Gone are the days when Burger King’s drink menu was an afterthought. The fast-food giant is making a bold entry into the competitive beverage market, rolling out an exciting lineup of new iced coffees and refreshing lemonades. With a keen eye on winning over coffee enthusiasts and those seeking a sweet and tangy escape, Burger King is proving it’s more than just burgers, aiming to become your next go-to spot for a budget-friendly beverage fix.
Burger King Debuts Cold Foam Iced Coffees and Real Juice Lemonades
Burger King has rolled out a suite of new beverage options, the company confirmed to Newsweek on Friday.
As part of the new menu lineup, the fast-food giant introduced four Iced Coffee Cold Foam options and two Real Juice Lemonades.
Burger King is now selling four Iced Coffee Cold Foam options—Vanilla, Mocha, Plain, and Black—with the plain variety limited to select locations.
The chain has also launched two Real Juice Lemonades: Strawberry Lemonade, made with real fruit juice, and Mango Peach Lemonade, a blend of lemonade, peach, and mango juices.
These drinks have become available nationwide, according to a spokesperson for Burger King.
“The new Strawberry Lemonade is made with real fruit juice for a delicious and refreshing beverage, and the Mango Peach Lemonade is a vibrant blend of lemonade with real peach and mango juice,” the spokesperson told Newsweek.
Prices for these new beverages are set at $2.49 for a small, $2.79 for a medium, and $3.29 for a large, but actual prices may vary by location.
Why Burger King’s New Drinks Are More Than a Summer Treat
Burger King’s latest beverage rollout underscores the brand’s broader push to diversify its drink menu and better align with evolving customer tastes. The expansion arrives at a time when the fast-food industry is fiercely competing to win over beverage-focused consumers, with giants like Starbucks and McDonald’s continuously raising the bar in coffee and refreshment offerings.
According to Kevin Thompson, CEO of 9i Capital Group and host of the 9innings podcast, these new additions are designed to capture a share of this rapidly growing market. He shared with Newsweek, “Burger King launched these new drinks to gain a portion of the market share that has exploded over the past few years. They want to target those incremental Starbucks, Dutch Brothers and McDonald’s beverage drinkers.”
Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, further elaborated on the broader economic context, explaining to Newsweek that “Burger King is the latest to offer new menu options in the form of coffee cold foams and lemonades in the hopes of luring back customers. Over the last two years, as inflationary pressures have weighed heavily on consumers, many have favored staying at home and cooking over dining out, and the result has been declining revenues and profits for many fast food chains.” Beene added, “Like other restaurants, Burger King is introducing new items in an attempt to draw in customers who haven’t frequented their locations as much as prices increased.”
Beverages Are Booming—and Burger King Wants In
Burger King’s timing couldn’t be better. In recent years, beverages have emerged as a powerful growth engine for the fast-food industry, with consumer demand shifting noticeably toward cold, customizable drinks. According to Technomic’s Away-from-Home Beverage 2024 report (via Nation’s Restaurant News), Americans now purchase an average of 4.4 beverages per week from foodservice establishments—up from 3.7 in 2022. Much of that spending is happening at quick-service restaurants, with cold beverages alone seeing an 8.3% increase in sales from 2022 to 2023.
Younger consumers, especially Gen Z, are a major force behind this trend, gravitating toward vibrant, flavorful drinks like iced coffees, fruit-infused sodas, and lemonades. A recent Business Insider analysis even notes that iced beverage sales rose 9.6% year-over-year in 2024, outpacing the growth of traditional fast-food staples like burgers.
One standout example is cold coffee. In 2023 alone, Americans spent a staggering $17.7 billion on cold coffee beverages, a figure that has more than doubled since 2016. At Starbucks, cold drinks now account for three-quarters of all beverage sales, up from just 37% a decade ago.
With its new iced coffees and real juice lemonades, Burger King is tapping into this booming beverage moment. And with prices starting at just $2.49, the chain is positioning itself not just as a burger destination, but as a serious contender in the high-margin world of fast-food drinks.
Sources: Newsweek, Nation’s Restaurant News, Business Insider