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Best Iced and Cold Starbucks Drinks
A list of the best iced, cold, and frozen drinks available at Starbucks.
Published January 20, 2022
Johan Hedlund
Coffee experts@The Coffee Lab
Iced Starbucks drinks are something that lots of us look forward to in the summer, but it doesn’t have to be a certain season to enjoy these cold and refreshing brews. On the Starbucks menu, there are so many different iced coffee options, cold brew coffees, frozen coffee drinks and iced teas to choose from that it can be difficult to know where you should start when it comes to choosing the right one for you. So, we’ve put together a list of some of the most popular iced, frozen and cold drinks that are available to choose from to help you pick the best iced coffee at Starbucks. They’re all included on the standard menu so you should be able to walk into any Starbucks and simply order whichever one you want.
Chocolate Cookie Crumble Crème Frappucino
Milk and cookies is always a firm favorite and even better is blending them together to make a tasty Frappucino. These are one of the best Starbucks drinks iced and they are popular with everyone. This drink is made with a combination of mocha sauce and chocolate chips that are blended together with milk, cream base and ice. The drink is then topped with a crumbly cookie topping, chocolate chips and more mocha drizzle on the top. If you have a sweet tooth and love chocolate, you’re sure to enjoy this one.
Caramel Frappuccino
The coffee in this drink comes from the instant Frappuccino Roast or coffee base that Starbucks uses, and you can get an additional caffeine boost if you like by asking for a shot of espresso to be added. It’s made by blending caramel syrup with coffee, ice and milk and then topped with a sweet, buttery caramel sauce and whipped cream on top for a delightfully sweet, refreshing drink. If a caramel macchiato is one of your favorite hot drinks to ask for, then this is a great option to try if you want a cold alternative.
Strawberry Crème Frappucino
This is a blended iced drink from Starbucks that has been on the menu for a very long time, which must only mean one thing – it’s a hugely popular Starbucks drink iced option. Made with a cream base, strawberry sauce, ice, and milk that are blended together, the drink is topped with a delicious vanilla whipped cream, which adds a subtle sweet flavor that brings the entire drink together.
Iced Mocha
Chocolate and coffee makes for a wonderful combination, and if you are looking for a sweet iced coffee to enjoy on a hot day, then you can’t go wrong with the iced mocha from Starbucks. One of the nicest Starbucks cold espresso drinks, it’s made with Dutch-processed cocoa, and removes some of the bitterness that you’d expect from raw cocoa which makes this drink taste even more chocolatey.
Iced Cinnamon Dolce Latte
If you love the taste of cinnamon and coffee together, then you need to try this iced latte flavor from the Starbucks iced coffee menu. Dolce, or Italian for ‘sweet’, means that you get a really sweet cinnamon taste with this drink, making it perfectly refreshing for summer. It’s made with espresso, milk, and a cinnamon flavored sugar syrup along with cinnamon sugar sprinkles to top it off.
Salted Caramel Cream Nitro Cold Brew
If you haven’t tried a Nitro cold brew yet, then it’s definitely one of the best Starbucks iced coffee drinks to try if your local Starbucks offers the option. Unlike regular cold brew, Nitro cold brew is served through a tap that is similar to a beer tap, which results in cascading foam rolling up the coffee for a really cool aesthetic. With added caramel syrup and vanilla cream, this is a really sweet, refreshing coffee drink that packs a huge amount of caffeine.
Pink Drink
One of the most popular offerings at Starbucks, the Pink Drink will definitely taste like summer. Made with delicious strawberries and acai berries, it’s a refreshing, fruity option that you really can’t go wrong with on a warm day. Since the strawberry-acai flavoring that this refresher uses has some green coffee in it, you can expect a little bit of caffeine – about half as much as is in an espresso.
Star Drink
Another fruity cold refresher drink from Starbucks that is perfect for summer is the Star Drink, made with a combination of starfruit, kiwi, and coconut milk. It’s a delicious tropical blend that just hits the spot on a hot day, and the real kiwi pieces that are added to the drink make it even more enjoyable.
Iced Guava Passionfruit Drink
If you love iced drinks from Starbucks made with coconut milk, another tasty option to try is the Iced Guava Passionfruit Drink. It’s a creamy, delicious ,and tropical drink made with guava, passionfruit, and a subtle taste of ginger. Starbucks use a pineapple flavored syrup as a base to make this caffeine-free drink, adding even more tropical and fruity flavors.
Iced London Fog Tea Latte
Tea lattes are a delicious and delicate type of drink made with a teabag, steamed milk, and in the case of this drink, a lot of vanilla syrup that helps to flatten all the flavors and result in a sweet, milky drink. It’s made with black tea with lavender and bergamot, both of which are very flavorful and aromatic, cutting through all that vanilla sugar syrup perfectly. If you’re looking for an iced drink from Starbucks that’s a little classier than their other options, this could be the perfect one for you.
Iced Honey Almond Milk Flat White
While honey in coffee might not be your first choice of flavor, you might be surprised to find out just how nice it is. In Spanish, it’s known as café con Miele, and it adds a special kind of sweetness to the coffee that brings out a lot of the best flavors. While traditionally, a flat white is the smallest kind of espresso and milk drink that you can get, this Starbucks cold coffee is available in larger sizes and is made with ristretto, rather than espresso shots. A ristretto is half the volume of a regular espresso and is poured in half the time, which gives it a bolder, fuller, and sweeter flavor that works perfectly with honey.
Iced Guava Black Tea Lemonade
For a tangy and refreshing drink from Starbucks then the black tea lemonade drinks are the perfect option. With just 40mg of caffeine, this is made with a small amount of tea. Despite being lemonade, it’s not as fizzy as you would expect, but the lemon flavor is extremely refreshing, making it one of the best summer drink choices on offer. It’s sweetened with liquid cane sugar, which has a slightly different taste, but goes really well with the tea and lemon.
Cold Brew Coffee
If regular coffee is more your thing, then you can’t go wrong with cold brew coffee from Starbucks in the summer as one of the best Starbucks drinks to try iced. You can customize your cold brew by asking for a flavor syrup of your choice to be added and leave some room for milk.
Starbucks Iced Decaf Drinks
How to order iced coffee at Starbucks in decaf? If you are trying to cut down on caffeine or want to get a cold drink from Starbucks that you can enjoy on a summer evening without being kept up all night, then you’ll be glad to hear that there are lots of different decaf options to enjoy. In fact, any caffeinated iced drink that you can get from Starbucks will usually have a decaf option. However, contrary to popular belief, there is still a little bit of caffeine included in decaf coffee, so if you want something that is completely caffeine free, you might want to try something like a Pink Drink or Star Drink, or go for an iced herbal tea that is naturally free from caffeine.
Quick Health Facts About Starbucks Cold Drinks
Now that you’ve got a list of great iced, cold, and blended drinks to order next time you want something refreshing from Starbucks, here are some quick facts to keep in mind.
- Starbucks size options can be a little bit confusing. Tall is the smallest option, Grande is a medium-size, Venti is a large, and Trenta is extra-large. Going for a smaller cup size means you can avoid added sugar, fat, and calories with some of the creamier and more sugary drinks.
- Many of the hot and cold drinks available at Starbucks are made using sweet syrups that will add calories and sugar to your drink. However, you can usually ask for a sugar-free alternative if you are health-conscious for healthier iced coffee ideas from Starbucks.
- Most milk-based iced drinks from Starbucks are made with whole milk. You can ask for this to be changed to non-dairy, skim, or 1% milk.
Whether they’re your go-to for the summer or something you like to drink all year round, Starbucks offers a huge range of tasty cold and iced drinks to try.
About the author
Johan Hedlund
I´m living in Karlstad, Sweden with my family. Been working the last 25 years with several start ups in the tech industry. Coffee has been an integral part, both professionally and privately. Eager to learn new things and happy to be a member of the era of we community.
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