I recently tried the Medicine Ball tea in-store at Starbucks and loved it, but I can’t figure out how to order it correctly through the Starbucks app. It doesn’t seem to show up by that name, and I’m not sure which menu item or customizations to use so it tastes the same. Can someone walk me through the exact steps or options to pick in the app so I get the right drink every time?
Yeah, the “Medicine Ball” name does not show in the app anymore. Starbucks calls it “Honey Citrus Mint Tea” in the menu.
Quick way to order it in the app:
- Open the app
- Go to “Menu”
- Tap “Hot Teas”
- Look for “Honey Citrus Mint Tea”
- That is the Medicine Ball
If you want to match the in store version:
- Size: Grande
- Tea bags: 1 Jade Citrus Mint, 1 Peach Tranquility
- Sweetener: 2 packets honey or 1–2 pumps honey blend, depending on your store
- Add: Steamed lemonade instead of some of the water (the standard recipe already uses lemonade)
If your store or app layout is weird, workaround:
- Pick any hot tea drink
- Customize
- Change tea to:
- 1 Jade Citrus Mint
- 1 Peach Tranquility
- Liquid:
- Half hot water
- Half steamed lemonade
- Add honey in the “Sweeteners” section
You can also save it as a “Favorite” once you order it once so you do not have to dig for it again.
If nothing shows under “Honey Citrus Mint,” try searching “citrus” in the search bar. The app search is kinda dumb but it usually surfaces it.
Yeah, the naming in the app is super confusing on purpose lol. “Medicine Ball” is kind of a fan nickname, so the app pretends it doesn’t exist.
@sognonotturno covered the straight “Honey Citrus Mint Tea” route, so here are a few other tricks:
1. Use the “Recent / Previous” order hack
If you ever bought it in-store with the app scanned, it sometimes shows up in “Recent” or “Previous” orders as Honey Citrus Mint Tea.
- Go to “Orders”
- Tap “Previous”
- Look for any tea that looks like your Medicine Ball
- Reorder, then customize from there
2. Search by ingredients instead of name
The app search is kinda trash, but you can do:
- Search: “Jade Citrus” or “Peach Tranquility”
- Tap one of those teas
- Customize it by adding the other tea bag, lemonade, and honey
This works better in some regions than searching “citrus.”
3. Copy the barista’s screen
Next time you’re in-store, watch how it rings up on their POS. It will show the exact official drink name & custom modifiers they use.
Take a quick pic of that screen and then recreate it in the app later using the same:
- Size
- Teabags
- Lemonade / water split
- Honey or honey blend amount
4. Use “Favorites” aggressively
Where I slightly disagree with @sognonotturno is on just saving one version. The app can be weird about availability, so I save:
- A “winter sick” version with extra lemonade & honey
- A “daily” version with less sweetener
You can long-press the favorited drink later and tweak it instead of hunting through the menu again.
5. If your app really will not show it at all
It’s sometimes region dependent or randomly missing from certain stores in the app:
- Pick any hot tea
- Replace every tea bag with Jade Citrus + Peach
- Kill any random syrups they pre-add
- Add lemonade under “Add-ins” or “Customizations”
- Add honey in “Sweeteners”
Once it works once, star it as a Favorite and never dig for it again.
It’s not you, it’s the app.
Couple of extra angles to get a Medicine Ball on the Starbucks app without fighting the weird naming.
1. Use “Saved customizations” instead of chasing the exact drink
Where I slightly disagree with @sognonotturno and the other reply: you don’t need to perfectly mirror what the barista does on the POS. The app logic can differ by store anyway. Instead:
- Pick any hot tea once.
- Build it into your ideal Medicine Ball (Honey Citrus Mint Tea style).
- At checkout, don’t obsess over the name. Just save it as a favorite and mentally label it “Medicine Ball.”
From then on, just order from Favorites. Name mismatch stops mattering.
2. Use store-specific availability to your advantage
Different locations expose different tea bases in-app:
- If one store’s app view refuses to show Jade Citrus Mint or Peach Tranquility, swap to another nearby store in the app and re-check the tea list.
- Build your Medicine Ball at the store that shows all the teas, favorite it, then switch back to your usual store. The favorite often remains orderable even if the base drink is buried in the menu.
3. Temperature control trick
Medicine Balls can come out lava hot or disappointingly lukewarm depending on how the app flags it. On your custom drink:
- Check “customize” and look for the “temperature” or “extra hot” style options (some regions show “kid’s temperature” etc.).
- When you’re sick, you might actually want “extra hot,” but if you’re sipping immediately, pick standard so it aligns with what you liked in-store.
4. Pre-empt substitutions when stores are out of something
If your store is frequently out of Peach Tranquility or lemonade:
- Build a “backup Medicine Ball” recipe in the app with a different herbal tea (like mint or chamomile) plus lemonade and honey.
- Save both the “real” Medicine Ball and the backup as separate favorites so you are not re-creating on the fly when ingredients are missing.
5. Pros & cons of ordering the Medicine Ball through the Starbucks app
Pros
- You can lock in your exact sweetness (honey amount) and tea strength (number of bags).
- Favorites mean 2-tap ordering when you feel awful and do not want to think.
- Easier to tweak size, lemonade ratio, and sweetener than shouting custom instructions in line.
Cons
- The official name “Honey Citrus Mint Tea” + fan name “Medicine Ball” confusion makes it harder to find.
- Some stores or regions hide the right teas or lemonade entirely, so you end up hacking another drink.
- Customizations do not always translate perfectly in-store, so the first app version might taste a bit different from what you had at the counter.
Between your own custom favorite and the ingredient-search tricks already mentioned by @sognonotturno and others, you should be able to recreate that Medicine Ball reliably without needing it to literally say “Medicine Ball” anywhere in the app.