Review: New Refreshers Are Hit Or Miss While Valentine Offerings Shine At Starbucks

Unexpected gestures are common in February. Nobody wants to get branded as a romantic ignoramus by their love interest on the 14th, obviously. But surprises aren't usually drinkable, not unless you're celebrating Valentine's Day by imbibing blindfolded, which is possible, but zanier than the way everyone else tends to do it. The easier way to drink the unexpected is to head down to Starbucks to try its February limited-time offerings.

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Of course, you don't have to wait till Valentine's Day to enjoy the February drinks at Starbucks this year, but it certainly helps to have an excuse for indulgence. Perhaps for that reason, lighter flavors await in the non-Valentine LTOs: a fruit and herb combination of blackberry and sage is featured in this season's round of Starbucks Refreshers for those of us just looking for some hygge amid the dog days of winter — or are those cat days, since we stay inside sleeping and staying warm?

A very friendly team of baristas crafted all five drinks for me, with great care and attention, and having tried each in full, I'm warning you, lover: You had better pick carefully and be prepared for a surprise; all three of the Refreshers arrive in quite a different taste profile than you'd expect, even knowing what's in them. If you can't roll with unpredictability, stick to the Valentine orders.

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Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

What are the Starbucks seasonal drinks for February 2025?

The driving taste for the three new Starbucks Refreshers is blackberry and sage, but depending on your preferences, they get shaken up with different base liquids. The Blackberry Sage Refresher is strictly water, for the lightest rehydration, while the same flavors play off of tartness once the Blackberry Sage Lemonade Refresher dubs in ... one guess. And then there's the Midnight Drink, which uses coconut milk.

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The two drinks oriented specifically for Valentine's Day are the Chocolate Hazelnut Cookie Cold Brew and the Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Crème Frappuccino, both sweet and chocolatey, though one bends toward nuts, with the other bowing heavy with fruit. Indulgence is the word in either case.

And if you want to go a little bit beyond the Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Crème Frappuccino, you can order the configuration recommended at the Starbucks where I tried these new drinks. There, the team devised its own vanilla-fied twist of the strawberry crème Frappuccino with vanilla sweet cream and vanilla bean powder, white mocha and frap chips, topped with mocha drizzle, strawberry puree, and, if you want to go full grand Guignol, an optional final step of a Valentine cake pop. I didn't have room or budget to try it after downing five drinks, but unofficial Starbucks drink hacks have served me well.

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Starbucks's February 2025 seasonal beverages price and availability

Prices vary depending what market you're ordering in, but the Blackberry Sage Refresher should run you between $5.25 and $5.95. The Blackberry Sage Lemonade Refresher is a tad pricier at $5.75 to $6.45 and worth the mild price bump to upgrade. The Midnight Drink is also $5.75 to $6.45 since it uses coconut milk.

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According to Starbucks, a grande Chocolate Hazelnut Cookie Cold Brew should set you back between $5.25 and $5.95 in U.S. locations. Meanwhile, a grande Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Crème Frappuccino runs from $5.95 to $6.95.

These beverages will be in the nationwide Starbucks ordering system starting February 4. They won't vanish precisely with Valentine's Day, of course — they are here while supplies last.

Nutritional information

The water-based Blackberry Sage Refresher is simple and straightforward at 100 calories, with no fat, 1 gram of sugar, 23 grams of carbohydrates, and 20 grams of sugar. It has 55 milligrams of caffeine, and thanks to the blackberries, it has approximately 2 grams of dietary fiber. The Blackberry Sage Lemonade Refresher has a nearly identical nutritional profile, but owing to the lemonade used, it increases to 150 calories and 35 grams of carbs with 32 grams of sugar.

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The Midnight Drink varies a little more, thanks to its use of coconut milk. Its 140 calories contain 25 calories from the 3 grams of fat (mostly from 2.5 grams of saturated fat), and its 28 grams of carbohydrates are comprised mainly of 24 grams of sugar.

At press time, nutritional information for the two Valentine drinks is unknown, but given their sweetness and the use of cold foam, whipped cream, and chocolate, you can probably expect them to be more calorie-dense than the Refreshers, with more fat and protein ... quite possibly carbs as well.

Taste test: Starbucks Blackberry Sage Refresher

I'm sorry to say the first drink I tried was the worst drink I tried, and it's hard to imagine paying for it. While blackberry and sage are a solid combination, the Starbucks Blackberry Sage Refresher tastes strictly saccharine, or more accurately, artificially sweet — without knowing what sweeteners are used, it's hard to place why, but I spent the height of a venti with the sensation that I was consuming a berry lollipop or chewing gum rather than the real deal in flavor, despite the presence of real berries. Starbucks describes this as "flavors of sweet blackberries" in its press release, though it's unclear how much this is distinct from the dried blackberries blended into the final product.

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The green tea extract could even be part of why it achieves this strangely chemical taste with perfectly natural ingredients, but whatever the answer, the Blackberry Sage Refresher with water is a miss for me, and I wish you good luck if you try it anyway. It's just too much the shape of fruitiness and none of the color, before collapsing into wateriness. I'll get my unplaceable fruit flavors the old-fashioned way: by trying to stuff an entire pouch of Big League Chew bubble gum in my mouth at once.

Taste test: Starbucks Blackberry Sage Lemonade Refresher

What a difference a small change makes. Everything I've read says that this is identical to the first refresher, but with lemonade subbed in. It hits so much better. The tartness of the lemonade plays off against the sweetness and makes the drink full-bodied. If you're aiming for lower calories, then I suppose you could get the water-based edition, but you're better off skipping it entirely for the price of its strange taste.

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If, however you, like that flavor and/or just crave blackberry, commit to getting what you pay for and hire the lemonade as the professional driver of this blackberry sage vehicle. Although really, the lemonade takes over, and the blackberry is a fruity accent that stands out better than it had previously. It's a little funny, but to truly step into its blackberry flavor, it has to yield the main stage to lemonade.

With the tartness, it's almost like a shrub. Speaking to the baristas who had tried the refreshers, they all agreed it was their favorite as well. So that's the unanimous recommendation unless you're really into coconut.

Taste test: Starbucks Midnight Drink

Funny enough, despite its name, the Midnight Drink is visually the lightest of the three. It has a creaminess from the coconut and an appealing cloudiness. But again, we've got a surprise here. The fat lends less full-bodied flavor than you might expect, doing more to cut through the fruit.

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After consuming the Midnight Drink, my reaction was less like a cozy hug in the dark days of February and much more like it's like an entire summer day in one drink. All of these Refreshers are warm-weather flavors found in late spring and summer and generally lighter than their counterparts. But if you're after that berries and cream flavor, you'll get most of it here, albeit not as satisfying as we'll see it in the Frappuccino below. That's odd, considering both real berries and a very fatty milk are used in this drink. But even coconut has its limits.

As integrated as it is, this drink is not terrifically striking, and it gets more watery the deeper you drink it. If its final sips aren't disappointing, they're certainly ending the beverage at its weakest, no matter how fast you drink it. That's just how buoyancy works! It's not bad design, but it is an unavoidable belly flop that helps the lemonade variety cinch the gold for these Refreshers.

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Taste test: Starbucks Chocolate Hazelnut Cookie Cold Brew

I don't think I've ever had a drink so in need of a lid. Without one, it's more than a bit of a drinking challenge. With a straw, you're only pulling in coffee, whereas sipping it to blend the cold brew with the beverage earns you an inescapable mouthful of ice. So definitely skip the straw and sip it through a lid opening, so its tiny window filters out the ice, letting that vanilla syrup even stand out a smidge.

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Once you do that, as always, the Starbucks cold foam is a standard setter for grocery-store brands, and at its best it's teaming up with the coffee in a single swig. The chocolate hazelnut pairing plays right into the cookie crumbs. Even so, I don't know if this hits to the same degree as other cold foam drinks we've recently tried from Starbucks. It's satisfying, but it wouldn't be the very first one I'd order if given a choice of Starbucks foam flavors. It's absolutely worth trying but ... man, have you had that brown butter pistachio cold brew on the winter menu? Now that's how you woo me this Valentine's Day.

Taste test: Starbucks Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Crème Frappuccino

Oh hey, wow. Yup. That is what a chocolate strawberry tastes like, with a little bit of strawberries and cream to boot. After those first two flavor impressions the actual chocolate bits throughout feel extraneous, although let's be realistic. You're not turning down chocolate bits mixed into your strawberry shake.

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It's maybe a little unfair to pit powerhouse flavors like chocolate and strawberry with cream against the deliberately lighter Refresher drinks offering a subtler touch in blackberry and sage, but I really do think it could have been neck and neck had the blackberry come across more natural. Instead, its champion is the somehow even more summery lemonade edition, leaving the end zone wide open for the Frap to run it in.

And boy howdy, does it. You will most definitely need a straw to drink this, and I recommend eventually stirring the admirably thick whipped cream up with the near-dregs of the drink. Till then, the smooth frappe of the ice is really well integrated, and if you bring me this as a surprise on Valentine's Day, you can take me home.

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Final thoughts: Starbucks seasonal drinks for winter 2025

It's all about the Valentine's drinks. If you're going to bother making Starbucks a V-Day stop, take your indulgence with the Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Crème Frappuccino, which probably counts as dessert if not dinner itself. That Chocolate Hazelnut Cookie Cold Brew is no slouch either, but it's not make-out material.

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On the Refreshers side, this is easily the weakest flavor of Refreshers I've encountered, and to be honest, nothing about the flavor combination feels particularly February- or Valentine-themed, beyond the pink hues in the drinks. Yes, berries and cream are a sexy and romantic indulgence, particularly in winter, but the lemonade, which is the strongest spin on these drinks, is as summery as the blackberries within it. And if summer's your idea of refreshment, you're better off crossing your fingers and praying for the return of the Spicy Summer Refreshers to do it better. Better yet, you could wait for the return of the customer favorite lavender drinks in spring 2025. While the Blackberry Sage Lemonade Refresher ain't bad, you can do it better for a few dollars more by finding a mixologist to make you a cocktail or mocktail using these flavors. It will probably strike the blackberry notes better. It's a noble effort to create a vibe, but Starbucks didn't land it here in technical or practical terms.

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Otherwise, if you're looking for a nice little treat to surprise your loved one with, I'd spend my money in a different direction. Six bucks can still get you a single rose on Valentine's Day, even in this economy, right?

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