Starbucks has added more tropical fruit flavors to its menu this year, sparking excitement over the new vibrant colors and refreshing flavors.
This season’s newest rollout is the Tropical Butterfly Refresher, combining butterfly pea flowers with tropical fruit flavors and popping boba to create a layered purple-to-orange ombre effect. The new tropical color theme has made the menu seem more summery and aesthetic, according to Maithili Rai, a freshman at Carlmont High School.
“My first impression from seeing it online is that it looks really colorful and made for summer,” Rai said. “This year’s menu feels more creative and trendy because Starbucks is adding more limited-time flavors and drinks that look good in pictures.”
Starbucks has followed seasonal and social media trends to increase public approval and draw in more customers.
However, the new drinks they created are not very different from previous menu changes, according to Aurelia Tsuboi, a Starbucks employee who has experienced two summer menu changes since she began working with them a year ago.
“Some seasonal changes in the menu that we’ve seen are just the same kind of drinks. It’s just added cold foams or added modifications to current drinks that we have, or adding more sprinkles, or trying to fit the theme of the season,” Tsuboi said.
The 2026 summer menu includes two repeat items: the Horchata Frappuccino and the Iced Horchata Shaken Espresso. They have also reintroduced the Unicorn Cake Pop.
This menu also features a variety of new items, including the Tropical Butterfly Lemonade Refresher, with guava and passionfruit flavors and topped with mango pineapple popping boba. In addition, they added the Butterfly Drink, which includes coconut milk, and introduced the Mango Strawberry Lemonade Refresher earlier this year.
According to Tsuboi, the Tropical Butterfly Lemonade Refresher is the first refresher to include popping boba since last summer’s variation.
“It’s one of our first drinks that is welcoming the boba back ever since the summer berry from last year. So a lot of the kids have been enjoying the boba part,” Tsuboi said. “A very popular one was the summer berry refresher. It’s like a blue raspberry with raspberry pearls. A lot of people have been asking if that was going to come back because it was a very well-liked drink.”
Although the menu looks different, Starbucks stated that they are prioritizing a simpler menu that focuses on the execution of its more popular items. Tsuboi disagrees with this statement and believes that the Starbucks menu has only become more complex.
“Starbucks has been saying they want to simplify the menu, but personally, I think they’re kind of complicating the menu. I think last year’s was definitely easier because this year, for example, to make the butterfly tropical drink, we have to do three different bases and then have another base on top, and then have the boba, and then still add the caffeine since we removed caffeine from refreshers,” Tsuboi said.
However, changing the menu can be a good way to add variety, according to Roman Starace, a junior at Carlmont High School.
“I feel like it’s good that they’re switching it up. I feel like it’s kind of had a lot of the same things for a while,” Starace said.
Diversifying the menu is primarily done to entice crowds, but that isn’t the only way Starbucks attracts customers. According to Rai, another effective way that they do this is through collaborations, such as the Miffy and Hello Kitty collections.
“I think the collabs and limited-time items definitely make people want to visit more because nobody wants to miss out,” Rai said. “If I see a drink all over TikTok or Instagram and people say it’s amazing, I’m way more likely to want to try it too.”
The flavors still make customers want to come back again and again. Starace said he likes to try new drinks at least once.
“When they come out with the new ones, as long as they’re actually good, then I appreciate that. It definitely keeps me coming more this year,” Starace said.
Employees have also seen the benefits of these menu additions and collaborations to Starbucks’ success. According to Tsuboi, when new items or collaborations are introduced at Starbucks, store traffic increases exponentially.
“On the very first days of launch, our lines are out the door, and it’s crazy. And we have like twenty cold drinks and everything,” Tsuboi said.
But not everyone enjoys the new drinks, as marketing makes them appear better than they actually taste. Starace said that last year’s summer menu did not meet their expectations.
“I remember not liking them,” Starace said. “The popping boba was just way too sweet for me. It kind of tasted too artificial. And then the other one had a weird texture to it, and it just wasn’t all that pleasant.”
Nevertheless, customers are attracted to the new tropical flavors and colorful boba, and a new menu is set to launch soon.
“We are going to drop another menu pretty soon, I think mid-June, with more summer drinks,” Tsuboi said.
