KANSAS CITY — Tropical fruits are adding a summer spin to new menu items, with exotic ingredients such as coconut, pineapple, passionfruit and mango evoking vacation vibes.
Mango melds with dragonfruit in Starbucks’ new Mango Dragonfruit Refresher, which features mango and dragonfruit flavors shaken with ice and diced dragon fruit.
“Even the name dragonfruit sounds magical,” said Alicia Binion, a member of the Starbucks research and development team. “It’s one of those up-and-coming flavors. The red-fleshed fruit is less common and helps make this drink so fun and unique. People love both the flavor and the color. It’s bright and vivid, something you would want to take a picture of to share with friends.”
“Even the name dragonfruit sounds magical. It’s one of those up-and-coming flavors." — Alicia Binion, Starbucks
The summer sips continue with Starbucks’ new Cold Foam Tea Lemonades. The Summer Sunrise version features pineapple infusion and lemonade sweetened with classic syrup all topped with cold foam infused with passionfruit-laden Teavana Passion Tango herbal tea. The Summer Sunset variety features Teavana Passion Tango tea, pineapple flavor and lemonade topped with the Passion Tango herbal tea cold foam.
Coconut conjures summer sensations in Dunkin’ Donuts’ new Chocolate Coconutty Donut. The treat features a coconut crème filling with coconut flakes and is topped with chocolate icing and crumbled shortbread cookie pieces.
At Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, mango meets mahi mahi to create a new tropical taco. The Mango Mahi Taco features seasoned and grilled mahi mahi topped with a salsa of mango, tomato, red onion and cilantro all drizzled with citrus habanero sauce in a corn tortilla.
Passionfruit and mango blend to create a new beach-worthy frozen yogurt flavor at Pinkberry. The new Passion Mango flavor may be eaten plain or with mango slices and honey almond granola.
