Starbucks Refreshers Raspberry Pomegranate and Orange Melon

Starbucks Refreshers: Natural Energy from Green Coffee Bean Extract

Sparks (or at least sparkling juices) fly when energy and refreshment unite in a lightly carbonated blend of juices, vitamins, ginseng, and green, unroasted coffee beans. It's a delicious energy boost, without any coffee taste.

Starbucks Refreshers are a relatively new line of beverages that are advertised as giving you natural energy, which comes from the green coffee bean extract. Their line includes tea beverages that you can order in the shop, the powdered Via sticks, or they come in a can (which is, as you can see in the picture, the one I am reviewing today).

So let's get started on green coffee bean extract itself. No there isn't separate color of coffee bean that you can buy, for those of you who don't know. It's not like regular beans where they come in a red, white, and black eyed variety. Green coffee beans are just like the regular coffee beans you buy at the store, but they are the raw version. When you pick coffee beans from the little plant, it looks like you are picking some sort of red berry. But the seed inside is a coffee bean and it is a nice bright green color. 

So why are they better for you than regular coffee? Isn't regular coffee still natural even if they roast it? Hell yeah it is. But some benefits are lost in the coffee bean through the roasting process. This includes some special antioxidants and something called chlorogenic acid. Chlorogenic acid will help you lose weight because of the way it helps your body metabolize some of the sugars you have eaten throughout the day. Suppliers of green coffee bean pills claim that you can eat as you please as long as you take the green coffee bean supplement. Apparently it has helped people lose weight and is completely safe to use as far as we know. Dr. Oz even recommends it. This acid is what has made green coffee bean the new superfood/weight loss supplement on the market. People are crazy about it and I am starting to see it everywhere. Just like the acai berry, green tea, and greek yogurt craze before; companies want to add it to anything and everything to make people buy their products which they advertise are healthy. Side rant: Greek yogurt ice cream, or any frozen yogurt type of ice cream is not healthy for you. It is not even a healthier alternative to the real stuff. So what, you get 2 more grams of fucking protein than the regular ice cream? Let me tell you this, at the end of the day those 2 extra grams are not going to matter. Especially next to all that sugar in your frozen yogurt.

Well back to coffee beans. Why not just eat them raw and whole? Well cause they are bitter as hell and you won't be able to eat them no matter how well you trained your taste buds to bitterness. So you can either take it as a supplement, buy it as a powder, or buy it in prebottled beverages.

Now let's move along to the refresher. Raspberry pomegranate is the flavor I am reviewing. So I pop open the 12 oz can, which is an average of $1.99 wherever you buy it, and I do get a raspberry pomegranate smell. The can is all cool looking, nice and skinny and long. How does it taste?

Well it tastes pretty okay. Nothing special. It has the raspberry pomegranate taste you are looking for but it doesn't have such a strong flavor of it though. I was hoping for a heavily flavored juice with a nice aftertaste, but after it goes down your throat you feel like you drank just regular old soda.

The carbonation is not very heavy, as they have stated, but it does not taste like flat soda either. It is pretty smooth and the carbonation is preserved in the can pretty well. 

Like they said, no coffee flavor, which I actually prefer the coffee flavor but that is just me. I love the java. But this is more like a juice like substance.

Overall all I give it a 4/10. I mean, it is nothing special and the health benefits are almost none. I do like how there isn't any artificial sweetener in it, but there is too light of a flavor for me. Not to mention, it is ridiculously priced.


Now for the Orange Mango flavor, which I decided to add to the end of this post because I also had it today. I am a bit of a caffeine addict since I had two cans of this stuff today in addition to my giant pots of coffee sipping all day.

So the Orange Melon flavor is alright. Like the Raspberry Pomegranate the flavor is really light. But it also has a decent Orange and Mango flavoring, which apparently is from real juices since 1/4 of the can is real juice. I actually prefer the Raspberry Pomegranate which seems to be a little heavier in flavoring. Usually I prefer the tropical flavors though. But I do like how well the flavor of the fruits are captured in these two refreshers.

Sorry for the crappy camera pics.