Beverage

Chick-fil-A refreshes its beverage lineup with a taste of the tropics

The drinks category continues to grow, with three new additions and one returning favorite coming to the menu Monday.
4 drinks
Chick-fil-A adds four tropical-flavored mango passion fruit drinks to its winter menu on Monday. | Photo courtesy of Chick-fil-A.

Cold beverages continue to heat up the menu at Chick-fil-A, with three new additions coming on Monday along with the return of a favorite.

Mango Passion Lemonade, Mango Passion Iced Tea and Mango Passion Frosted Lemonade are the newbies, with Mango Passion Sunjoy making a comeback.

The first is a combo of Chick-fil-A’s classic lemonade with mango and passion fruit flavors, while the frosted lemonade blends the brand’s Icedream frozen dessert into diet or regular lemonade for a creamy refresher. Mango Passion Iced tea starts with freshly-brewed iced tea combined with mango and passion fruit flavors, and Mango Passion Sunjoy has a base of a lemonade-iced tea mix.

Approximate prices for the mango passion fruit drinks range from $2.25 for the iced tea to $4.75 for the frosted lemonade. They will be available at restaurants nationwide through April 6, for a limited time, while supplies last.

“Customers loved the Mango Passion flavor when it was on our menu in 2020, so we are thrilled to bring it back with even more flavor offerings for guests to enjoy,” Allison Duncan, director, menu & packaging at Chick-fil-A, said in a statement. “We’re seeing a growing demand for cold and iced beverages from consumers throughout the year, with recent enthusiasm for our Watermelon Mint and White Peach beverages, as well as our new Peppermint beverages this winter. We’re excited to surprise guests with bright new flavors that will redefine our seasonal beverages!”  

Indeed, drinks are a growing category at fast-food restaurants, which are facing increasing competition from innovative beverage concepts such as Swig, Sip Fresh, Dutch Bros and Gong Cha. McDonald’s launch of beverage-focused CosMc’s last month reinforces the market potential; the burger giant is moving quickly to claim a piece of the $100 billion specialty beverage business and already has nine more CosMc’s in the works.

Even In-N-Out, which hasn’t expanded its menu in five years, just added two new cold drinks to the lineup. And Taco Bell, Wendy’s and Sonic continue to innovate on the beverage side.

Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A is keeping up with the trend, betting that winter weary guests will welcome a taste of the tropics during the off-season. The chain even suggests a food pairing, recommending that guests enjoy one of the mango passion fruit drinks with its Spicy Deluxe Sandwich. The spicy chicken complements the beverages’ sweet tropical flavors, according to Chick-fil-A.

This story has been updated with pricing information. 

Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Financing

Podcast transcript: Dutch Bros CEO Christine Barone

A Deeper Dive: Here is the transcript for the May 29 podcast with the chief executive of the drive-thru coffee chain, who talks real estate, boba and other topics.

Financing

McDonald's value perception problem is with its lighter users

The Bottom Line: The fast-food giant took the extraordinary step of publicizing average prices this week. It was speaking to its less-frequent customers, who are a lot less likely to say the chain is a good value.

Financing

CEO pay soared last year, despite a volatile period for restaurants

Pay for CEOs at publicly traded restaurants took off last year, but remains lower than average among public companies, even as tenure for the position remains volatile.

Trending

More from our partners