So, I am back to complete my second review of the latter part of the Refreshers range at Starbucks! Having an extra 15 minutes before work, I grabbed one of these to-go one morning. It was a hot day, so I thought I’d go for a lovely alternative to coffee. I was expecting a refreshing, citrusy lime drink to start my morning, with green coffee to give a small caffeine boost. Expectations were not delivered, to say the least. 

Today, Starbucks told me that they had run out of limes, but not to worry, they said. They were more for decoration, apparently, as the flavour was in the mix itself. The employee was kind enough to charge me the price of a tall to make up for the lack of lime, a lovely gesture. Until I tasted it!

First I got a massive hit of mint. Mint tastic. At least this was a reasonably pleasant flavour, if not a little overpowering. The second flavour I noticed was very peculiar. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was - stale water? Synthetic flavour? There was something absolutely horrible lurking there. I tried it a couple of times more to give it a chance. No, same problem. After letting it settle a bit on my taste buds, I found I was tasting a particularly cheap-feeling artificial flavour. Not limey whatsoever, more something that you’d expect from a kid’s fruit flavoured juice drink or something, but watered down. Yuck. This drink lacked the beautiful freshness that the other had, and this one was meant to have lime in it! 

To summarise? Not a pleasant drink at all. I don’t know if I can bring myself to try it again. I took the receipt, returned and got a refund on the drink many hours later as it ended up just sitting there getting warm in the back of my shop while I loaded up on delicious tap water. At least they showed good, courteous customer service there, so props to Starbucks for that. 

Feeling hot? Go with the berry hibiscus or a frappucino. This really wasn’t worth the money to be honest.