, but I might have to give that a try!
- Jason has both a warm weather and a cold weather pick: “Cold weather, Earl Grey Tea Latte. Warm weather, Passion Tea Lemonade and/or smoothie (either fruit, no choc) with matcha.”
- Here is Marc‘s favorite: “Chai latté hands down, green tea lemonade if it’s really hot out, and the kid’s hot choc is a big winner with my little one.”
- David, a great partner in a store not far from me, tweeted that this is his favorite drink: “Passion Tea Lemonade no classic 3 pump Raz.”
- Gabby G. recently tried this drink and liked it: “I had an iced Earl Grey latte the other day. It was excellent! I’d like to try more of their non-Chai lattes.”
- Janie picked these drinks as her favorites: “vanilla bean with soy; shaken non-sweetened passion iced tea.”
- Krista loves the chai latte. She seems unaware that there is coffee at Starbucks. 😉 She tweeted, “Wait….they sell other beverages?? J/k, love the chai latte!“
- Janel, like so many others with great taste, is a fan of the passion tea lemonade. She tweeted, “Passion ice tea lemonade…. Nice and refreshing!“
- Here are Dee‘s favorite drinks: “I love the soy chai lattes and double chocately chip fraps 🙂“
- Sharee is a fan of the black tea lemonade. “Black ice tea with lemonade unsweetened ahhh my fav.“
- Frank likes iced tea too: “shaken iced tea lemonade sweetened trenta.”
- Si Wong has his own twist on the well-loved iced passion tea: ” iced venti unsweetened splash of strawberry at the bottom passion tea lemonade !“
- Jess has a favorite beverage that is a little bit confusing to tweet in 140 characters. Does sound delicious though! “A coconut, soy orange-mango cream frapp (made like a STCF but with the orange-mango juice instead). No classic, with coconut.” She is one awesome partner too!
- I think Passion Tea Lemonade got the most tweets. Here is Amanda‘s favorite non-coffee beverage: “Passion Tea Lemonade!“
- Casey votes for the black tea, and tweeted, “The black iced tea is the best around. I consider myself a black tea connoisseur.“
- Ms. CL tweeted this: “Raspberry lemonade.“
- Rose S. tweeted that she likes a “Venti Iced Tea Black.“
- Betina tweeted this: “Our family are big hot chocolate fans! Extra whip :).” I do like Starbucks hot chocolate! I tend to order it a little more often in the winter than summer.
- Caroline‘s favorite non-coffee drink is the “Caramel Apple Spice.” Follow Caroline on twitter for legal tweets!
- And here is what Lisa R. tweeted at me, “Nothing like Starbucks ice water w lots of ice.
#nojoke. They make good ice!#healthy Maybe an idea brewing here?!“ - Here’s Blair‘s favorite non-coffee drink: “iced grande caramel soy tazo chai tea latte.“
One of my favorite non-coffee drinks is the iced soy chai latte with about an inch (or a little less) of soy foam on top of it. It’s sort of the cocoa cappuccino version of an iced chai. I really do drink a variety of beverages but I am hooked on this one.
The partner who introduced me to the iced soy chai latte with foam was featured nearly three years ago in this blog post here! She’s is still one very awesome partner!
Thank you to the many people who replied to me on twitter. I was totally (and happily) overwhelmed with the number of replies that I got. I had lots of fun reading everyone’s favorite drink! I hope you did too – and maybe it gave you a few ideas of something new to try.
Without a doubt, if you use Twitter, I recommend that you follow everyone above!
The image of the coconut creme Frappuccino was borrowed from the Starbucks newsroom website. Did you know that when the creme-based Frappuccino was introduced into the lineup in 2002, that the coconut flavor was one of the original flavors?
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In winter (which here is about two weeks), I like the Caramel Apple Spice as a treat. The rest of the year, if I’m going non-coffee, it’s an unsweetened passion-tea lemonade (or green tea on occasion — though it was better when it had melon syrup) or a nonfat iced Chai latte.
Terrific post Melody because it shows that SB has other drinks than coffee that are great. Sure coffee is their basic drink and I sure hope they do every cup in top form and I especially know the Clover makes a great coffee, but it is nice to see that there are choices. And the iced green tea is wonderful.
This would be a huge TREAT for me but I like to get it for other people: a vanilla bean coconut frapp with whip!!!! excellent. also the green tea frapp with raspberry syrup ON TOP. they really do need to bring back the melon syrup, as so many have suggested. especially for this drink.
but for me, I need my quad doubleshot in warm weather (like the 97 that is expected today:(
Great post Melody. I now have so many new ideas. Can’t wait to try some!
iced earl grey
I’m such a slave to coffee that there is only one thing I drink at Starbucks that isn’t that amazing bean. Calm Tea with honey. And then only when I’m sick.
I am a fan of Iced Passion Tea Lemonade, no water.
I used to also like Iced Black Tea Lemonade, again no water. However since Starbucks revised the Black Tea I do not drink it anymore; I believe they took out the bergamot.
For summer, I like iced lattes or iced mochas. In winter, it’s definitely the hot chocolate!
Melody!
This was a great entry.
You have some very innovative drinkers responding
I now have so MANY new drinks to try.
Starting today!!
Sue – Come back and let us know what you liked! 🙂
@DadCooks – Sigh. It’s true. The earlier recipe of Black Tea was a little more to my liking, but I do the like the current black tea offering too.
Black Tea Lemonade sweetened with light ice is my favorite non coffee drink.
I love the green tea lattes.
Honestly, I never get anything other than a vanilla bean frap. I just don’t know what to order! I’m going to look into that frozen strawberry lemonade though. That sounds delicious.
Great topic!
I like black idea tea with strawberry sauce. Though I’ll admit I haven’t ordered it in a while since the cochineal extract scare. :p I’ll get back to it eventually.
Have been ordering peach green iced tea lately. The peach bits are fun to eat.
I’m almost always a double short long pour americano. I’d say 90% of the time. My team can tell if I’m sick, or just feeling down, because then I’ll get tea – Refresh & Calm together if I’m sick, and Earl Grey/Awake if I’m down.
If I have the time, I love to get a custom refresh iced tea, with honey instead of the classic syrup. I also have a soft spot for what I have termed my banana cream pie frappuccino – it’s a cream frappuccino with 1 pump toffenut, 1 pump white mocha, 1 banana blended in, and whip and caramel drizzle on top. Since I don’t want to put on 20 pounds over the summer, I limit this to a once or twice a month phenomenon. If I did more than that, then I’d have to exercise, and well, you know…I don’t really want to 😀
Oooh, I also like to get a blended lemonade (no strawberry) and then I put 1 pump of raspberry in the bottom and then pour the lemonade on top. Looks like a bellini 🙂 And some days, after work, it really does become a bellini, ha ha ha…
Oh, and then I also like a san pellegrino, poured into a grande cup with ice, 2 pumps of coconut, and a splash of 2% milk for a lovely French soda 🙂
But, really, I came to Starbucks for the coffee. Despite the plethora of, if I may say so, amazing non-coffee drinks, for me, it’ll always be about the coffee.
Sorry I missed this tweet!
My fav is SF vanilla soy latte… that isn’t a standard ‘coffee’ drink right??
@Leslee – I think that might count as a ‘coffee’ drink but I still do love hearing what everyone drinks! Thank you! Maybe a few more people will weigh in. 🙂
I have a few drinks, but one not necessarily coffee based…the closest I can think of is the Green Tea Latte.
Having had a regular iced chai tea I have to say I didn’t taste any difference. between
that and the sugar free version. 🙂 I used to get then all the time then stopped bcause of the sugar content
and now I can have them again in the brewed sf version! I had one on Friday and
it was super yummy! I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of it myself 🙂 So thank you for posting about it!
I get to have one of my fav drinks again 🙂
i saw these tweets, and was ‘working’ do didn’t really have the time to respond. weirdly enough, i drink iced, non-coffee drinks year round, which i’m sure you’ll agree is appropriate for me.
my go to drink is generally an iced soy chai, but i do also like the iced teas/tea lemonades, and sometimes the frappucinos (which i always manage to spell wrong, and my spell check suggests fractiousness). i especially like riki’s key lime frappucino, but i think i’ve forgotten the recipe, and i no longer work in kirkland, so that one’s not happening again unless i grab the recipe from him.
i kind of run the gamut on the non-coffee drinks, though, as coffee has an opposite effect on me as it does to most people, making me drowsy rather than perking me up. if you ever see me order a coffee drink, pay attention to the sugar content i request. that’s the only thing that keeps me awake: the sugar.
Ours is a Venti, 10-pump classic, iced black tea. Yes, it’s obscenely sweet. It’s a southern thing 😉
If I am ordering something non-coffee at Starbucks it is probably passion iced tea with no water.
i hear ya there, violet!
iM A BIG FAN OF THE POMEGRANITE TEA LEMONADE.
@TimSandor – Do you mean the iced tea called “Passion Tea” ? It’s not a pomegranate tea. Actually, it is NOT “Passion fruit tea” either – It’s just a nice herbal tea blend that Starbucks calls “Passion Tea” and you can get it as a Passion Tea Lemonade too.
THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I MEANT. THE PASSION TEA LEMONADE.
Cheers Tim! Passion tea lemonade is awesome – *clinks plastic cups of Passion Tea Lemonade.*
I always loved the vanilla latte.. well they say that everybody loves vanilla, right?
Thanks for mentioning my tweet to you. After sending that, I remembered how much I used to love Chantico drinking chocolate. I miss that stuff. They should look into bringing it back.
Kind of surprising not to find too much chocolate in the answers. But for me, other than coffee, I have to go for the mango passion frappuccino. So refreshing… =)
@Kara86ster – I wish we had that here. A Mango Passion Frappuccino sounds really good!
I LOVE a hot passion tea made with 1/2 hot water and 1/2 steam apple juice. Sounds weird but a little cinnamon on top totally makes this drink for me!
Chiming in late here, but my fav non-coffee bev is probably a 1 pump mocha, soy, no protein, two banana, add vanilla bean chocolate smoothie in a venti cup. It’s what I get when I forget to bring my lunch and don’t want a panini. Am I the only one who misses the market salad?
One of my favorite non coffee drinks is the Caramel Frapuccino! Yumm