Starbucks Is Adding A Horchata-Inspired Espresso Drink To Its Summer Menu

It's one of our absolute favorite seasons: Starbucks teaser time! While it feels like just yesterday we were heralding the news of the new Spring 2025 menu featuring an Iced Cherry Chai, it's already time to look ahead to summer. Bright sunshine, long days, and the prospect of annual vacations are about to get a lot sweeter, even in the absence of the sadly discontinued Starbucks brownie snack. According to an email from our friends at the siren, Starbucks is rolling out an Iced Horchata Oatmilk Shaken Espresso. It's a riff on the beloved Latin American drink, and it's going to put a little spice in your step this summer.

Though details are still emerging, here's what we do know: alongside the new shaken espresso, Starbucks will also be bringing back the popular Summer-Berry Lemonade Refresher, with its triple-berry sweetness and popping raspberry pearls, and the coordinating Summer Skies Drink, which features the dreamy addition of coconut milk. Adding to the berry-liciousness of it all is a brand-new Strawberries & Cream Cake Pop, which is fashioned in the shape of a juicy strawberry. It's still a little early to be anticipating this kind of thing, but we foresee lots of aesthetic social media snaps featuring that super-cute cake on a stick. 

Since Starbucks is being tight-lipped about the contents of the intriguing new Iced Horchata Oatmilk Shaken Espresso, it only makes sense to delve deeper into the contents of traditional horchata so we have a few clues about what the new Starbucks handcrafted drink might taste like. Horchata generally features homemade rice milk, cinnamon, vanilla, and sweetened condensed milk. The rice is soaked in liquid with cinnamon sticks and pureed to form a watery paste that is then incorporated with vanilla, sweetened condensed milk, ground cinnamon, and possibly more milk or water to achieve the desired consistency. The horchata is chilled and served cold, making for a sweet and refreshing drink that shines on muggy days. It has its origins in Egypt, where it was made of tiger nuts, but it made its way to Spain by way of transcontinental trade. The Spaniards use chufa nuts in their horchata, but, in North America, more readily available rice became the staple at the drink's foundation. 

Given that Starbucks is spinning its horchata into a shaken espresso, we know that its drink is going to be very coffee-forward, just like the current Brown Sugar Shaken Espresso on the menu. It's expected that cinnamon and vanilla will feature prominently, as these are flavors that Starbucks already incorporates into many of its existing drinks. One thing is for sure: when we know more details about the new drink, we'll be spilling the coffee beans!