Lawsuit Claims Starbucks' Fruit Drinks Are Not Fruity Enough
Update, August 10, 2022: This story has been edited to include a response from Starbucks.
A New York City woman was less than pleased to discover that her fruity Starbucks Refresher drink was lacking an important ingredient: fruit. The Seattle Times reports that Queens resident Joan Kominis was so angry with Starbucks that she filed a class action lawsuit against the chain. She was understandably bothered by the lack of mango, passionfruit, and acai in Refreshers that claim to include those ingredients.
“Despite their names, and unbeknownst to consumers, the Mango Dragonfruit and Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade Refreshers contain no mango, the Pineapple Passionfruit and Pineapple Passionfruit Lemonade Refreshers contain no passionfruit, and the Strawberry Acai and Strawberry Acai Lemonade Refreshers contain no acai,” said Joan Kominis in the lawsuit, which was filed last week.
Kominis claims that instead of fresh fruit, the Starbucks Refreshers are loaded with sugar and white grape juice concentrate.
According to the Starbucks website, the primary ingredients in the Mango Dragonfruit Refresher are ice, a "mango dragonfruit refreshers base," and freeze-dried dragonfruit pieces. The mango dragonfruit refreshers base is comprised of water, sugar, white grape juice concentrate, natural flavors, citric acid, and natural green coffee flavor. And the new Paradise Drink Refresher's only fruit ingredients are coconut milk and freeze-dried pineapple.
The lawsuit claims that Kominis would not have paid a "premium price" for the drink had she known about the absence of fruit.
“Plaintiff and other consumers purchased the products and paid a premium price based upon their reliance on defendant’s naming of the products,” Kominis said. “Had Plaintiff and other consumers been aware that the products are missing one of the named fruits, they would not have purchased the products or would have paid significantly less for them.”
"We are aware of the lawsuit," a Starbucks spokesperson told Delish. "The allegations in the complaint are inaccurate and without merit. We look forward to defending ourselves against these claims."
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