Starbucks Iced Coffee

Product Type:Coffee Drinks; Container: 11oz Glass
BevNET Review: Starbucks Coffee + Milk is an iced coffee drink that is sweetened with sugar. Compared with their Frappuccino line, which drinks more like milk with a splash of coffee flavor, this product is designed to be more like iced coffee that you’d buy in a Starbucks retail store. Inside the bottle, it succeeds, for the most part, in delivering some nice iced coffee flavor. The mildly sweet mixture is made with lowfat milk, Starbucks coffee, pectin, and ascorbic acid. If there’s any obvious taste difference between this and what’d you’d buy in a coffee shop, it’s that the milk has the scalded flavor that is found in most ready to drink beverages that contain a large amount of milk. This definitely hurts the refreshment factor as well as its ability to be a “premium coffee beverage.” Otherwise, we think it delivers exactly what it promises and we appreciate that the North American Coffee Partnership is finally creating a product line with a reasonable calorie profile (110 per bottle, except in the low calorie product that has 50). Visually, we’re a little perplexed by their choice of package. The 11 oz. glass bottle has a shape that would seem more suitable for a condiment than a beverage. The product has two labels: one wrapped around the base of the bottle and a secondary label around the neck. In our test samples, the neck labels (shrink labels) were misapplied on all of the bottles. This cheapens the look and, given the financial resources of Starbucks and Pepsi, is a bit of a head scratcher. In addition, we don’t like that you have to look at the neck of the bottle to find the flavor name -- it’s definitely not intuitive. Overall, a step in the right direction for the Starbucks ready to drink portfolio, but it still needs improvement. Reviewed on: 2/15/2013

Product Type:Coffee Drinks; Container: 11oz Glass
BevNET Review: Starbucks “Coffee + Milk (Low Calorie)” is basically the same product as the flagship flavor of the brand, but with sucralose and ace-k accompanying the sugar that is used to sweeten the product. It’s definitely something that impacts the flavor in a negative way, with a bitter flavor coming on the back end and a lingering aftertaste. We certainly don’t find this to be enjoyable and it doesn’t seem like something that is worthy of being labeled a “premium coffee beverage.” The other issue that we have with this product is how they mark this flavor as being low calorie. There’s a thin blue band of color around the neck that has extremely small text on it. Plus, they don’t mention that it’s artificially sweetened, which is annoying since they are very quick to call out the flavors that contain natural flavorings. Surely, it will be very easy to miss this and we’re sure some consumers will be disappointed. Overall, this was our least favorite flavor of the lineup. Reviewed on: 2/15/2013

Product Type:Coffee Drinks; Container: 11oz Glass
BevNET Review: Of the two flavored varieties of Starbucks Iced Coffee that we sampled, the vanilla flavor was our preferred variety. Unlike the Caramel flavor, which seemed to increase the scalded flavor of the drink, the Vanilla addition enhances the product in a positive way, adding another layer of indulgence to the product for just 10 more calories. The vanilla also helps reduce the bitterness of the drink, which is definitely a plus. However, we think that they could do a lot more with the packaging, which, like the other flavors, has two labels and doesn’t do a great job of integrating the flavor with the core logo. That said, we think that this is a nice start, but it does not feel like a finished product yet. Reviewed on: 2/15/2013