Toby Howell

But restaurants are suddenly very interested in this not easy to define drink.

McDonald's is diving into the crowded category this May with the launch of unnaturally bright fruit-flavored drinks following a successful pilot program across 500 stores.

Taco Bell, Dunkin' and Sonic have all been in the refresher game for a while now.

Starbucks credits itself with inventing the category all the way back in 2012, and it's since become a $2 billion a year business for them.

Neil, can't say I've ordered a refresher before, but clearly lots of other people have.

Yeah, I mean, they want to get younger customers in.

Younger customers, Gen Z, Gen Alpha, love these fancy drinks.

There's also more money to be made in drinks as well.

There's more margin in putting a little bit of Red Bull and berries in a cup rather than serving a burger.

So definitely they have their eyes set on that.

Also, just iced beverages in general are the de facto way that people consume liquids at this point.

Remember,

Iced coffee used to be a seasonal thing.

It used to be summer rolled around.

You start drinking iced coffee.

When winter comes back, it's back to hot.

But iced beverages surpassed hot beverage sales at Dunkin' two years ago, and no one's looked back since.

So right now, just some crunchy ice in a cup.

That is what young people want to drink.

Okay, so Starbucks says that they invented refreshers in 2012.