- Starbucks is making its secret menu more accessible.
- Coffee lovers can now order intricate drink customizations right from the Starbucks app.
- Currently four customizations are offered, but more are on the way.
If mixing up your Starbucks order is kind of your thing, you’re definitely in for a treat. The coffee franchise is finally taking its secret menu mainstream.
In a press release last month, Starbucks announced that ordering “secret menu” customized drinks will be as easy as placing an order on its app.
“Beginning July 14, Starbucks Rewards members can find the top Starbucks drink customizations in the Starbucks app,” the release stated. “From twists on fan favorites to customer creations, the secret menu, which can be found in the ‘offers’ tab of the app, will regularly feature new drink customizations.”
That’s right, instead of memorizing an order from your favorite TikTok influencers and trying to repeat it for your barista without receiving a worrying look of confusion, Starbucks is now making it simple for you. The coffee retailer also explained that the in-app secret menu has taken inspiration from the Starbucks Not-So-Secret Menu broadcast channel on Instagram.
The app kicked off this feature with just four drink customizations in July:
- Cookies on Top: A cold brew with two pumps of vanilla syrup, vanilla sweet cream cold foam and cookie crumble topping.
- Dragon Fruit Glow-Up: Peach juice blend added to a blended mango dragon fruit lemonade Refresher and topped with vanilla sweet cream cold foam.
- Lemon, Tea & Pearls: A Black tea and lemonade mix with added raspberry-flavored popping pearls.
- Just Add White Mocha: A Brown Sugar Oatmilk Shaken Espresso with white chocolate mocha sauce and topped with vanilla sweet cream cold foam.
But for August, four new drinks have taken their place:
- Açaí Your Tea: Iced green tea lemonade with a strawberry açaí Refresher base.
- Matcha Meets Strawberry: Ice matcha latte without the classic syrup, with four pumps of sugar-free vanilla syrup and topped with strawberry cream cold foam.
- Pretty in Pink and Green: Pink drink with matcha cream cold foam.
- Shake it Up with Chai: Iced Shaken Espresso with oatmilk, plus two pumps of chai and cinnamon powder without the classic syrup.
The downside of all of this is that the secret menu, is no longer, in fact, a secret, and coffee fans are divided on whether or not this is a good thing.
"I think this is Starbucks' way of keeping customers interested in 'new' drinks without actually spending money on producing new ingredients," one person wrote on Reddit. On the flip side, someone else on Instagram called out how excited they were. " I’m getting all of it."
As for how many of these custom drink options we can expect every month, it's not clear. But we do know Starbucks will be rolling out new options soon.
Cameron (she/her) is a staff writer for Good Housekeeping, where she covers everything from holidays to food. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, where she received a B.A. in magazine journalism. In her spare-time she can be found scrolling TikTok for the latest cleaning hacks and restaurant openings, binge-watching seasons of Project Runway or online shopping.
