Starbucks' Summer Menu Has Left Some Fans Wanting More (These 3 Drinks To Be Exact)

Each fast food seasonal menu is met with its fair share of praise and criticism, but Starbucks' upcoming summer menu has been met primarily with the latter due to what it lacks rather than what's included. The 2026 summer menu launches on May 12 at Starbucks locations across the country and features a new refresher, two special coffee drinks, and a returning cake pop. However, the menu has been met with instant disappointment among fans hoping for a more expansive list of summertime items. More specifically, fans on social media have expressed anger at the menu's lack of drinks like the Summer Berry Refresher (which was last seen in May 2024), the highly popular S'mores Frappe from 2019, and the mythical Unicorn Frappe that was initially released in 2017.

The annoyance from the Unicorn Frappe's absence was heightened even further by the inclusion of a Unicorn Cake Pop, and reached a boiling point when it was announced that the drink itself was making a limited return for this year's Coachella music festival. "We're beefing," one Instagram comment affirmed. "THE PEOPLE WANT THE UNICORN FRAP AT EVERY STORE NOT JUST COACHELLA." Another was similarly furious, saying, "I don't go to overpriced concerts. Bring it back to the stores or I'll never go to Starbucks again, I am so sick of asking for 9 years."

The desire for a fast food chain to bring back its limited-time-only products from the past is nothing new, but it does come at a rough moment for Starbucks overall. 2026 has seen a few choices by the company that haven't been well-received by fans, from the new Starbucks rewards system to the Hannah's Secret Popstar Refresher being panned by fans of the show for not being lore-accurate (everybody knows that Hannah Montana hates raspberries). Whether it's something big or small, Starbucks fans have become increasingly jaded by the chain's decisions, and the underwhelming summer menu is yet another instance of their mass disappointment.

This isn't to say that Starbucks' upcoming summer menu doesn't include interesting items. Most notably, the Iced Horchata Shaken Espresso from 2025 is making its return to the summer menu just one year after its debut and is joined by the new Horchata Frappuccino this time. Alongside the new Tropical Butterfly Refresher (which comes with either milk, water, or lemonade), these two horchata coffee drinks are sure to excite those who enjoyed the shaken espresso last year, although many did consider the 2025 drink underwhelming when it initially debuted.