How To Make An Italian Soda At Starbucks

When it comes to endless beverage customization, it's hard to beat Starbucks. The chain officially states it's possible to order 170,000 different beverages — although that figure might be even higher in actuality. After all, the potential tweaks don't only involve twists on classic drinks, but also completely newfound creations. Take an Italian soda, for example.

Scan the menu, and there's no such fruit-flavored carbonated beverage on the menu. Instead, you can assemble the secret item by purchasing a pre-packaged sparkling water – as of June 2026 Starbucks sells two flavors of Spindrift– then requesting a few pumps of syrups over a cup of ice. Some even lend the drink a creamy spin by incorporating half and half, heavy cream, or a whipped cream topping.

Similar to Mormon-born dirty soda, this DIY Starbucks spin welcomes enormous customization. The coffee chain sells over a dozen syrup flavors, which range from classics like vanilla and caramel, to fruity options like raspberry and mango, as well as creative options such marshmallow and toasted coconut. Depending on your preferred level of flavor and sweetness, it's recommended to add anywhere from two to four pumps into a grande sized cup with ice, then top with sparkling water. Feeling extra experimental? Try mixing and matching flavors — a mango-marshmallow soda does sound delicious, after all.

Meshing pre-bottled and made-to-order components isn't the easiest Starbucks customization; brace for a few potential mishaps. Most prominently, keep in mind ingredient availability varies per location. In the past, Starbucks sold unflavored sparkling water – although the drink no longer appears on the online menu. Instead, the only two sold bottled bubbly beverages are flavored Spindrifts, one lemon the other raspberry. As a result, it's no longer possible to add syrups onto a blank canvas. Not to mention Spindrift availability isn't guaranteed.

On some occasions, buying the syrup standalone could prove difficult. If you're placing an online order, it's not feasible to customize packaged beverages. Furthermore, it's not always plausible to ring in standalone syrups online — the flavorings need to modify a beverage. And every once in a while, baristas might deny the the customization altogether. "I refuse to make an Italian Soda, and I tell every customer that asks for one that we don't make them," stated a poster on a Starbucks Reddit thread — though plenty on the thread claimed they didn't have a problem with the beverage in question. Nevertheless, the concept of a Starbucks Italian soda has been around for at least two decades. At the very least, feel free to inquire regarding the beverage hack.