Every morning, many high schoolers start their day by picking up an order from Starbucks. When hearing the three words strawberry, ice, and acai, teens across America would think of the same thing: a Starbucks Strawberry Acai refresher. This drink is the most popular cold drink Starbucks has to offer, so customers blindly feed money into Starbucks without caring what is in their drink. But, how would you react if someone told you there is not a drop of açai in this açai-marketed drink?
In 2022, citizens Jason McAlister and Joan Kominis filed a lawsuit against the popular chain Starbucks. The co-defendants argued that the Starbucks Mango Dragonfruit Refresher, Pineapple Passionfruit Refresher, and Strawberry Açai Refresher did not have a trace of mango, passion fruit, or açai. According to the New York Post, the suit states that açai berries and juice “are known to provide benefits to heart health, cognitive function, and contain anti-cancerous properties. Instead the refresher was primarily comprised of water, grape juice concentrate, and sugar.”
Thousands of customers pay for this drink because it promotes healthy fruits, so in essence that’s what they should get. Komonis admits that she too fell victim to this false advertising a year before she took the case to court. Starbucks denied the claim, saying, “The allegations in the complaint are inaccurate and without merit.” They go on to explain that the açai, mango and passion fruit are flavors opposed to the actual components of the drink. CNN says, “The company wanted the case dismissed because it said the drink names refer to the flavors, not necessarily the ingredients.” Although Komonis was only seeking a mere five million dollar lawsuit compared to Starbucks’ 104.54 billion dollar empire, many customers are in complete shock because the chain they know and love has been deceiving them. Although Starbucks claims that there is in fact no deceit on their part.
According to Starbucks, any customer can ask a barista what ingredients are in their drink and that they never advertised these drinks to contain açai, mango or passion fruit, but leaving out this information is misleading to their 100 million plus customers. Recently, a judge decided that the case indeed had merit and has allowed 9 of the 11 claims to move forward in court.
PV sophomore Alexa Ganz’s go to drink is the Strawberry Açai Refresher with no strawberries. When informed that there was no açai in this drink she said that she was “shocked” and she admitted to tasting the açai in her drink. In addition to being curious about Starbucks’ flavors, she was also questioning their morals.
“I thought Starbucks was trustworthy because so many people go there,” Ganz said.
Ganz was not the only student who was fooled by starbucks’s flavoring. Benjamin Tracz was also surprised because he thought he could taste the mango in his mango passion fruit drink that he typically gets.
“I’m super shocked because if I am paying for a drink that states it has mango, I would want the mango to be in the drink,” Tracz said.
Although both students were extremely surprised, they both continued buying their refreshers.
“I’m already addicted to it,” Ganz said.
Tracz places more importance on the taste than the ingredients.
And Benjamin claimed “It is still yummy.”
Although it seems as if Starbucks has been falsely advertising these drinks, it can be concluded that teens don’t agree with the idea of being fooled but it will not deter them from continuing to drink these fruit juice refreshers. As far as the lawsuit, we will just have to wait for the court to brew up a decision.
