Does Starbucks' New Pink Drink Pink Energy Have Caffeine? It Contains Green Coffee Bean Extract?!

Starbucks China Introduces the Pink Drink—with Confusing Names

News recently broke that Starbucks China would launch the globally popular "Pink Drink" around the end of May or early June, generating plenty of anticipation among coffee fans in mainland China!

The Chinese translation of the Pink Drink's name quickly became a hot topic among netizens. Many assumed the product would follow the usual convention of naming by ingredient, or borrow the translations already used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, such as "Pink Strawberry Frappuccino" and "Strawberry Lemon Frappuccino."

But to everyone's surprise, the name finally announced after half a month of waiting left Starbucks fans speechless. They immediately flooded social media with their reactions, and netizens were equally baffled...

Unexpected Names and New Flavors

As it turned out, besides the Pink Drink and its related versions, there was also a dragon fruit and mango combination. The head-scratching part was the names: "Fen Fen Sheng Ka," "Fen Mei Ning Li Sheng Ka," "Huan Zi Sheng Ka," and "Mang Zi Ning Li Sheng Ka"...

Setting aside how these names sound in different regional dialects, many people from southern China found them hard to pronounce at all. Others felt "Huan Zi" (Phantom Purple) sounded like the name of a medicine—hardly appetizing in a Chinese cultural context.

What Does "Sheng Ka" Actually Mean?

Why does this series use "Sheng Ka" ("raw coffee") in its name when it contains no brewed coffee at all? According to the ingredients list on Starbucks' official US website, the juices in this series contain extracts from unroasted coffee beans, with each drink carrying 45-55mg of caffeine.

As for why Starbucks China didn't follow Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan in using "Frappuccino," some netizens speculate it was to emphasize uniqueness and differentiation, while others think it was meant to ride on the popularity of the ubiquitous "raw coconut" series.

The Science Behind Raw Coffee

In recent years, many regions and countries have begun introducing "raw coffee" products. The claim is that a daily cup made from a mix of unroasted and roasted beans offers better antioxidant and weight-loss effects.

Researchers have been studying the benefits of "raw coffee" for several years. To compare the weight-loss effects of "raw coffee" versus "black coffee," they ran a four-week experiment: half the participants drank a cup of "raw coffee" before breakfast every day, and the other half drank a cup of "black coffee."

After two weeks, the "raw coffee" group had lost an average of 1.59 kg, versus 0.13 kg for the "black coffee" group. By week four, the gap had widened: 2.01 kg for the "raw coffee" group compared with 0.25 kg for the "black coffee" group.

Going by these results, while black coffee can support weight loss too, its effect clearly pales next to raw coffee. The reason lies in chlorogenic acid, abundant in unroasted beans, which improves insulin sensitivity and regulates sugar and lipid metabolism—and plays an important role in preventing and managing chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome.

Conclusion

Of course, those are the benefits of raw coffee itself. Once it's blended into beverages loaded with syrup, the effects are inevitably watered down. So the connection between the term "Sheng Ka" and what's actually in the cup is thin at best—though the drinks can still count as low-caffeine options.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you'd rather get your antioxidants the honest way—from actual freshly roasted coffee—FrontStreet Coffee's entry-level specialty beans are an easy place to start. The washed Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Guodingding brings bright citrus, berries, and florals with a gentle, green-tea-like sweetness, while the natural Sidama Aricha (Huakui) overflows with strawberry, passion fruit, and lychee aromas and hardly any bitterness—perfect for anyone put off by coffee's traditional bite.

Low on bitterness, big on flavor, and far fresher than anything from a syrup bottle: that's what good specialty coffee should taste like.