• "Bridgerton" season three adapts Julia Quinn's fourth novel from the "Bridgerton" book series.
• However, the show's plot strays quite a lot from "Romancing Mister Bridgerton."
• Here are the seven best and seven worst changes the TV show made.

"Bridgerton" season three might be based on "Romancing Mister Bridgerton," but the Netflix series took some major liberties with the source material.

Season three follows the general book plot by adapting the friends-to-lovers romance between Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton). But the rest of the story is filled with changes, including the love triangle in season three, part one.

This is not uncommon for "Bridgerton," which has been a roaring success since its first season and is one of Netflix's most-watched series ever.

Here are the best and worst changes "Bridgerton" season three made from the books.

Best: Cressida and Eloise's friendship

In "Romancing Mister Bridgerton," Cressida Cowper is a one-note bully of London's high society, and she never becomes friends with Eloise Bridgerton, Colin's younger sister.

However, in the series, the writers evolve Cressida (Jessica Madsen) as a character through her friendship with Eloise (Claudia Jessie). We learn that Cressida bullies others due to her insecurity of not having any friends or suitors.

We also learn that Cressida is in a tough position because her parents insist on her finding a suitor. She needs a husband to escape her family.

Cressida develops from the one-note bully to a fully realized woman trying to survive in the Ton.

The friendship also develops Eloise. Since season one, she has been a self-obsessed, slightly insensitive, reckless young lady. She doesn't listen to anyone's advice until her friendship with Cressida, and the audience can see her maturing this season.

Best: The addition of Lord Debling

In "Romancing Mister Bridgerton," most of the tension in Penelope and Colin's relationship comes from his realization that she's Lady Whistledown.

But the timelines are a bit different in season three of the show. To up the urgency, "Bridgerton" instead creates a romantic rival: Lord Debling. Like Penelope, Lord Debling is looking for a match — but he seeks a practical, rather than romantic, one given that he plans on traveling for years at a time. For Penelope — a.k.a. the Ton's most prolific gossip columnist — that's pretty ideal, even if she'd prefer love.

It's nice to see someone genuinely interested in Penelope (other than Colin, after he gets his act in gear), and Sam Phillips' Lord Debling is a great mix of polished, detached, and a little bit odd. Seeing Colin jealous is pretty delightful, too.

Best: Francesca Bridgerton makes her debut this season

Francesca Bridgerton is the not-so-secret second lead of "Bridgerton" season three. Hannah Dodd takes over the role from Ruby Stokes, who departed after the show's second season, and handles Francesca's debut with aplomb.

Francesca's storyline this season is different from what we've seen from the other "Bridgerton" couples, due in part to the fact that her true love story in the books is still yet to come. Contrary to her mother's aspirations, Francesca isn't set on a love match — she mostly wants a kind husband and a good life. Still, she finds a kindred spirit in Lord Kilmartin, a man who prefers to bond in silence and rearranges music for her at the drop of a hat.

This part of Francesca's story takes place on a different timeline in the books vis-à-vis Penelope and Colin's. But it's great to see her develop a relationship and get more space as a character prior to her eventual time as a romantic lead.

Best: Gender-swapping Michaela Stirling

In season three, part two, "Bridgerton" revealed that it had changed the gender of Francesca's eventual love interest: Michael was now Michaela, her husband John's cousin.

In "When He Was Wicked," Francesca's book in the series, she eventually falls in love with John's cousin Michael after John's death two years into their marriage. But in the season three finale, John introduced Francesca to Michaela — and Francesca was visibly smitten.

Changing Michael's gender, and therefore key elements of his and Francesca's story, has proven to be divisive for book fans, though Quinn publicly stands behind it. But Francesca's story does easily lend itself to a queer interpretation, and it's huge for "Bridgerton" to set up a queer relationship for one of the siblings.

Best: The balloon incident

Every "Bridgerton" man needs a good opportunity to showboat, and this is Colin's.

Before a hot-air balloon launch, an unmoored rope and an unusually windy day cause the balloon to drift off. Colin, his forearms exposed, grabs one of the ropes and rallies a group of men to heave the balloon and its basket back onto the platform.

This scene has everything: a brute display of strength, Penelope almost getting caught in the balloon's path because she was busy staring at Colin, and Lord Debling chivalrously protecting her from harm. Colin receives plenty of adoration from the audience, but he only has eyes for Penelope. If only he understood that he was in love with her!

This incident doesn't happen in "Romancing Mister Bridgerton," but it's the perfect dose of jealousy-tinged frivolity that we need in "Bridgerton."

Best: Violet Bridgerton's romance

The first two seasons and "Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Series" have been mainly focused on young people falling in love. The same situation occurs in the "Bridgerton" books.

But in season three, we finally get a hint at an older love story with the burgeoning flirtation between Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) and Lord Marcus Anderson (Daniel Francis).

It is really great to see one of the show's best older characters get a romance. Violet and Lord Marcus have both been widowed, so it would be a great opportunity for the series to develop a "second love" relationship.

"Bridgerton" hasn't gone full out on this relationship just yet — but there's a lot of potential going forward.

Best: Making Benedict queer

This may not have been Benedict's season, but the writers' room didn't leave him hanging. The show has periodically teased that Benedict may not be straight, and this season, it finally pulled through by sending him tumbling into the sheets with Lady Tilley Arnold and her friend Paul. Benedict's queer! All rejoice!

Benedict is now firmly in his fling era, which is a bit at odds with the fact that it seems like his romance is due next season. But whatever — it's fun enough that "Bridgerton" finally opened up this side of his character.

Worst: Benedict is still single and lost

The other side of the threesome coin: Benedict is still a bachelor.

By "Romancing Mister Bridgerton," Benedict had found his lover and was already married.

However, the "Bridgerton" TV series skipped his romance for now, so he is still single and lost. While Benedict's casual relationships were fun in the first season, it was a little disappointing to postpone Benedict's romance to give him another fling.

Benedict is one of the best Bridgertons. We want to see his love story!

Worst: Lady Danbury doesn't have a friendship with Penelope

One of the best past of "Romancing Mister Bridgerton" was Penelope's friendship with Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh), a wise, independent widow in the Ton.

She was part of Penelope's transition coming out of her shell, and their conversations always showed that Penelope was so much braver than she thought. Their interactions are among the few insights into Lady Danbury's personality in the book series since she is a more minor character there.

Though Lady Danbury has been more developed in the TV series, she doesn't interact with Penelope much. Pen is left to fend for herself without any friends this season other than Colin, though Lady Danbury supports her after she reveals her identity.

This allows Penelope to find the courage alone but doesn't help Lady Danbury's arc in season three. Lady Danbury randomly props up Francesca instead, but this pairing has no interesting interactions.

Worst: The Featherington sisters' baby race

"Bridgerton" leaned pretty hard into the entire "these poor young women don't know how sex works" thing in season one. While potentially realistic, by season three it's become a bit tired.

Penelope's sisters, Prudence and Philippa, are both married, and their mother is putting pressure on both of them to produce a baby. If either of them had a son, that child would become the new Lord Featherington. That's particularly important, given that Lady Featherington herself is under threat from the Crown to have to transfer their estate to another family.

Unfortunately, Prudence and Philippa are shockingly clueless when it comes to procreation. But by this point in time, the bumbling sex schtick is a bit tiresome. In "Romancing Mister Bridgerton," the Featherington heir race isn't a part of the plot — and while it's an understandable concern, it could do with a bit of nuance this season.

Luckily, by the end, all three Featherington sisters have managed to conceive. In a twist, it's Penelope who has given birth to the new Lord Featherington.

Worst: Penelope doesn't have a younger sister

In "Romancing Mister Bridgerton," Penelope isn't the youngest Featherington sister. In addition to Philippa and Prudence, she has a younger sister — Felicity.

Felicity is close friends with Hyacinth Bridgerton and serves as another conduit of information between the Bridgerton and Featherington families. In the book, Lady Featherington schemes to set Felicity up with Colin, a prospect that Penelope balks at. But Penelope and Felicity are close, and her friendship with Hyacinth is a regular sense of entertainment.

It's easy to see why Felicity isn't around in "Bridgerton" — frankly, there are plenty of characters to keep track of, and she doesn't play an irreplaceable role in Penelope's story. But Felicity's inclusion in the story adds a bit of levity through her friendship with Hyacinth. It also underscores the tensions within the Featherington family: Lady Featherington thinks much more highly of Felicity than she does Penelope.

Worst: Penelope and Colin are much younger than their book counterparts

The "Bridgerton" book series has bigger gaps of time between the events of each book. This means that by the time Penelope and Colin get to their love story in the fourth book, Penelope is 28, and Colin is 33.

Penelope's desperation to find a husband makes a lot more sense in the book: In that era, she would definitely be considered a spinster at 28.

Penelope is only in her third year in society in the TV series, so her desperation feels forced.

In addition, the timeline in the book version supports their rapid transition from friends to lovers. Colin would be mature enough to realize Penelope's beauty and have known her much longer. Therefore, he would have less hesitation in marrying her quickly.

Worst: The anti-climatic Lady Whistledown reveal

This is a tricky one, because the Whistledown reveal in "Romancing Mister Bridgerton" is also a bit wonky. In the book, it's Colin who presents his wife as Lady Whistledown at his sister Daphne's ball — and he does so without Penelope knowing that he's going to do it.

In the show, Penelope decides to reveal herself by confessing to Queen Charlotte and asking to justify herself to the public. It means that Penelope gets to divulge the information more on her own terms. But the reveal ends up feeling rather anti-climactic on screen. Philippa Featherington ends the awkward moment with her now-iconic, "Now, Varley, the bugs," but the entire sequence comes off abrupt.

That's not to say the reveal in the book is perfect — but there's something to be said for the romance of Colin making sure the entire Ton knows that his wife doesn't stand alone.

Worst: Cressida finds out about Lady Whistledown mostly by chance

In "Romancing Mister Bridgerton," Cressida figures out that Penelope is Lady Whistledown due to Penelope's own error. Penelope says that it would "break my heart" if Cressida turned out to be Whistledown after she publicly makes the claim. Later, Penelope repeats the same turn of phrase in a column.

"She is nothing more than a scheming imposter, and it would break my heart to see my years of hard work attributed to one such as her," Penelope writes.

Cressida catches the mistake and figures out Penelope's identity, highlighting both her own cleverness and Penelope's carelessness.

The show goes for a more direct approach. Cressida learns about Whistledown from a printer who tells Cressida that Whistledown is a redhead.

Sure, we end up in the same place — but it's a bit more fun when Penelope's hubris is almost the cause of her undoing.

"Bridgerton" season three is available to stream on Netflix.

• The US and its allies have various plans to bolster their long-range weapons capabilities in Europe.
• The moves replicate one of the most dangerous aspects of the Cold War, experts caution.
• The renewed long-range strike arms race with Russia runs the risk of escalating tensions across Europe.

The US and some of its NATO allies are pushing ahead with plans to develop and field new long-range strike options in Europe as the Ukraine war highlights the combat value of these weapons and a lack of restrictions in this space gives way to new movement.

The new moves reflect one of the most dangerous aspects of the Cold War, risking escalation and a deep-strike arms race with Russia, arms control experts say.

"We've been down this road before, and it took us many decades to get off it with hard-learned lessons about the dangers of" an intermediate-range "missile escalation in Europe," Hans Kristensen, Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists told Business Insider.

He called the potential "tit-for-tat escalation posturing" a hallmark of the Cold War that could make a comeback now.

The US announced plans last week to place long-range capabilities in Germany, beginning in 2026 with episodic deployments prior to permanent stationing at a future unforeseen date.

"When fully developed," the allies wrote in a statement," these conventional long-range fires units will include SM-6, Tomahawk, and developmental hypersonic weapons, which have significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe."

That announcement was followed a day later by movement on plans from a handful of NATO allies to develop new long-range missiles. France, Poland, Germany, and Italy signed the initiative focusing on ground-launched cruise missiles with ranges in excess of 500 kilometers.

In both cases, the US and its European partners are responding to what they see as critical gaps in their long-range fires arsenals exposed by the war in Ukraine.

The war has "demonstrated something that many already knew: Long-range strike weapons are of great utility for fighting wars," Fabian Hoffmann, a doctoral research fellow at the Oslo Nuclear Project at the University of Oslo, wrote in a War on the Rocks commentary.

"The ability to engage targets at operational and strategic depth critically enables the conduct of offensive and defensive maneuvers and can shape the conditions for victory on the battlefield," he explained.

The new plans follow years of rising tension between the West and Russia on a range of issues, including long-range fires in the aftermath of the 2019 US withdrawal from the INF Treaty, which Washington accused Moscow of violating. Russia denied the allegations and later also pulled out of the agreement, opening the door for both to develop and field new ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles.

In response to the US and Germany's plans, as well as other NATO actions, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: "This is a very serious threat to the national security of our country."

"All of this," he said, "will require us to take thoughtful, coordinated, effective responses to deter NATO, to counteract NATO."

Experts pointed to Russia's violation of the INF Treaty as prompting a snowball effect. "I have long said that Russians will come to regret Putin's violation of the 1987 INF Treaty. He opened the door to significant deployments of accurate, long-range conventional missiles in Germany and elsewhere," Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a nuclear proliferation expert, wrote on X.

Though Russia set this in motion, the deployment plans for Europe certainly seem escalatory, Kristensen explained, and will likely prompt Russia to deploy more of its own long-range weapons.

"There is an element of autopilot in this dynamic because each side uses acts by the other to justify more and more steps to build up its military capabilities," he said, adding that it seems the East and West are back on track for "tit-for-tat reactions."

Kristensen's views echoed concerns from other experts and officials on the latest developments.

Jon B. Wolfsthal, a nuclear arms control and nonproliferation expert and an Obama administration official for national security affairs, posted on X that "we have recreated one of the most dangerous components of the Cold War in Europe and things will only get worse from here."

Conventional long-range strike capabilities within the 500-kilometer to 5,500-kilometer range provide a powerful ability to strike deep into enemy territory with little to no notice. Though the intention in fielding new capabilities may be deterrence, it could instead ignite an arms race.

The silver lining in the US agreement with Germany, Kristensen said, is that it's non-nuclear.

But, he added, "conventional missiles — especially fast-flying ballistic missiles — have their own problems in that they shorten the time leaders have to react and therefore increases risk of overreaction and mistakes, factors that drive worst-case planning and undermines crisis stability. And superior conventional capabilities can drive the other side to rely more on nuclear weapons to compensate."

Once a seafood powerhouse in America, Red Lobster is bankrupt and shutting down dozens of restaurants. Is Wall Street to blame?

• While AI jobs are booming, many colleges don't have specific degrees in AI yet.
• Allison Krinsky, a data scientist at JPMorgan, emphasizes hands-on experience over formal education.
• Krinsky advises building your own AI projects, like a travel system or sentiment analysis model.

Careers in AI are hot right now. And while many schools are adapting their curriculum to incorporate classes on the topic, there's still a short list of schools that offer an AI major.

Allison Krinsky graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in informatics in 2022. She now works as a data scientist at JPMorgan and makes videos about tech careers in her free time. She told Business Insider that many majors are interchangeable and that several degrees, such as computer science, math, information sciences, and data science, can lead to jobs in the field.

But even though Krinsky studied a traditional curriculum to get a tech job, she said her work at a research lab advanced her career more than anything else. She said during her year at the lab, she did a "heap" of things including building models and managing databases.

Most AI-related jobs require a technical portion in the interview process and Krinsky said candidates need to be able to talk about the projects they've done.

"A lot of times my interviews would just be people asking me about what I had built and what I did and the problems that I faced," Krinsky said.

Krinsky said while Big Tech names may look flashy on your résumé, hands-on experience is crucial to actually landing the job. In the internships she had before the research lab, she said she was given small projects that didn't involve too many skills.

"The internship is great to say somebody hired me, and that's a little bit of credibility," Krinsky said. "But you're not out of the game if you haven't had a traditional internship."

As AI jobs grow more in demand, some companies are growing increasingly picky about what they're looking for. So if you have limited experience or if you want to enhance your résumé, it's not a bad idea to build your own project and skill up. Krinsky said there are a number of avenues you could go down depending on the kind of roles you're interested in.

One option Krinsky recommends is a travel recommendation system built with large language models. She said you could do this project with limited experience and in different ways, like by using prompt engineering, retrieval augmented generation, or fine-tuning.

Krinsky also suggested creating a sentiment classification system for reviews, using natural language processing. She said this involves extracting information from text data and sorting it into entities like positive or negative sentiments. Krinsky said this can be used for financial analysis or identifying investment opportunities or risks.

Krinsky said you can also try an image recognition or computer vision project. This involves finding a set of pictures with labels and teaching a computer to identify what's in the images. She said it's a good way to learn about neural networks.

Krinsky said these projects can take between one and three months, depending on how much free time you have. Most projects start with scraping the web for data and then require building, training, and fine-tuning the model. Krinsky also recommended creating a report detailing the project process and results so that you have something to show for your work.

The projects don't have to be revolutionary, she said, but you should experiment with multiple data sets and be able to explain what's happening. She said anyone can recreate code from a tutorial so it's important to add a unique aspect.

"You have to get past 'I just wrote code and it didn't break,'" Krinsky said.

• Democrats told Politico they believe Nancy Pelosi is playing "3-D chess" behind the scenes.
• Pelosi has been meeting with top Democrats to discuss their doubts about Biden's chances. 
• But as time runs out to either nominate or replace Biden, the stakes of the game are only growing.

Nancy Pelosi may not be openly calling for President Joe Biden to step out of the 2024 race, but she's not exactly giving him her unconditional support either.

Behind the scenes, the former speaker of the House has been meeting with top Democrats to discuss their doubts about Biden's reelection chances, Politico first reported. In front of the camera, she's told the hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Biden still needs to decide whether to continue running despite the president's repeated assertions that he will not step down.

What Pelosi has said — and strategically not said — about Biden's campaign crisis in both public and private conversations has led some Democratic insiders to believe she is playing a game of "3-D chess," five Democratic lawmakers and senior aides told Politico.

One lawmaker told the outlet that in a private phone call, Pelosi was "very receptive" to that lawmaker's concerns about Biden's ability to defeat Donald Trump. The member also told Politico that, based on their conversation with Pelosi, they believed she is in favor of Biden leaving the race.

Much like Vice President Kamala Harris, Pelosi has been in a tough spot politically ever since Biden's flubbed debate performance led some Democrats to question his viability as a candidate. If Pelosi openly calls for Biden to drop out, she looks disloyal and could further hurt Biden's campaign if he is not replaced on the ticket. But, if she truly believes Biden cannot win and still chooses to stay silent, then she not only looks complicit but also puts her entire party at risk of major losses in the White House and Congress this November.

That tension may be exactly what's fueling her complex game of chess. But as time is running out for Democrats to either replace or formally nominate Biden, the stakes of the game are only weighing heavier on the future of the Democratic party and the country.

A representative for Pelosi did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• JD Vance has criticized US support for Ukraine amid his VP nomination on GOP ticket.
• Vance argues US aid to Ukraine diverts resources from Taiwan and urges more European support.
• Despite the Trump-Vance stance, Zelenskyy said he will work with a potential Trump administration.

Former president Donald Trump's rhetoric on Ukraine has triggered concerns in Kyiv and among US allies and partners. Ohio Sen. JD Vance's nomination for vice president on the Republican Party ticket is unlikely to alleviate those fears.

Vance has been critical of US support for Ukraine, and at the Munich Security Forum earlier this year, Vance said the US should "pivot" from Ukraine and Russia's war.

"I certainly admire the Ukrainians who are fighting against Russia," he said during a speech in May, "but I do not think that it is in America's interest to continue to fund an effectively never-ending war in Ukraine."

One European official told The Wall Street Journal that with the news of Trump's new running mate, "Ukraine is in trouble," while another official told the Guardian that "it's bad for us, but it's terrible news for [Ukraine]."

Worries have also been voiced domestically. Following Vance's nomination, former Rep. Liz Cheney raised several concerns about Vance and criticized his stance on Ukraine and wrote on X that if he were elected, he would "capitulate to Russia and sacrifice the freedom of our allies in Ukraine."

Vance has indicated his sights are set on East Asia.

He called China the "biggest threat to our country" in an interview with Fox News on Monday. And back in April, he wrote in a New York Times op-ed that the US sending weapons and aid to Ukraine is delaying shipments of weapons to Taiwan.

Trump's perspective appears a little different, as he notably said in a new interview with Bloomberg that Taiwan should pay the US for defense. Comparing the US to an "insurance company," he said that the island democracy "doesn't give us anything."

Trump has also been an outspoken critic of European defense spending, even going so far as to say he would permit Russia to harm allied nations that don't pay their fair share. Vance has written that America's European allies should contribute more to support Ukraine.

"While some European countries have provided considerable resources, the burden of military support has thus far fallen heaviest on the United States," he said.

Vance voted against the $61 billion package to Ukraine that was eventually approved by US Congress earlier this year.

Trump has also expressed his desire to move on from Ukraine and Russia, having previously said that if he were president again, he could end the conflict within a day. Though he hasn't said how, the expectation is that Ukraine would have to make unfavorable concessions.

"It ends the way nearly every single war has ever ended: when people negotiate and each side gives up something that it doesn't want to give up," Vance said of the Ukraine war back in December, per NBC's reporting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that he believes that the majority of members in the Republican Party support Ukraine and that he is ready to work with the Trump administration.

"If Mr. Donald Trump becomes president, then we will work with him," Zelenskyy said at a recent press conference. "I am not afraid of it." It's less clear, though, what considerations may be playing out privately.

• I love cruises, but I was hesitant to go on them alone because I thought I'd be lonely.
• I was lonely at first but less so once I did what I wanted and stopped worrying about socializing. 
• I love that cruising solo allows me to relax and see the world on my terms.

I'm in my 60s, and I've been fortunate to take over 30 solo cruises over the last 15 years.

I started doing so after I discovered that I love going on cruises, but my wife did not. Fortunately, she's fine with me taking off by myself — I'm not sure if it's because she wants to make me happy or just likes to periodically get rid of me for a while.

Either way, my choice was to cruise solo or not at all. I opted for the former.

My first few cruises were lonely until I freed myself of solo-travel expectations

The first few times I cruised solo, I took three- and four-night cruises to see if I could handle being alone on a ship.

I was a little lonely on those first few cruises, primarily because I didn't know what to do with myself or what was expected of me as a solo traveler.

I felt like I had to attend tons of ship events and have my meals at shared tables with other people, but it didn't actually make me feel less lonely. I didn't enjoy doing things just for the sake of being around other people, either.

Finally, I asked myself an important question: What was I actually looking to get out of the cruise experience?

I wanted to relax and do what I wanted, not what others expected me to do on a cruise.

So, I stopped prioritizing socializing and started only doing things that furthered my own enjoyment. I found these things weren't dependent on being with others, and I became more at peace with being alone.

Eventually, I increased the length of my cruises to seven, 10, and even 16 nights. I'm still amazed at how fast time seems to pass on a ship.

I love getting to do what makes me happy without worrying about others

Turns out, it's OK to do absolutely nothing on vacation. And I don't need company to enjoy the benefits of being on a cruise.

I found that I like spending meals alone with a book, free from feeling obligated to converse or wait for others to finish eating before enjoying my next course.

Going to the nightly onboard shows is still fun for me, but I stopped doing on-shore excursions that don't further my relaxation. Sometimes, I just watch movies on the television in my cabin.

Although I no longer prioritize socializing, I still strike up conversations with people often, and I welcome those who ask to join me when they see me sitting alone.

But above all, cruising solo has taught me to be more comfortable in my own skin and more confident in myself. It's also allowed me to see the world without waiting for others.

I've now traveled throughout North America and made bucket-list trips to Antarctica and Iceland.

These days, the one downside of being alone is having to pay the dreaded single supplement, which usually doubles a cruise's base fare. But by booking an inside cabin, I can somewhat mitigate this cost of traveling solo.

• I was a Starbucks barista for nearly a year, so I've tasted a lot of the iced drinks on the menu.
• I love ordering refreshing coffee drinks like the salted cold-foam cold brew.
• Some customers don't know that you can now order frozen refreshers that are kind of like slushies. 

I always recommend the chain's salted cold-foam cold brew.

This is a personal favorite. But trust me, as long as the barista doesn't forget to add the caramel pumps, it's sure to become one of your top iced drinks, too. 

The salted sweet foam perfectly combines with the strong black cold brew. It's basically a fancier and tastier version of your basic coffee with sugar and milk.

You can't go wrong with any of the Frappuccinos, but the mocha cookie crumble is a highlight.

I've always been a huge fan of Starbucks' Frappuccinos — they're basically a milkshake-like dessert. But one standout is the mocha cookie crumble.

If you're looking for a chocolaty flavor that's not too rich, this one's for you. It's basically the equivalent of a McDonald's Oreo McFlurry with caffeine.

An iced peach green tea is the perfect alternative to coffee when you're still in need of a caffeine boost.

There are some days when I can acknowledge that my caffeine intake is a bit high. In these cases, Starbucks offers a wide variety of lower-caffeine and caffeine-free teas that are a pretty decent alternative. 

I typically live by the chain's black iced tea. But in the summer, the seasonal iced peach green tea is a must.

It's quite a light tea, and you can still adjust the added sweeteners to your liking. Plus, it has a hint of mintiness, which is always a welcomed surprise.

If you're lactose intolerant, the iced brown-sugar oat-milk shaken espresso is a delight.

You can already swap nondairy alternatives for any of Starbucks' milk-based drinks, but the chain specially crafted the iced brown-sugar oat-milk shaken espresso.

And as a nondairy milk enthusiast, I can assure you that oat milk is the perfect choice for this drink. It's creamy and pairs wonderfully with the blonde espresso and brown-sugar syrup. The end result almost tastes like graham crackers or s'mores. 

Starbucks' refreshers have been popular for years, but now there are frozen versions.

I've always been a slushy advocate, and now Starbucks has finally agreed that the popular refresher drinks would be better blended. 

This summer, I highly recommend trying a frozen refresher. You can order three flavors, frozen pineapple passion fruit, frozen strawberry acai, or frozen mango dragon fruit, with or without lemonade.   

I personally don't like adding lemonade to drinks, so I recently tried the frozen mango-dragon-fruit option without it, and it was heavenly.

This story was originally published in July 2023 and most recently updated on July 17, 2024.