Café Cool: New Starbucks Refreshers!!!

Starbucks has, this week, introduced a fruity, refreshing alternative to iced tea and traditional iced coffee.  These beverages use extracts of fruits and green coffee instead of tea or milk base.  This is the very first I've heard of such a concept. As a lover of brewed coffee iced or otherwise, as well as cool fruity drinks on a hot day, I was intrigued.  However, before I made a trip to my local Starbucks, I checked out their website.  According to what I found, they come in cool lime & berry hibiscus flavors.  It did not take much to pursuade me to stop in & give them a taste. However, one of the big questions I had was "How you make Green Coffee Extract"?  Well here is the answer:


Per their website:

For those of you who are curious, this new take on coffee is made through an innovative process. We start with high-quality, green coffee beans. We soak the beans in water and pull out the caffeine and other good stuff. Then we dry the whole concoction down to create the concentrated essence and goodness of green coffee. That's Green Coffee Extract. No roasting. None of the steps that coffee beans typically take on their way to roasty perfection. So the end result is a natural source of energy which has no traditional coffee flavor.

It seems like Starbucks has done for coffee what green tea extract did for tea.  Although I will always prefer my bold, dark, spicy, robust roasted coffee, I had an open enough mind to try the two flavours they are blending in the stores.  So here are my takes:

Cool lime: Mildly sweet & sour, limeade flavour with a little kick of energy from green coffee.  The former bartender in me wanted to add a little rum, tequila or vodka to this. 

Grade: A

Very Berry Hibiscus: Sweet, reminds me a little of passion tea with a hint of pomegranate. Has a slight sour twang.  The former bartender in me wanted to add rum, Southern Comfort™ or Cointreau™ to this.  
Grade: B+ 

I'm glad to see Starbucks trying other angles besides traditional coffee beverages as well or teas. More variety is always a good thing!  And FYI:  these two flavours are available as instant Via™ for you to mix and shake in your water on your own.  They also have  Strawberry Lemonade, Raspberry pommegranate and an Orange Melon sparkling (carbonate) flavours sold in cans.  Try them in your local Starbucks now!

Drink up Happily, y'all!

早安你们!