‘I Tried the Starbucks Medicine Ball Tea, Which Is Guaranteed To Soothe Your Sniffles During Cold Season'

Help cure your winter woes with this tasty tea from Starbies.

Waking up with a scratchy throat is no fun, but there’s a (not so) secret menu item at Starbucks that can help alleviate those annoying cold symptoms. The Medicine Ball, otherwise known as “Cold Buster” or, the official name, “Honey Citrus Mint Tea” is a popular Starbucks order for those who are coming down with a pesky cold or flu.

It became such a popular drink, with people posting about it on Instagram and asking for it at their local stores, that Starbucks took note and made it a mainstay of their menu in 2017.

Keep reading for everything you need to know about Starbucks Medicine Ball Tea, including how to order one and make the recipe at home!

Related: The Health Benefits of Tea

What is the Medicine Ball Tea at Starbucks?

The Medicine Ball, or Honey Citrus Mint Tea, is a former customer-creation-turned-permanent-menu-item that is simply a combination of Jade Citrus Mint green tea, Peach Tranquility herbal tea, hot water, steamed lemonade and a touch of honey.

How many calories are in Starbucks Medicine Ball Tea?

A grande has 130 calories and 16 mg of caffeine, so it’s on the lower end of the Starbucks caffeine and sugar spectrum.

Related: Different Types of Tea: Everything You Need to Know

How to order a Medicine Ball Tea from Starbucks

Different versions of the tea have popped up on social media and, depending on your sweetness preference, can be totally customized. Whether you’re standing in line or swiping through the app, the standard order is a simple grande Honey Citrus Mint Tea (although if you order it by the alt name, a “Medicine Ball,” the barista should know what you mean).

The base recipe comes with regular steamed lemonade (you can add extra or ask for light) and two pumps of their honey blend sweetener (again, customize as you see fit). Purists will order it as is while people in the “more is more” camp may add a pump or two of peppermint syrup to give it that extra zing.

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Does the Medicine Ball from Starbucks actually help? What are the benefits?

Keep in mind that the standard recipe for a grande has 30 grams of sugar (that’s just over seven teaspoons if you’re playing at home), so you may want to mix up the recipe and order it less sweet, as sugar is never a good thing to have if you’re trying to fight off illness. With that being said, hot tea is an awesome thing to consume when you’re feeling a little under the weather since hot drinks can help with stuffy noses and congestion and keep you hydrated. Menthol, found in mint, can help with stuffy noses and lemons have Vitamin C, which can help slightly with the length and severity of the common cold. And honey is a nutritional powerhouse, lauded for its antioxidant properties.

The Medicine Ball is not going to cure your cold but the combination of the cool mint, sweet honey and tangy lemon is fantastic for helping to alleviate some of the symptoms of a common cold—plus, it’s tasty too.

Related: Common Cold Symptoms & Treatment

How to make Starbucks Medicine Tea Ball recipe

It’s pretty easy to make an almost identical Medicine Ball Tea at home since the Teavana brand teas (used by Starbucks) are readily available in grocery stores and big box stores like Target.

TikToker @thebalancedfoodsblog shows how easy it is to make at home. And since a grande at the ‘bucks will run you about $4 depending on where you live, it may be a good idea to have the ingredients on hand during cold and flu season.

Simply steep one Peach Tranquility tea bag and one Jade Citrus Mint green tea bag in water, add steamed lemonade and swirl in honey to taste. In some recipes online, people add a touch of peppermint syrup or extract if they have that on hand.

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What does the Medicine Ball from Starbucks taste like?

I wanted to try it both ways, so I ordered one grande Honey Citrus Mint Tea as is and one with two pumps of peppermint. The original was good—tart, slightly sweet and lightly reminiscent of a hot toddy (but without the booze). It had a strong peachy-lemony flavor with a tiny bit of bitterness from the green tea. I could definitely taste the steamed lemonade in there, although it wasn’t overly sweet.

Next time, I would order it extra hot as it cools down quickly in the cold weather, and isn’t it kinda the point to be soothing your sinuses with a super hot drink rather than a tepid one? I would also skip the peppermint syrup, as it quickly takes on the flavor of cough syrup (unless that’s what you’re going for).

Again, trying to soothe the cold and not bring attention to being sick. I can see why almost all of the Starbucks around me were completely sold out of the Honey Citrus Mint Tea (which tends to happen during cold and flu season). It’s a low-cost, low-caffeine treat that has the potential to alleviate your cold symptoms and make you feel a little more like yourself during the cold, dark winter months.

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