The original Summer Berry Refresher on the Starbucks menu is “a sweet summer blend of raspberry, blueberry and blackberry flavors, shaken with ice and poured over raspberry flavored pearls.” With this description, I expected the drink to taste extremely sweet and like fresh fruit. When I took my first sip of the drink, I was delighted with the fruitiness of the blue raspberry taste. It wasn’t sweet, but tangy, which I liked. I enjoyed the coolness of the ice pared with the tangy juiciness of the blue raspberry which made the overall taste very refreshing. The popping pearls provided a much-needed sweetness that balanced out the overall drink. The pearls were delicate and when popped in my mouth, would explode with a syrup-like raspberry flavor. What surprised me about the pearls was their unusually small size. I wish the pearls were slightly larger so they could have a larger kick of the raspberry syrup flavor that I enjoyed so much.

However, I was not as delighted by the Summer-Berry Lemonade, which turned out to be my least favorite. This drink had the same ingredients as the regular Summer-Berry refresher. It still had the same blue raspberry syrup and raspberry popping pearls but incorporated sour lemonade into the mix. This made the flavors in the refresher to be overpowering, with an overly sour sting from the lemonade and a sugary punch that overpowered the delicate blue raspberry flavor that I enjoyed most. This made me think that I was just drinking a plain lemonade with popping pearls as the blue raspberry flavor was completely lost among the other flavors. As I chewed on the sugary raspberry pearls, the syrup flavor did not complement the sour lemonade at all. To me, the addition of lemonade was too overwhelming for my taste buds, and left me with a sugary after-taste in my mouth that made me want to water it down.

Finally, the Summer Skies Refresher turned out to be my absolute favorite. This drink incorporated rich coconut milk. As someone who is not a big fan of coconuts, I was surprised at how I absolutely loved the blend of tangy blue raspberry and smooth coconut milk. This drink's taste reminded me of something I would buy at a summer festival or concert. Unlike the Summer-Berry Lemonade, this drink was mildly sweet and the flavor of the raspberry pearls were able to shine through as they popped. The vibrant light blue color of the drink also looks very visually appealing and truly does remind me of the sky.

This drink combines mango and dragon fruit flavors, with lemonade and freeze-dried dragon fruit pieces, all mixed with Starbucks Spicy Chili Powder Blend for a spicy kick. Before trying this drink, I expected it to be overwhelmingly spicy. However, after taking my first sip, my mouth was filled with tropical fruity flavor, something I was definitely not expecting. Not long after, I felt a light tingle on my tongue coming from the chili powder. The chili was also sprinkled over the dragon fruit pieces so even when I bit into the dragon fruit chunks, I felt the heat. Even as someone who has very low spice tolerance, the heat wasn’t too intense. Sure, it did leave me with a little tingle on my tongue, but I wasn’t displeased with the taste it left.

The second drink of this release is the Spicy Pineapple Refresher with Lemonade. This drink incorporated pineapple and passionfruit flavors with freeze-dried pineapple pieces and the Starbucks Spicy Chili Powder Blend. Like the previous lemonade, the first thing I noticed while trying this drink was the overpowering sweetness of the lemonade. However, the addition of pineapple made it more sour, contrasting nicely with the spicy aftertaste it left in my mouth. It's safe to say that out of all the spicy lemonades, pineapple complements the chili powder best. The taste reminded me of a fruity salsa with its sour tang and tingly aftertaste.

Lastly, the Spicy Strawberry Refresher combines the flavors of strawberry, açaí and chili powder. Out of all the drinks in the release, this one had to be my least favorite. I disliked the artificially sweet taste of the strawberry that seemed to overpower the other flavors. Other drinks from this release like the dragonfruit and pineapple had a tropical taste, with a citrusy and tangy flavor to them. However, the flavor of strawberry to me felt artificial and too sweet, failing to mimic the subtly-sweet, juicy flavor of a real strawberry. This made the drink genuinely taste like drinking nasty medicine. Although I have always loved strawberry flavors in foods and drinks, Starbucks failed to blend the cool juiciness of a strawberry lemonade with the slight spice of chili powder. It even left a bad aftertaste in my mouth that ensured I won’t be drinking it again.