Starbucks Cherry & Pomegranate Starbucks Refresha Drink

The Starbucks Cherry and Pomegranate Refresha costs £6.45 for a Tall and carries 106 calories in a Grande. Cherry juice and pomegranate notes are hand shaken with ice and dried cherry slices over the usual green coffee extract base.

Cherry is a harder flavour to get right than strawberry, because the gap between fresh cherry and cough syrup is narrow and most drinks land on the wrong side of it. This one works by leaning tart: pomegranate brings a dry, astringent finish that pulls against the cherry sweetness and keeps the drink from turning medicinal. The dried cherry slices deepen it further as they rehydrate, adding a concentrated, almost raisin like note towards the bottom of the glass.

It carries the most caffeine of the four Refreshas, at 8.4mg in a Tall, 11.1mg in a Grande and 13.9mg in a Venti, and it is also the most expensive at £6.45 for a Tall against £5.80 for the other three. Sugar is 24.6g in a Grande out of 25.4g of carbohydrate, the highest in the range. Calories run 85, 106 and 126 across the three sizes.

Its price is the outlier and worth noticing. At £6.45 for a Tall it costs 85p more than the other three Refreshas, which all sit at £5.80. Cherry juice is expensive relative to strawberry or lime base, and the dried cherry pieces cost more than dried citrus. That gap is a matter of taste, but this is the only Refresha where the size you order moves the bill much.

Half the base is the standard cut and takes roughly a third off the sugar while leaving the cherry recognisable, since the dried fruit keeps working regardless. It appears as a seasonal addition rather than a fixture, so availability moves with the promotional calendar. The Strawberry Acai Refresha is the year round berry option, and the Cool Lime Refresha is the lightest and sharpest of the four.