I Tried the Starbucks Secret Menu Lavender Haze Drink—Here’s How You Can, Too

OK Starbucks lovers, this one’s officially for us: The newest secret menu item at Starbucks is straight out of Taylor Swift’s Lavender Haze dreamworld. A sweet-tangy combo of passionfruit and vanilla, this drink is worth a try, even if you don’t consider yourself a Swiftie (but also, it’s 2023, a chance to reconsider and begin again).

How to Order the Lavender Haze Drink at Starbucks

While it’s not an official menu item, you can easily order this drink on the app or in-store with a few modifications. Here’s how:

• Order an iced passion tango tea (size Venti)
• Add a splash of milk
• Add six pumps of vanilla syrup
• Remove the water

The original drink recipe calls for soy milk specifically, but any milk can work here. I ordered mine with coconut milk for an extra creamy, truly tropical-inspired sip. The milk mixed with the tea is what gives this drink its lavender hue, and the vanilla syrup adds a boost of flavor and sweetness. You can always cut back on the number of pumps, especially if you order a smaller size.

Does the Lavender Haze Drink Taste Good?

I thought the drink tasted OK. A lot of people chiming in on social media claim the six pumps of vanilla is much too sweet, for example, but my issue was actually that my tea was too far on the tangy side (I have a big sweet tooth!). Part of the potential discrepancy lies in the fact that your drink mixture might just vary depending on the barista, and that’s not something you can control. But there are definitely some useful variations you can play with, tried and suggested by other fans.

Personally, I’m most likely going back to my usual pistachio cream cold brew order tomorrow, but I do think the lavender haze drink has the potential to be pretty great with some recipe tweaking.

Is the Lavender Haze Drink New?

The lavender haze drink was recently inspired by fans on TikTok, with users like @alexiaencinas13 sharing their tips and experience. But believe it or not, this drink has actually been around for years, first gaining popularity in 2016 under a different name: the “Purple Drink.” This drink surged in fandom following a wave of social media buzz around the “Pink Drink.” So that’s where Taylor was on April 29th of that same year—at her local Starbucks. (This is me trying, but I know all too well that was a bad joke. I’m not sorry.)

The Purple Drink became popular that summer (an especially cruel summer for our girl, Taylor), right around Pride, and included additional ingredients of blueberries and blackberries, a nice touch for summery sips. If you're not a fan of fruit floating in your drink, another idea is to top your lavender haze tea with vanilla sweet cream cold foam, which actually serves quite well as the “haze.”

Where Can I Find the Starbucks Secret Menu?

Starbucks doesn’t actually have an official secret menu, but the concept of a secret menu has been popularized over the years as coffee drinkers have gotten creative with their orders. With such an expansive menu of syrups, flavors, seasonal items, and frequent new drink launches, Starbucks lends itself naturally to experimentation—much to some baristas’ mild annoyance, but other baristas are in on it and even happy to suggest their own unique customizations. Luckily, the lavender haze drink is one of the simpler secret menu items and is fairly well-known, given its long-ish history.

Note that you can only find some secret menu items during a limited season (like this list of fall secret menu drinks). If you’ve got the winter sniffles, perhaps you’d like to give The Medicine Ball a try (another tea-based drink).

Even though it wasn't my favorite, I’d still say that the lavender haze drink is definitely worth a shot the next time you go to put in your Starbucks order. Even if it’s not the most delicious thing you’ve ever sipped on, these types of drinks are meant to be fun, and in this case, a celebration of one of the most prominent musical artists of our generation (whether you actually like her music or not). At tea time—I think—everybody can agree.