Starbucks' new spring menu includes drinks made with ube, lavender, and coconut. Here's how they taste.

• Starbucks released three new spring drinks.
• We tried the Iced Ube Coconut Macchiato, Toasted Coconut Cream Cold Brew, and Iced Lavender Cream Chai.
• The Iced Ube Coconut Macchiato was colorful and surprising.

Starbucks may be in its wellness era, but that doesn't mean it's giving up on sweet drinks.

After finding success in the fall with protein lattes and cold foam — which Starbucks credits with helping break a seven-quarter sales slump — the chain is betting that customers will want a little treat for spring.

Lavender and coconut flavors are returning to the menu, while ube is making its Starbucks debut.

Starbucks released the three new spring drinks on Tuesday. Here's how they all taste.

Lavender is back

Starbucks first introduced lavender drinks in spring 2024, rolling out the Iced Lavender Cream Oatmilk Matcha, Iced Lavender Oatmilk Latte, and Lavender Crème Frappuccino. The colorful drinks, which seemed perfectly designed for social media, were an instant hit. Business Insider's Katie Notopoulos noted in an August 2024 column that Starbucks' lavender powder was always sold out, and the chain's outgoing CEO said its popularity was on par with Starbucks' famous Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Now the flavor has returned in the form of the Iced Lavender Cream Chai, featuring Starbucks' chai and milk served over ice, topped with lavender cream cold foam.

During our preview of the drink, we were struck by just how potent the lavender flavor was in the cold foam. The color and scent were reminiscent of a bath bomb, or one of those essential oil pillow sprays that promise deeper sleep.

We found it hard to taste the flavor of the chai, especially as the lavender cold foam began to melt into the drink. The overpowering floral notes easily dominated each sip.

It'll be interesting to see whether lavender remains a winning business strategy for Starbucks, but this floral drink just wasn't our thing.

Coconut with a twist

Coconut has also found its way back to the Starbucks menu, albeit with a fresh spin. This time, it's toasted.

The Toasted Coconut Cream Cold Brew features the chain's cold brew topped with a toasted coconut cream cold foam. Starbucks is also making the cold foam and toasted coconut syrup available year-round.

Coffee and coconut can be a great combination, but the toasted coconut seemed to bring out the bitterness of the cold brew. The drink definitely needed some sweetener and was also a tad too milky. The flavors just didn't seem to pair well together — neither of us finished the drink.

We'd be intrigued to see how the toasted coconut syrup tastes with something sweeter, like a mocha or Frappuccino. But when we're craving a cold brew drink that tastes like a treat, the best thing to order at Starbucks is still the Chocolate Cream Cold Brew.

The debut of ube

Starbucks began testing ube drinks at some of its Reserve locations in spring 2025. It first launched an Iced Ube Coconut Latte in Chicago, New York City, and Seattle, then released an Ube Espresso Martini that summer.

Now, Starbucks wants to see if the Iced Ube Coconut Macchiato will be just as popular in its regular locations. The drink features a mix of toasted coconut, milk, and shots of espresso over ice, topped with ube coconut cream cold foam and a sprinkling of toasted coconut flakes.

Of the three new drinks, the Iced Ube Coconut Macchiato is the most striking. Its bright-purple color is perfect for TikTok, and the drink has a lovely, fragrant smell. The texture was also deliciously light and frothy, making the drink feel less like coffee and more like dessert.

For such a vivid-looking drink, the flavor was surprisingly soft. There are some lovely vanilla notes from the ube, and the toasted coconut helped balance the sweetness. The flavor didn't grab us as much as we expected, but it was still easy to finish.