Restaurant debut lavish summer drinks

Some things go hand-in-hand with summer: Sunburns. Tacky bikinis. And wacky drinks.

This summer is no exception – particularly in the wacky drink arena, with fast-food giants rolling out their most unusual beverages of the year. Summer is the busy season for the $175 billion fast-food industry, so this is when it works overtime to lure-in thirsty consumers hoping folks not only buy lots of high-margin drinks, but load up on food, too.

The trick: offer outside-the-box beverages. Like Sonic's Peanut Butter & Bacon Milkshake; Arby's upcoming Salted Caramel Shake or even Dunkin' Donuts' Mint Chocolate Chip Iced Coffee. "In summer, it's a lot easier to pull people in with cold drinks than images of hot burgers," says Gregg Rapp, a menu consultant.

Drink trends for summer 2013:

Peanut butter & ... Sonic has a new Peanut Butter & Bacon shake. "Customers try it the first time out of curiosity," says spokesman Patrick Lenow. "What we find is, they genuinely like it and try again."

Not to be out peanut-buttered, on July 1, Smashburger rolls out a Peanut Butter & Jelly Shake. The concept – made with Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream, strawberry syrup and crushed Nutter Butter Cookies -- came from customers, says Stacie Lange, senior vice president.

Sweet & salty. In late July, Arby's will debut a Salted Caramel Shake because it "rose to the top in tests," says Robin Seward, vice president of brand marketing.

Soda Shaq. LeBron isn't doing a soda – yet. But 7-Eleven this week begins its national roll-out of Soda Shaq – a new line of four AriZona Beverages natural cream sodas named for pro basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal.

Weird iced coffees. Dunkin' Donuts has rolled out two wacky iced coffees: Mint Chocolate Chip and Old Fashioned Butter Pecan. Both are made with Baskin- Robbins ice cream – the first time Dunkin' has partnered with its sister brand on a coffee, says John Costello, president of global marketing.

S'mores 'R Us. Dairy Queen froze the campfire feeling with S'mores Frozen Hot Chocolate. The drink blends cocoa fudge, crushed graham crackers, DQ's slushy Arctic Rush and vanilla soft serve. "It's one of the biggest summer beverages ever for us," says Barry Westrum, marketing chief at American Dairy Queen.

Orange-o-rama. Starbucks goes totally orange this week, rolling out Valencia Orange Refereshers and Orange Spice Iced Coffee. "We noticed a trend in orange this year," explains Sandra Stark, vice president of blended beverages.

Carl's Jr. has an Orange Cream Shake that it's brought back. There's another cult-favorite, cereal-infested shake that marketing chief Brad Haley says it might bring back some day: Cap'N Crunch Shake.