I don’t know who greenlit it because it’s sucks lol. Seeing a lot of people complaining about the disappearance of the S’mores Frappe.

I'm pretty sure the kiwi was a production issue as opposed to RD, but considering how they had to delay the launch and we dumped several cases, I'm sure that was expensive af.

I imagine R&D is pretty expensive, but its not like they're doing anything revolutionary. Are they really have to do is come up with one new FLAVOR. The syrup is already formulated so it's really just what compounds will make a good flavor, plus drinks follow a base builds so it's not like they're trying to create something brand new. As far as I know, sbux doesn't use new compounds, only ones that are already are already approved so testing is really just if people like it rather than all the science to prove it's safe. Of course something like a new strawberry formulation, like how they keep changing the puree can get expensive. Any new new ingredient might get expensive, but even kiwi couldn't have been that much since it's flavored grape juice and they've had many flavors of it already.

But since they release so many "new drinks" a year, I imagine they recoup the cost quickly enough to do it several times a year