Last Updated on March 18, 2023 by brewthatcoffee
If you love apple drinks, you’ll be happy to find out Starbucks has a great range of choices. Whether you prefer hot or cold beverages, there are several methods to add fantastic apple flavor to your drinks.
With a few tips and secret menu tricks, we’ll show you how to add apple taste to your favorite Starbucks drinks. Here are our top ten Starbucks apple drinks for summer freshness or fall spice.
10 Best Starbucks Apple Drinks (Regular & Secret Menu)
You can get regular boxed apple juice at most Starbucks stores, but that’s not why you go to Starbucks, right? Here are some of our favorite apple drinks and how to order them.
1. Steamed Apple Juice
If you’re looking for a warm and straightforward drink, then the regular menu item of steamed apple juice is for you. It’s 100% apple juice that has been steam heated.
Steamed apple juice is also the base for many of the secret menu apple drinks, and you can add syrups, purees, and tea to make your perfect combo.
2. Caramel Apple Spice
The other standard hot drink juice menu item is the Caramel Apple Spice. This is 100% pure apple juice, steam heated, and served with four pumps of the Cinnamon Dolce Syrup. It is topped with whipped cream and a drizzle of caramel for a delicious, rich fall drink.
The combination of hot apple, caramel, cinnamon, and cream makes for a perfect warming drink without caffeine.
3. Caramel Apple Pumpkin Spice
When fall comes around, it’s pumpkin spice season! We all know that pumpkin spice is a seasonal-only item on the Starbucks menu, so when you can try the Caramel Apple Pumpkin Spice, you have to take it—it’s the taste of fall in a single cup.
You order this by getting a standard Caramel Apple Spice off the Starbucks menu and adding two shots of the pumpkin spice syrup. Some people prefer to swap out two cinnamon dolce syrup pumps, but we think this is best with all the ingredients as recommended.
Hot apple juice, caramel, cinnamon, and pumpkin spice liberally topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce is the perfect warming drink for when the season turns.
4. Spiced Apple Pie
If you want a warm drink with a slightly sweet and spicy taste and a hint of apple tartness, order the Spiced Apple Pie.
It’s a secret menu drink made by ordering off-menu. While some Starbucks employees may know what you mean if you order a Spiced Apple Pie, it’s best to know the ingredients to order precisely what you want.
5. Caramel Apple Spice Frappucino
If you prefer a creamier drink, then the Caramel Apple Spice Frappucino is a perfect cold drink that is rich and spicy. It’s a great way to get apple pie’s comforting, tart taste, even on a hot day!
6. Raspberry Apple Lemonade
Another fabulous cold drink with a hint of apple is the Peach Apple Lemonade. This is not a drink on the Starbucks menu, so you’ll need to get creative to make it.
This drink is a sweet and tart combo that will cool you down and leave you refreshed on a summer day.
You can add more or fewer pumps of raspberry syrup to get the flavor combination you prefer.
7. Apple Pie Frappucino
If you want a delicious cold drink that tastes just like apple pie, grab an Apple Pie Frappucino. This is a secret menu item, so you must know how to order it.
Top your drink with whipped cream, a drizzle of caramel, and some salted brown butter topping and cinnamon powder.
8. Starbucks Apple Crisp Oatmilk Macchiato
Once a regular menu option, the Apple Crisp Macchiato was removed but returned for the 2022 fall menu and is now made standard with oat milk.
It’s a hot and comforting seasonal drink on the Starbucks fall menu, made with creamy hot oat milk, blonde espresso, and spiced apple syrup. With apple and brown sugar notes against the rich milky coffee, this is a fantastic warming drink when you want an apple pie taste with a caffeine boost.
While the new version is made with oat milk for the best flavor combination, you can easily swap that out for your preferred milk. You can also add cinnamon dolce syrup if you like a hint of cinnamon in your apple drinks.
9. Caramel Apple Frappuccino
Not to be confused with the Camarel Apple Spice Frappuccino, this creamy blended drink has an entirely different flavor profile.
This green tea drink goes exceptionally well with the flavor of apples and caramel. The caffeine content of this drink is around 80mg.
10. Apple Chai
How to Add Apple to Starbucks Drinks
While these are some of our favorite apple drinks at Starbucks, you are limited only by your tastes and the syrups and flavorings Starbucks offers. You can add apple flavoring to your drink in three main ways, though only one is available year-round.
Your choices are usually to use either apple juice or apple syrup. Apple juice will have a more natural flavor profile than apple syrups, which tend to be very sweet.
Starbucks often changes its base syrups available, and while apple syrup used to be a standard, it is currently not on the main menu. You may have to wait for seasonal menus if you prefer making your drinks with apple syrup.
Apple Juice
Apple juice is the easiest way to get apple flavor in our drinks. You can use steamed apple juice as a base for building warm apple drinks. By adding different syrups, chai concentrate, and topping with whipped cream, you can make a warm drink to suit your mood.
Some drinks work well by blending either hot milk and steamed apple juice or cold milk and apple juice for a creamy apple base.
Cold apple juice can be added to lemonade or mixed half and half into refreshers. It’s possible to ask for light apple juice with less sugar than the standard.
Apple Brown Sugar Syrup (Seasonal)
Since 2022, Starbucks has used Apple Brown Sugar Syrup to add apple flavor to seasonal drinks such as the Apple Crisp Macchiato. Since this syrup is only available on the seasonal menu, you’ll likely have to wait to fall for it to be available.
This syrup has hints of apple and isn’t overly sweet, but the apple and caramel flavor doesn’t always pair well with every drink. When using it, you need to be selective.
This syrup uses natural flavors, citric acid, brown sugar, and sodium benzoate. A single pump of apple syrup will add 20 calories to your drink, and there is currently no sugar-free version. For this reason, you may prefer to stick to only one or two Apple Brown Sugar Syrup pumps.
Good drinks to add this syrup to include the apple crisp macchiato, iced coffee, and mocha.
Spiced Apple Drizzle (Seasonal)
The Apple Crisp Macchiato uses Spiced Apple Drizzle for extra flavor, and this is a seasonal drizzle topping you can add when it’s available on the fall menu.
Spiced apple drizzle is made with corn syrup, apple juice concentrate, cinnamon nutmeg, and caramelized sugar for its spicy flavor. It’s an excellent addition to a drink if you like warm, spicy tastes.
One way of emulating this a little, if it’s unavailable, is to add pumpkin spice to apple drinks or cinnamon to steamed apple juice drinks.
Another way to add spice to a steamed apple juice drink is to add a shot or two of chai concentrate. The spices in this black tea shot are black pepper, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, and star anise.
The chai pump can add a rich exotic flavor to your drinks, but remember, each shot contains about 25 mg of caffeine.
Starbucks Apple Drinks FAQs
Conclusion
Cold and steamed apple juice is available on the Starbucks standard menu and can be combined with many other ingredients, syrups, and toppings to create new beverages. Some of these are known as Starbucks Secret menu drinks and are very well known.
You can easily use apple juice and seasonal apple syrups to add apple flavor to your drinks. Remember that apple flavor doesn’t always go well in every drink, but some great pairings are apple and caramel, apple and cinnamon, and apple and lemon. Spices added to warm drinks are excellent in the fall.
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