Starbucks adds blended energy drinks to boost afternoon sales

Starbucks added Blended Energy Refreshers to its summer lineup on July 14, giving stores another frozen drink set that is likely to push more traffic to cold bar during peak afternoon hours. The limited-time drinks mix fruit flavors with a smooth frozen texture, but for partners the bigger shift is operational: more blending, more customization, and more chances for tickets to stack when stores are already busy.

The new lineup includes a Blended Passionfruit Guava Lemonade Energy Refresher, a Blended Pink Energy Drink inspired by the Pink Drink, a Blended Mango Strawberry Lemonade Energy Refresher, a Blended Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade Energy Refresher, and a Blended Matcha Lemonade. Customers can tailor the drinks with lemonade or coconutmilk and choose light caffeine, a boosted Energy Refresher version, or no caffeine at all. A grande can contain up to 105 milligrams of caffeine, and Starbucks says the drinks use real fruit pieces.

The launch lands as Starbucks keeps leaning into the afternoon daypart, where the company says midday and afternoon sales after 11 a.m. generate $11 billion. Starbucks has also said traffic is rising after 2 p.m., with the biggest gains between 3 and 5 p.m., which is exactly when cold bar can get crowded and sequencing gets harder. For shift supervisors and store managers, that means the blend bar may become a bottleneck sooner than the register line does, especially if mobile orders and in-café drink builds hit at the same time.

The company’s menu strategy has been moving toward fruit-forward, highly customizable drinks. Starbucks said more than 60% of new beverages introduced since late 2024 have featured a fruit flavor, and cold foam now accounts for roughly one-third of beverage customizations. That mix helps explain why the chain keeps adding drinks that are built to be modified, even when the extra steps add strain behind the bar.

The blended rollout also follows a broader summer push that began May 12 with the Tropical Butterfly Refresher, horchata-inspired drinks, and the return of the S’mores Frappuccino. Starbucks said that beverage came back after six years, driven by demand from customers and baristas, and gave Starbucks Rewards members early access on June 30 before the July 1 nationwide launch. Together, the staggered drops show a company trying to stretch traffic across the season while asking stores to absorb more complex drinks on the floor.