McDonald's Refresher launch signals mainstream moment for fruity drinks
LTO mentions are up 424% as chains from Starbucks to Sonic chase younger consumers who prefer customizable, caffeine-optional beverages over bitter coffee and tea
June 2, 2026
A beverage category called “refreshers” officially became 100% mainstream in May, when McDonald’s rolled out its own take on the drinks.
The Golden Arches’ version is made with lemonade mixed with fruit flavors — choice of strawberry-watermelon, mango-pineapple, or blackberry-passion fruit — plus popping boba or crunchy freeze-dried fruit. They’re also boosted with caffeine.
But a “refresher,” as coffeehouses and other restaurants across the country have come to call them, has become a catchall term for pretty much any nonalcoholic cold drink that isn’t coffee or soda.
Many are similar to Mexican agua fresca, which is a refreshing drink of sweetened water with fruit, herbs, or sometimes vegetables such as cucumber, and usually lime. But these days the base can be virtually anything wet. Dunkin’, which has been offering them at least since 2020, now gives guests a choice of still or sparkling water, lemonade, limeade, coconut milk, oat milk, or green or black tea.
Starbucks lays claim to the term, and debuted its first refreshers in 16 markets globally, including the United States, in 2012, the company confirmed. They were developed as a line of drinks for customers who didn’t care for the naturally bitter flavors of coffee and tea.
Younger palates tend to shy away from bitter flavors, and that’s certainly true with many millennials and members of Gen Z.
To maintain brand continuity, however, Starbucks Refreshers still contain coffee in the form of neutral-tasting caffeine derived from unroasted green coffee beans, dosing the drink with about 50mg of caffeine, about half that of an 8-ounce cup of coffee, in a 16-ounce Grande size.
“The result was a new, refreshing beverage option that appealed to customers seeking energizing, thirst‑quenching drinks outside the typical coffee or tea experience,” a spokesperson said.
These days Starbucks refreshers can be made with water, lemonade, or coconut milk in a choice of strawberry-açaí, mango-dragon fruit, or mango strawberry flavors, along with a rotating lineup of limited-time offers.
In fact, LTOs are the way that refreshers are expanding. Although mentions of them on menus has increased by 15.6% over the past year, LTO mentions are up a whopping 424%, according to Technomic Ignite Menu data.
Starbucks refreshers are available without caffeine, too, but in April the chain also launched Energy Refreshers with 125mg of caffeine and extra B vitamins.
That chain and Dunkin’ now introduce Refresher LTOs pretty much every quarter, if not every month.
For example, last July Starbucks introduced the Dragonfruit Glow-Up, made of mango-dragon fruit lemonade with peach juice blend blended with ice and topped with vanilla sweet cream cold foam, and in August Dunkin’ launched the Mixed Berry Daydream Refresher, made with oat milk and mixed berry flavor topped with cold foam.
Taco Bell started testing what it calls Agua Refrescas in April of 2025, and they were launched systemwide two months later. They’re green tea and water mixed with freeze-dried fruit pieces in a variety of flavors. They also offer higher-caffeine ones in collaboration with Rockstar Energy, as well as frozen ones.
Whataburger, staying on brand, calls them Whatafreshers. They offered a frosted berry one with bursting blueberry boba for the holidays, crowned with whipped topping, and one with prickly pear, raspberry, and lemon last July.
Even Bob Evans, not the most avant-garde chain, offered the Sunshine Refresher last spring, comprised of orange juice, strawberries, and a strawberry-lemonade blend.
And Sonic Drive-In, known for its vast and customizable beverage options, in May launched Frozen Refreshers in watermelon-peach, mango-peach, strawberry-passion fruit, and berry citrus flavors.
Other chains have jumped on the bandwagon, too, including La Madeleine, CC’s Coffee House, Tim Hortons, and HTeaO. The iced tea chain’s options, introduced as LTOs last summer, were not made with tea, but lemonade, sparkling water, Monin Glacier Clear Energy, and various Monin syrups.
Taco Cabana introduced lemonade-based Cabana Refreshers last July.
Clean Juice has launched Refreshers for this summer, but it’s calling them Sparklers. They’re made with sparkling water and assorted juices — the Cucumber Ginger-Aid is made with apple, ginger, and cucumber; the Blue Citrus includes pineapple, lemon, and apple, plus blue spirulina; and the Pineapple Mango Citrus has the ingredients in its name, plus turmeric.
The turmeric and blue spirulina might be an indicator of where Refreshers are going, as many drinks are — in the direction of value-added functional beverages.
Protein Bar & Kitchen anticipated that last year with its Sonic Refresher, made of coconut water, cherries, mango, banana, lemon, and added electrolytes.
That dovetails nicely with current trends toward functional beverages that promise benefits beyond refreshment and caffeine — whether it’s probiotics, spices such as turmeric, ginger, and cayenne pepper, or the increasingly present protein. Certainly coffeehouses won’t prevent customers from topping their Refreshers with the protein-enhanced cold foam they now offer.
Younger generations long ago came to realize that coffee and tea aren’t their only options for liquid pick-me-ups, and Refreshers increasingly seem to be their option of choice.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]
Follow him on TikTok and Instagram: @foodwriterdiary
About the Author
Bret Thorn
Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News
Senior Food & Beverage Editor
Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality.
Hi is responsible for spotting and reporting on F&B trends across the country for both publications.
He is the co-host of a podcast, Menu Talk with Pat and Bret, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities, and other experts in foodservice operations.
From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.
He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN.
A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.
He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.
Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.
He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.
A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends.
Bret Thorn’s Experience:
Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989
Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986
Email: [email protected]
Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary
TikTok: @foodwriterdiary
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