Lemonade drinks, apart from their refreshing and thirst-quenching properties, boost your immune system, provide you with your daily dose of vitamin C & antioxidants, and help keep your skin looking fresh. This makes them an ideal drink for summer.

Let us look at the different Starbucks lemonade drinks available on the Starbucks menu and their main ingredients, along with the associated nutritional facts.

Lemonade Drinks

As you know, lemonade is a traditional drink made using lemon juice and water and sweetened using simple syrup, sugar, or honey. The common varieties of lemonade are

1. Cloudy Lemonade: It is made with fresh lemon juice and is non-carbonated. Common in the US, India, and Canada.
2. Pink Lemonade: It is created by adding fruit juices, food colorings, or flavors to the cloudy lemonade. While buying in stores, you may get a traditional lemonade with concentrated grape juice or dyes.
3. Clear Lemonade: It is a clear and carbonated beverage that has been lemon flavored. Clear Lemonade is common in France, Germany, the UK, Australia, and Switzerland, with C&C, Schweppes, and R.White being popular brands. They use lemon and blend them with lime oils. Some drinks mix them with specialty flavors (Fentimans Rose Lemonade) or beer (Shandy). In some places, even lemon or lime-flavored soft drinks are referred to as clear lemonades (7 UP to Sprite).
4. Brown Lemonades: In some countries, traditional lemonade with brown sugar or can sugar is referred to as brown lemonade.
5. Nimbu Pani, Shikanjvi, Limonana, Cherbat: In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Middle East, and North Africa, a lemonade may be mixed with ginger juice, salt, saffron, cumin, mint leaves, rose water, or other spices.

In many countries, lemonade was consumed for the prevention of kidney stones (Calcium based). You can have it as a refreshing and thirst-quenching drink on a hot summer day and savor its tartness and tangy zip.

Best Starbucks Lemonade Drinks

If you are specifically looking for it, you may not find any separate lemonade menu at Starbucks and may have to look at other iced, refresher, or cold drinks sections to find them. Lemon can be combined with most drinks except those containing milk.

The lemonades at Starbucks fall under the following categories, depending on the base drink:

1. Classic Lemonade: Lemon concentrate, cold filtered water, and ice. Additional sweetener, if needed.
2. Refreshing Lemonade: The Starbucks refreshers have fruit juices and pieces of fruit in them. Starbucks lemonade refreshers are lightly caffeinated drinks due to the presence of green coffee extract in them. As you may know, a green coffee bean is a raw, unroasted coffee bean. The extract is a dietary supplement with a higher amount of chlorogenic acids (CGA), having antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. The main ingredients of this refreshing drink are flavored juice mixed with a lemonade concentrate, pieces of fruit, and ice.
3. Iced Tea Lemonade: These drinks combine different brewed iced tea drinks or Matcha powder with lemonade. Hence, they include a Starbucks iced tea concentrate, lemonade concentrate, cold filtered water, sweetener or syrup of your choice, and ice. By default, you won’t get the syrup or the liquid cane sugar in your drink unless you specifically ask for it.
4. Blended Lemonades: Starbucks drinks include Starbucks strawberry lemonade, a caffeine-free drink suitable for children. Some consider it a smoothie due to the presence of the strawberry puree sauce mixed with lemonade, Creme Frappuccino Syrup, and ice. But it is too icy and less creamy to be considered that way.
5. Steaming Lemonade drinks: If you do not want iced teas and would rather stick to a hot drink but still enjoy a lemonade, you can go in for a hot tea mixed with a steaming lemonade. Mint Majesty, Peach Tranquility, and Jade Citrus Mint teas are common options. Starbucks uses Teavana Tea Bags (their own subsidiary), hot water, honey blend syrup, and steaming lemonade to make such drinks.

You have the choice to add raspberry syrup or strawberry purree to any of the above Starbucks lemonades. The lemonade concentrate has added sugar, so there is no option for a sugar-free lemonade. Be careful when asking to add extra sweetener to any lemonade drink.

With this background, let us look at some of these drinks in detail.

Iced Tea Lemonades

A mention of lemonade in the below drinks means water, lemon juice, lemon oil, and sugars. Some of the popular Iced Tea Lemonade drinks are:

Iced Black Tea Lemonade

The drink is inspired by Arnold Palmer, with equal proportions of black tea and lemonade.

Main Ingredients: Black Tea blends, Lemonade and Ice.

Calories, Caffeine, and Sugars

• Tall (12 fl oz) – 35, 20 mg, 8g.
• Grande (16 fl oz) – 50, 25 mg, 11g.
• Venti (24 fl oz) – 70, 40 mg, 16g.
• Trenta (12 fl oz) – 90, 50 mg, 21g.

Iced Green Tea Lemonade

Main Ingredients:

• Green Tea blends, Mint, lemon verbena, lemongrass, spearmint, Lemonade, and Ice.

Calories, Caffeine, and Sugars

The calories, caffeine content, and sugars are the same as those in the iced black tea lemonade.

Iced Peach Green Tea Lemonade

Main Ingredients:

• Same as Iced Green Tea Lemonade, and
• A juice blend with peach flavor consisting of white grape juice concentrate, citric acid, Rebaudioside A, and natural flavors, mixed with other fruit and vegetable juices for color (Pumpkin, cherry, apple, reddish, and sweet potato). The peach juice blend is actually a peach-flavored juice.

Calories, Caffeine, and Sugars

• Tall (12 fl oz) – 60, 20 mg, 14g.
• Grande (16 fl oz) – 80, 25 mg, 18g.
• Venti (24 fl oz) – 130, 40 mg, 27g.
• Trenta (12 fl oz) – 170, 50 mg, 36g.

Iced Passion Tango Tea Lemonade

It is a caffeine-free drink made from the hibiscus flowers, and not to be confused with the passion fruit, in spite of the word passion in its name.

Main Ingredients:

• Passion tango tea: A blend of water, Hibiscus flowers, natural flavors, licorice root, apple, lemongrass, cinnamon, and fruit juice extracts.
• Lemonade and Ice.

Calories, Caffeine, and Sugars

This is a caffeine-free drink, i.e., it carries 0 mg of caffeine for all drink sizes. The calories and sugars are the same as the iced black tea lemonade for all the drink sizes.

Iced Matcha Lemonade

Matcha tea plants have higher chlorophyll and amino acid content and a darker green hue. The leaves are ground without the stems and veins into a fine powder high in caffeine and antioxidants.

Main Ingredients:

• Matcha Tea blends, Lemonade, and Ice.

Calories, Caffeine, and Sugars

• Tall (12 fl oz) – 90, 55 mg, 19g.
• Grande (16 fl oz) – 120, 80 mg, 27g.
• Venti (24 fl oz) – 170, 110 mg, 38g.
• Trenta (12 fl oz) – 190, 120 mg, 41g.

These drinks have more than two times the iced green tea lemonade’s calories, caffeine, and sugars. It may take some time to adjust to the taste and flavors of the matcha drinks.

Classical Lemonades

The classical lemonade at Starbucks is made up of lemonade concentrate with lemon juice, lemon oil, sugar, and water poured over ice. Classical lemonades are caffeine free, and the amount of sugar is the same as that in iced green tea lemonades. Their calories are

• Tall (12 fl oz) – 80.
• Grande (16 fl oz) – 120.
• Venti (24 fl oz) – 160.
• Trenta (12 fl oz) – 200.

Refreshing Lemonades.

The general recipe for the refreshing lemonades was discussed in the earlier sections. It was also stated that the main ingredients are fruit juices, fruit pieces, and green coffee extract. The details of individual drinks are as follows.

Kiwi Starfruit Lemonade Starbucks Refresher

The main ingredients are:

• The Kiwi Starfruit refresher base with turmeric and sugars.
• Freeze-dried kiwi fruit.
• Fruit juices to give color – Watermelon and Huito.
• Lemonade and Ice.

Calories, Caffeine, and Sugars

• Tall (12 fl oz) – 110, 35 mg, 23g.
• Grande (16 fl oz) – 140, 45 mg, 30g.
• Venti (24 fl oz) – 200, 70 mg, 44g.
• Trenta (12 fl oz) – 280, 90 mg, 61g.

Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade Starbucks Refresher

The base has sweet mango and dragonfruit flavors mixed with lemonade, dragonfruit, and ice and hand shaken.

Calories, Caffeine, and Sugars are the same as those in the Kiwi Starfruit Lemonade Starbucks Refresher.

Strawberry Acai Lemonade Starbucks Refresher

The drink has a Strawberry Acai Base mixed with lemonade and Freeze-dried Strawberries. The amount of calories, caffeine, and sugar is the same as that of the dragonfruit refresher.

Blended Strawberry Lemonade

As stated earlier, the blended strawberry lemonade has a strawberry puree sauce and creme Frappuccino syrup with lemonade and ice. This caffeine-free strawberry lemonade is suitable for children. The main ingredients are

Calories and Sugars

• Tall (12 fl oz) – 130 and 31g.
• Grande (16 fl oz) – 190 and 45g.
• Venti (24 fl oz) – 260 and 62g.

Honey Citrus Mint Tea (hot beverage)

Unlike all the drinks discussed, this is a hot beverage made from a steaming lemonade, honey blend, and infusions of teas and fruits, as shown below.

• Teavana tea bags – Peach tranquility tea and Jade citrus mint tea.
• Honey blend – Honey, water, Potassium Sorbate, Citric acid, Xanthum gum, and natural flavors.
• Steaming Lemonade.
• Hot water.

Calories, Caffeine, and Sugars

• Short (8 fl oz) – 60, 16 mg, 15g.
• Tall (12 fl oz) – 80, 16 mg, 19g.
• Grande (16 fl oz) – 130, 16 mg, 30g.
• Venti (24 fl oz) – 150, 16 mg, 34g.

QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE

How can I make the lemonade sweeter?

You can order lemonade with pumps of any liquid sweetener, like classic syrup or cane sugar.

Is there an unsweetened lemonade at Starbucks?

There is no option for an unsweetened lemonade, as the lemonade concentrate is already sweetened with sugar.

What lemonade does Starbucks use?

The lemonade concentrate is specially prepared for Starbucks with lemon juice, lemon oil, sugar, and water. it is not available in the retail market.

Is Starbucks lemonade healthy?  

As you saw, a classic grande lemonade has 120 calories and 11 g of sugar, which is almost half of the recommended daily intake of a healthy and exercising person.