We Tried Dutch Bros Blended Orangesicle Rebel Drink. Here's How It Went
Summer may be fading away in much of the country, but Dutch Bros is still trying to capture some sunshine in a cup this August. The chain is featuring the Orangesicle Rebel, a sweet, orange-flavored drink with creamy Soft Top, to celebrate the tail end of summer. According to the chain's senior product manager, Mary Beugelsdijk, "The Blended Orangesicle Rebel is the ultimate summer drink that has a nostalgic kick making you feel like a kid again." It looks like a sunny day and provides a fruity alternative to the coffee drinks on the Dutch Bros menu.
The Orangesicle Rebel sounds pretty delicious, but any menu item lives or dies on the strength of its execution. Is this an orange-flavored delight, or should it be consigned to the dustbin of blended drink history? We took a spin through our local Dutch Bros drive-thru to test it out for ourselves and share our results with you.
What's in the Orangesicle Rebel?
This drink might look like an innocuous sweet, blended confection, but it packs a serious caffeine punch. It's only fitting for even the non-coffee options from this java chain to be filled with enough caffeine to jolt you awake in the morning. This beverage is made with Dutch Bros' in-house energy drink, Rebel, specifically, the Orangesicle flavor, which is supposed to taste like orange and vanilla (via Dutch Bros). It's a pretty obvious reference to the classic Creamsicle frozen treat, complete with a cute little ice pop mascot. You can order the drink over ice or blended; we went with blended.
The energy drink gets topped with Dutch Bros Soft Top, a creamy, foamy, dairy-based topping. The Soft Top takes the place of the vanilla ice cream in the center of a Creamsicle. However, in this drink, the balance is tipped toward orange rather than cream, with the Soft Top only making up a tiny percentage of what's in the cup.
Where can you get it, and how much does it cost?
According to a Dutch Bros press release, the Orangesicle Rebel was released on August 17, 2022. The drink is available at all Dutch Bros locations.
The Orangesicle Rebel is a featured drink at the moment and will stay featured until the end of August. If you're not able to make it to Dutch Bros to try it by the end of the month, don't worry: It's going to remain on the menu all year, just not in the featured section.
Dutch Bros doesn't list prices on its website, so we can only tell you what we paid for the Orangesicle Rebel in Arizona. With tax, our medium drink was $6.62. That seems kind of pricy when you can get a can of Monster or Red Bull for just a couple of bucks, but you are also paying for somebody to blend it and put Soft Top on it for you, so perhaps that justifies the cost.
How does it compare to other Dutch Bros menu items?
Dutch Bros may primarily be a coffee chain, but it has an extensive line of Rebel energy drinks as well. We count 40 different flavor combinations of Rebel listed on the Dutch Bros menu, and we bet that you could ask for your own mix if you wanted to as well. The Orangesicle flavor joins other whimsically-named, neon-hued concoctions like the Laser Cat, Shark Attack, Double Rainbro, and Unicorn Blood. If anything, the orange and vanilla duo of the Orangesicle seems restrained when compared with some of the other listed options, which combine up to four different fruit flavors.
None of the non-Orangesicle Rebel flavors are pictured with Soft Top, but you could likely ask for it to be added for an extra fee. The Orangesicle is featured next to Dutch Bros' other special summer drinks, the Cookie Dough Cold Brew and Blended Cookie Dough Freeze, both of which come crowned with a mound of snowy white Soft Top.
What are the nutrition facts of this new Dutch Bros drink?
Not to sound like conspiracy theorists, but we're not entirely sure the nutrition facts for this drink on the Dutch Bros menu are accurate. It says that the small, medium, and large sizes all have the exact same nutrition facts. We suppose that could be possible if the only difference between the sizes is that the larger ones have more ice, but that would be pretty scammy. It seems more likely that the listed nutrition facts are only correct for one of the sizes, but we're not sure which one.
With that said, one of these bad boys apparently has 290 calories and 8 grams of fat. That comes with 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 115 milligrams of sodium, and 2 grams of protein. The most concerning numbers in its nutritional profile are the 56 grams of carbs and 52 grams of sugar. Assuming most of those sugars are added sugars, that would put your right at the FDA daily recommended maximum.
Is the Blended Orangesicle Rebel worth a taste?
We wanted to like this. We love both the original Creamsicle ice pop and orange cream soda, which does a similar orange and vanilla thing. However, for us, this beverage didn't deliver on the nostalgic flavors it promised.
In order for Creamsicle-flavored things to work, the sweet vanilla component must be strong enough to balance out the acidity of the orange. When we first sipped the Orangesicle Rebel, we didn't pick up any vanilla at all. It just tasted like a somewhat sour orange energy drink with that distinctive SweeTarts-esque flavor that many energy drinks have. The Soft Top tasted kind of like sweetened condense milk without much noticeable vanilla flavor. It was nice and creamy and provided a fun textural contrast, but there wasn't very much of it. In the absence of a strong note of vanilla, the combination of orange and milk flavors was a little bizarre.
As the drink warmed up a bit, we could taste more vanilla, but by then, the Soft Top was long gone. The Orangesicle Rebel is a good idea, but its execution could be improved. But maybe that's just us — you might disagree entirely. If so, let us know.