Dive Brief:
- Sweetgreen is expanding its Housemade Beverage lineup with two new flavors and two updated recipes for existing drinks at 120 restaurants, according to a Tuesday press release.
- The chain also added a new 24-ounce cup size along with its existing 16-ounce cups.
- Beverages are becoming a part of its guests' routines, and the share of drinks transactions has risen nearly 25% at participating restaurants since Sweetgreen began serving housemade beverages.
Dive Insight:
Sweetgreen remains focused on improving food quality as part of its Sweet Growth Transformation plan, which is meant to improve operations, food quality, customer experience and brand relevance. The chain continues to face ongoing same-store sales and traffic dips, but menu innovation may alter that downward trajectory.
The new flavors are Tropical Black Tea and Fresh Blackberry Basil, and the chain reformulated its Signature Lemonade and Ginger Greens drinks, the press release said.
Sweetgreen originally began testing its Housemade Beverages in 2025, when it brought the drinks to three markets and saw strong initial results, CEO Jonathan Neman said during an earnings call in August 2025.
The rollout will occur across Boston, North Carolina, Philadelphia, the New York Metropolitan area, the Washington, D.C. metro, Phoenix; Salt Lake City; Nashville, Tennessee; and Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, California, a spokesperson said in an email.
The drinks are made in-house from fruit, vegetables, herbs and agave. Tropical Black Tea doesn't have any sweetener.
“We made them slightly less sweet so the blackberry, basil and ginger come through first, and every drink is crafted to complement the meal,” Nicolas Jammet, Sweetgreen’s co-founder and chief concept officer, said in a statement. “A drink is often the last thing someone adds to their order, and we want it to be one of the parts they look forward to most.”
These drinks are part of Sweetgreen’s effort to enhance the menu with items that undergo an extensive stage-gate process. The fast casual chain adopted this process over a year ago after its popular Ripple Fries proved too operationally complex and had to be pulled off the menu.
Sweetgreen rolled out wraps earlier this year after extensive testing, starting with select markets, similar to how it is expanding beverages, before its nationwide launch. The chain also launched a major social media campaign to promote the wraps and updated its rewards program to include a reward specific for wraps.
Other limited-service chains have enhanced or are testing premium beverages to continue to appeal to Gen Z and other consumers who want more drink variety. Panera Bread added Energy Refreshers and Frescas in March. Taco Bell is testing four horchata drinks at its Live Más Cafés. McDonald’s expanded its McCafé menu with refreshers, dirty sodas and energy drinks this year. KFC will begin selling Coke drinks next year, and is testing a variety of new beverages at a unit designed specifically as a testing ground for innovation.
