Starbucks Strawberry Acai Refresher (Copycat) is the perfect iced drink that you can make yourself and skip the morning drive-thru. Try it!
This beautiful bright pink drink is sweet, tart, a little earthy, and, as the name implies, super refreshing! My fruity Drink Recipe tastes exactly like the popular Starbucks menu item, and the homemade version is super easy to make. It will go perfectly with another popular Starbucks copycat, my Cranberry Bliss Bars! For more refreshing summer drinks, check out my homemade Strawberry Lemonade and Cucumber Water.
Table of contents
Sabrina’s Starbucks Strawberry Acai Refresher (Copycat)
With my copycat recipe you can recreate one of the best non-coffee drinks at home with just a few ingredients and less time than it takes to drive to Starbucks. The longest part is boiling the water for brewing the green tea. Once it’s brewed, you’ll just blend the ingredients together and pour over ice. Super easy and tastes just like the original!
Why make my homemade Strawberry Acai Refresher at home? So many reasons! You save big money by buying the ingredients in bulk versus buying a single drink at a time. You’ll have enough to make multiple drinks whenever you want or even make them for a party! Plus, making this refreshing drink at home lets you customize the drink—whether that means less sugar, more fruit, or adding coconut milk to make the infamous Starbuck’s Pink Drink! And of course, the convenience of not having to leave the house is always a bonus, especially if you don’t live near a Starbucks.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Green Tea: Green tea is the perfect base for your Strawberry Acai Refresher. It’s less bold than black tea but has a gentle, herby flavor that the other sweet and tangy ingredients build on.
- 1/4 cup Sugar: Mix granulated sugar into the tea until dissolved to sweeten. Add more for a sweeter drink.
- 2 teaspoons Acai Powder: Acai powder is made from freeze-dried acai berries, and it’s perfect for adding to your tea mixture. It mixes easily into the pink drink and adds a slightly tart and earthy taste to the blend of flavors.
- 1/2 cup Freeze-Dried Strawberries: To give the delicious drink its sweet strawberry taste and pink color, mix in ½ cup freeze-dried strawberries. These are healthier than strawberry syrup. You can also add fresh strawberries as a garnish when you serve.
- 3 cups Lemonade: Lemonade adds sweetness and brings a wonderful tartness to the base of the drink. Try using strawberry lemonade for extra flavor.
- 2 cups White Grape Juice: The grape juice specifically needs to be made from the juice of green grapes to get the right flavor.
How to Make Strawberry Acai Refresher
Time needed: 15 minutes
- Brew Green Tea
Before making your refresher mixture, you’ll have to brew hot green tea. Boil your water, then add tea leaves and let them steep for 3 minutes. Once the tea is ready, add sugar, and stir to dissolve it in the hot green tea.
- Mix Strawberry Acai Base
Add freeze-dried strawberries, acai powder, lemonade, and white grape juice to your blender. Blend for 1 minute until completely mixed.
- Combine
Add the green tea to the mix and stir to combine. Then pour the finished drinks directly into a tall glass with ice or into an ice-filled pitcher. Enjoy your Starbucks Strawberry Acai Refresher while it’s still nice and chilled.
Can This Be Made in Advance?
Yes! While it is best served fresh, it will last in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. Store without ice cubes so it’s not watered down.
Nutritional Facts
How to Serve this Drink
Along with tasting delicious, the pink color makes this the perfect drink to brighten up any occasion. Serve the refresher recipe with fresh berries or mint leaves for garnish. You can pour the refresher into tall glasses over ice or use glass mason jars for a farmhouse feel. The iced beverage is sure to become a favorite summer drink with sweet strawberry flavors. Enjoy the copycat drink as an afternoon pick-me-up on a hot day. Or, serve it the next time you have a cookout along with other summer classics like Grilled Chicken, Coleslaw, and Seven Layer Salad.
How to Store
- Serve: For the best taste, it’s recommended that you make and enjoy your Starbucks Acai Refresher fresh and cold over ice.
- Store: However, if you’ve made it ahead of time or have some left, you can store it in the fridge. Remove the ice if storing the drink for more than an hour or so; otherwise, the iced beverage will melt and water down. When you’re ready to enjoy your drink, just pour it over new ice for a refreshing drink.
- Freeze: You can freeze this drink and then blend it later for a slushy type drink. I recommend pouring it into ice cube trays and freezing until solid. Then store in a sealed freezer bag. When you are ready to enjoy, pop in a blender with a little water, green tea, or coconut milk.
Frequent Questions
No. The Starbucks Pink Drink is the Strawberry Acai Refresher with coconut milk added to make it creamy and they use passion fruit tea instead of green tea.
Like other recipes that use highly caffeinated green coffee bean powder or green coffee extract, the green tea in this recipe still makes the drink caffeinated. But, if you don’t drink caffeine, you can always find decaf green tea to make your refresher a caffeine-free drink.
Acai berries come from acai palm trees in South America. They are similar in size and color to grapes, but their seed takes up most of the berry. Thanks to the antioxidants, fiber, and healthy fats found in these berries, they have many health benefits and have become quite popular.
To blend the freeze-dried strawberries you’ll need to use a blender. Use a mesh strainer if you’re not a fan of little floaty bits.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 cup green tea , hot
- 1/2 cup freeze dried strawberries
- 2 teaspoons acai powder
- 3 cups lemonade
- 2 cups white grape juice
Instructions
- Stir the sugar into your hot green tea to dissolve the sugar.
- In a blender add the freeze dried strawberries, acai powder, lemonade and grape juice.
- Blend for 1 minute.
- Add in the green tea and stir.
- Pour into ice filled pitcher and serve in cups over ice.
Notes
- Change Serving Size: Click on the yield amount to slide and change the number of servings and the recipe will automatically update!
- Conversion: To convert measurements to grams, click on the Metric option next to Ingredients in the recipe card.
Nutrition
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Variations on Strawberry Acai Refresher (Copycat)
- Pink Drink: The famous Pink Drink from Starbucks is a delicious Strawberry Refresher and coconut milk blend. Instead of the green tea, you would use passion fruit tea and then add coconut milk to make it creamy.
- Healthy Strawberry Acai Refresher: Acai is already quite healthy, but you can still make this a more healthy beverage based on the other ingredients you use. Try using a low-sugar lemonade and cutting back on the added sugar as much as you want for your healthy drink.
- Sweeteners: You can replace the sugar with your favorite sweetener option like Splenda, honey, coconut sugar, or simple syrup. Use about ¼ oz simple syrup for every teaspoon of granulated you would typically use.
- Fruit Juice: You can introduce different fruit flavors by replacing the white grape juice with another kind of fruity juice. White cranberry juice, apple juice, or pineapple juice are all great options. You can also add a bit more citrus flavor with a squeeze of fresh lime juice or lemon juice.
- Mint Tea: Instead of regular green tea, you can make your Strawberry Acai Refresher with mint tea. Garnish your minty, tasty drink with mint sprig or fresh mint leaves.
- Hibiscus Tea: Another option is to make a Berry Hibiscus Refresher recipe. Add a hibiscus tea bag to hot water instead of the green tea, then blend the hot hibiscus tea with the acai and lemonade blend. You can also add mixed berries instead of strawberries to make a mixed Berry Hibiscus Lemonade blend.
- Fresh Strawberries: Along with the freeze-dried strawberries in the blend, I like adding fresh strawberry slices to garnish the drink. Instead of freeze-dried, you could also use fresh or frozen strawberries in the acai mix.
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