Starbucks changed its iced coffee blend for the first time in 18 years

Starbucks has made a big change to its iced coffee — and people online have already noticed.

Starbucks revealed to TODAY.com that it rolled out a major recipe update to its iced coffee starting on May 7. The previous iced coffee blend launched in 2006, making this the first time it’s changed in 18 years.

Starbucks’ iced coffee is now made with a blend of “sun-dried and washed” Latin American coffee beans the brand says will deliver a cup that’s “approachable and refreshing with notes of malted milk chocolate and a brown-sugar sweetness.”

“Designed with versatility in mind, the new Iced Coffee Blend is delicious either on its own or customized to any customer’s preference,” Starbucks coffee developer Leslie Wolford said in a statement.

Its iced coffee is now also served unsweetened as the standard:  Starbucks says that in their iced coffee orders, most customers were opting for less or no classic syrup, which was previously served as part of the standard build of the beverage.

Starbucks says that nearly two-thirds of Starbucks beverage sales as of May 2024 have come from cold drinks like iced coffee, cold brew, iced shaken espresso and more, making this a change that will affect many customers’ regular orders.

Social media has already sensed the change

In March (before the release of the new blend), a Reddit post titled “Did SBUX change their iced coffee?” asked if others noticed a change in the coffee.

“I’ve gone to three different stores now, and each time my drink (just an iced coffee with 2 toffeenut and oatmilk) has tasted...burnt?” wrote the Redditor, adding that they feel the roast is darker than it used to be.

“Did Starbucks change their ice coffee roast or how the iced coffee is brewed?” they wrote. “If it was just a one time thing, I wouldn’t think anything of it, but it’s been consistent the past couple months now. It doesn’t taste right and most the time I’ve been drinking only half of it before tossing it away.”

Since the switch was made in May, the original poster was unlikely tasting the new blend, but newer comments on the post show that customers have since sensed the switch.

“I immediately noticed a change, on back to back visits, the first week of May,” wrote one commenter, adding that the new brew tastes “soured” to them. The OP agreed, replying, “YES! “SOURED”! That’s exactly the word I was looking for!”

However, for the past few months, multiple people in separate Reddit posts have been posing the same question.

“No longer served with classic syrup by default is good but the new blend kinda sucks,” wrote one commenter on a post titled, “Hey did they change the Iced Coffee?”

On the flipside of the coffee cup, however, some customers have shown excitement on social media over the fact that Starbucks’ iced coffee is no longer sweetened by default.

“The BEST thing @Starbucks has ever done was to remove the ‘classic syrup’ from the iced coffee!” posted one X user.

“Love that the iced coffee doesn’t come with sweetener now!” someone commented on Instagram.

“Yay for making iced coffee unsweetened ! Thank you,” commented another person on Instagram.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com