Starbucks fruit drinks are missing a key ingredient: the fruit for which they are named, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan.
The so-called “refresher” drinks — including Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade, Strawberry Acai Lemonde and Pineapple Passionfruit Lemonade — don’t contain mango, passionfruit or acai, according to the complaint filed on behalf of Astoria, Queens, resident Joan Kominis.
Instead of the featured ingredient, the drinks are “predominantly made with water, grape juice concentrate and sugar,” according to the complaint, which is seeking class-action status.
At $4.45 a pop in New York City, consumers paid a “premium” for Starbucks false advertising, the complaint said.
The Seattle-based java giant did include freeze-dried pieces of strawberries, pineapple and dragonfruit, but not the fruits that give the drinks their names, “furthering the deceptive nature of Starbucks’ advertising,” the suit states.
The company did not immediately respond to the most recent allegations.
It’s not the first time Starbucks has been sued for scrimping on certain ingredients – though some of the complaints have been dismissed, including a 2016 class-action suit that claimed Starbucks was under-filling lattes by using milk foam as filler.
Another 2016 complaint accused Starbucks of putting too much ice in its cold drinks. In 2020, the company was sued in California for short changing customers on caffeine. And a 2021 suit claimed Starbucks’ drinks were too hot.
In March, a Connecticut man sued the company for serving him a drink filled with cleaning fluid. A new employee had unwittingly used a coffee maker that was in the process of being cleaned, according to the complaint.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
