Starbucks Is, At Long Last, Adding Boba Drinks To The Menu This Summer
For those who've dreamt of ordering boba from Starbucks one day, this is your summer. Fans of the coffee chain have been calling on Starbucks' bigwigs to bring on the boba for years, and while there have been rumblings (like this boba tea drink that had fans on TikTok divided), nothing concrete has ever come of it — until now.
During a company earnings call on April 30, Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan confirmed that for summer 2024, boba was most certainly on the menu, as reported by Business Insider. Beyond calling them a "texture innovation" and introducing them as "pearls," Narasimhan had little else to say about the long-awaited menu addition. Starbucks baristas and social media influencers, on the other hand, haven't been as tight-lipped.
On May 1, TikTok user (and Starbucks barista) @creigsilimon took to the app to share their recipe for a boba-based sipper that they introduced as the "new Starbucks Summer Skies Drink." Crafting it with summer berry juice, coconut milk, and gooey raspberry boba pearls, the creator called it a "10 out of 10." Food influencer @markie_devo also apparently leaked the entire summer beverage lineup in an April 2 Instagram post. In addition to the Summer Skies Drink, the Summer-Berry and Summer-Berry Lemonade Starbucks Refreshers will also allegedly contain raspberry boba pearls.
Boba isn't new, but it is to Starbucks
Although Starbucks may be trying to position the raspberry boba pearls shown in @creigsilimon's TikTok video as a "texture innovation," bubble tea fans know better. Bubble tea was first made popular in Taiwanese tea shops during the 1980s. Since then, the iced beverage — traditionally made with milk tea and packed with sweet, gummy tapioca pearls — has become a downright sensation in the U.S. The chewy boba balls, which act as the drink's pièce de résistance, are made from cassava root starch. It remains unclear based on the social media evidence available so far, however, if Starbucks' pearls are made in a similar fashion.
@creigsilimon Try Our New Starbucks Summer Skies Drink. Its so good and will definitely be popular drink this summer. #starbucks #fyp #viral #summerskies #foryou #boba
According to @markie_devo's Instagram post, the new drinks are set to roll out at participating Starbucks locations starting May 7, and fans are excited by the novelty. "I'm loving the addition of the popping pearls into their Refreshers," one commenter wrote. Although Starbucks Refreshers have been around since 2012, one commenter called the addition of the boba pearls a "game changer." Another added, "Finally something DIFFERENT!" The summer lineup also evidently includes a White Chocolate Macadamia Cream Cold Brew and two fruity new snacks from the bakery: Orange Cream Cake Pop and Pineapple Cloud Cake.