Life

How To Get Free Tea At Starbucks This Week

by Megan Shepherd
image courtesy of Starbucks

Feel like changing up your summer Starbucks order? Iced tea is having a big moment at Starbucks this season, and the coffee chain wants you to stop in and sip their new tea concoctions for yourself. To convince you to abandon your standard ice caramel macchiato routine, Starbucks is hosting Free Tea Friday on Jul. 14. Swing in Friday between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. local time to sample Starbucks’ newest releases, and take one home for free. And best of all? It’s not a BOGO deal, meaning you can snag one for the low, low price of absolutely nothing — no strings attached.

The promo is in celebration of the new Teavana Shaken Iced Tea Infusions, a line of products announced earlier this week. The drinks combine the brisk flavors of other Starbucks tea drinks you’ve come to know and love (hi, Passion Fruit Tea!) with a fresh upgrade: fresh fruit infusions. It’s part of a push on Starbucks’ part to reinvent their flavored ice tea platform, which has started to feel a little stale in recent years. To give the non-coffee section of their menu an upgrade, the ‘Bucks recently released a set of new, fruit-infused iced teas that use fresh, in-season fruit to impart those bright notes of cool flavor your body craves this time of year — just in time for summertime.

Image courtesy of Starbucks

The special welcomes three new drinks to Starbuck’s growing collection of coffee-free offerings: Teavana Shaken Iced Pineapple Black Tea, a juicy Teavana Shaken Iced Strawberry Green Tea Infusion, and a refreshing Teavana Shaken Iced Peach Citrus Tea Infusion. The titles are a mouthful, and so are the recipes; expect loads of tropical, summery flavors, and plenty of fresh fruit in the drinks. According to a press release from Starbucks, each drink is handcrafted using premium Teavana tea, freshly steeped fruits, and tropical botanicals. After the flavors of the tea and fruits have a chance to infuse, each drink is topped with a splash of liquid cane sugar for a touch of added sweetness. It’s brisk, but not overpowering, and at the low, low price of free for an hour this Friday, sure to make the start of your weekend that much sweeter.

The new releases are here to stay, and part of the new tea-and-fruit combos’ appeal is that they’re mix and matchable. Once you’ve tried all three, go ahead swap ingredients from the featured drinks until you find a new favorite combination. Maybe that means Strawberry Pineapple Black Tea, or Peach Strawberry Green Tea. With so many teas and fruits to choose from, any combo is fair game, so let your imagination (and your taste buds) run wild.

Image courtesy of Starbucks

To celebrate the new additions, Starbucks has dubbed Jul. 14 Free Tea Friday. Customers who come by any Starbucks location across the U.S. and Canada to try the new Teavana Shaken Iced Tea infusions between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. local will receive a free Tall Teavana Shaken Iced Tea Infusion in any of the three standard flavors. Though it’s important to note that the deal is only good while supplies last, so tell your boss that you’ve got some very important business business to attend to, and sneak out early for the special.