(all photos taken by me, Kevin Ludy)
As the brisk rainy days of spring change to the warm days of summer, stores across Westport are changing their menus as well. Popular coffee chains in Westport, like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts, are not one to be left out on the seasonal drink trend with their recently introduced summer drinks. I set out to decide which chain had the best summer drinks, and which one was a better buy for your buck.
The coffee shop had two variations of the cosmic coolatas, one being the cosmic pineapple and the other being cosmic cotton-candy. Looking at the drinks, I definitely got the vibe that they were going for something like the unicorn frappuccino Starbucks had last year, which caused a social media frenzy.
The first of the two I tried was the cosmic pineapple coolatta. Although I’m 99 percent sure they made it wrong judging from the colors as it had red in it instead of green, the drink was still refreshing and very piña-colada esque. It was a little bit sour to the initial taste, but it transferred over to a sweet pleasant aftertaste. With a price point of only $2 for a small, I would give it a solid four out of five stars.
The other drink from Dunkin’ I tried was the cosmic cotton candy coolatta. Unlike the pineapple drink, this one had very light flavoring, which tasted artificial. On top of the fact that it was extremely watered down the drink was overall just not impressive and I wouldn’t get it again. It shared the same $2 price point for a small, however I would only give this a one out of five stars.
Switching stores, Starbucks has introduced a new line of fruit infused iced teas for the summer. The Starbucks I went to was very nice inside, and similar to Dunkin’, they had signs advertising their new drinks as well.
These three new drinks were the peach citrus white tea, the pineapple black tea and the strawberry infused green tea, all priced at $2.75 for a small.
The peach citrus white tea had hint of exactly what's in its name- peach. On top of that the tea had a very mild, not too sweet taste along with a very pleasing aftertaste. Something about it tasted a little medicinal, making it something I wouldn’t get regularly, but I think that this would be good on the occasional hot day. I would give this drink a four out of five stars.
The pineapple black tea on the other hand was honestly dreadful. With a very light flavor almost reminiscent of soap, it had terrible first impressions. With every following sip, the pineapple seemed to taste more artificial, and I wouldn’t be able to recommend this to anyone. I would spent the money for this on literally anything else. For that reason, I give it a zero out of five stars.
The final drink was the strawberry infused green tea. This shared the somewhat medicinal flavor the peach tea had as well, but on top of that had a weird aftertaste like a cough drop. Every sip made my tongue feel weird, and as a prior Starbucks customer I would highly recommend the similar strawberry acai refresher any day over this drink. I would give it a two out of five stars.
If these drinks are an indication of how summer 2018 is going to be, I’ll skip to fall. I wasn’t really impressed by either stores’ summer drink options. Although the prices are very reasonable, I think that you can spend your money on much better options than these. With Starbucks cutting down on limited released drinks, I think it shows that the fad of trying new creations may be dying. Although it was fun trying these, I definitely would recommend having other drinks this summer season and just purchasing what you regularly enjoy the most.