In honor of the Wicked movie release,

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The new Wicked movie is coming to theaters and
Glinda's Pink Potion is bright and fruity and easy to make at home. Elphaba's Cold Brew (also known as Elphaba's Green Elixir) is cold brew coffee-based, minty and just as easy to make at home. And I'm thrilled to share a copycat recipe with you today!
I was initially skeptical about the unlikely combination in this drink. But once I tried it, I fell in love. It's actually one of my favorite iced coffee drinks I've had in a while!
🧙 What is Elphaba's Cold Brew?
While Glinda's is mango dragonfruit based, Elphaba's is made with cold brew. The icy cold and bold coffee is mixed with peppermint syrup and topped with a nondairy matcha cold foam and green sanding sugar sprinkles.
The combination of coffee, peppermint, and matcha may sound like an odd one, but it somehow works so well together and is absolutely delicious.
Elphaba's Green Elixir is my pick out of the two Wicked drinks, but I'm generally partial to coffee drinks over fruity drinks.
🗒 Ingredients
This drink is very easy to make and doesn't require too many special ingredients, like lots of the
Here's what you need for the drink (be sure to view the recipe card at the bottom of this post for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions):
- Cold brew: You can brew your own cold brew with your favorite cold brew recipe or use Starbucks cold brew (I buy their cold brew in the refrigerated section of my grocery store, but you can also buy the cold brew concentrate or canned cold brew) or another brand cold brew. To make sure the drink is as close to the original as possible, be sure to use a black cold brew. If you don't have cold brew, you can use the iced coffee of your choice.
- Ice
- Peppermint syrup: You can use store-bought peppermint syrup or make your own with the recipe I provide.
- Nondairy matcha cream cold foam: You'll need to make this from scratch with the recipe I provide and ingredients listed below.
- Sprinkles
Here's what you need for homemade peppermint syrup:
- Water
- Granulated sugar
- Peppermint extract
If you prefer to use fresh peppermint leaves, follow the instructions for this mint syrup.
And here's what you need for the nondairy matcha cold foam:
- Matcha powder: I use sweetened matcha powder since Starbucks does, but you can use unsweetened if you prefer
- Warm water
- Soy milk: I recommend barista style or extra creamy
- Oat milk: I recommend barista style or extra creamy
- Soy lecithin powder: this is an optional ingredient that helps the nondairy milks froth up a little better, but the cold foam will still work without it
- Soy protein isolate: this is another optional ingredient that helps
Note that nondairy cold foam doesn't froth up quite the same way as dairy cold foam does and I much prefer making it with dairy milk. If you don't need your cold foam to be nondairy, I recommend using 2% milk and heavy cream instead of soy milk and oat milk. You can also eliminate the soy lecithin powder and soy protein isolate powder if doing this.
🫙 How to make peppermint syrup
I tried making this peppermint syrup a couple different ways and I've found that it's best when made with peppermint extract.
It would also be delicious made with fresh peppermint leaves, but they're much tougher to find than regular mint leaves. If you do find fresh peppermint, you can use this mint simple syrup recipe with the peppermint.
I also tried the syrup with dried peppermint leaves, but I found it had too much of an earthy flavor compared to what
The good news is that syrup is incredibly simple to make with extract!
To start, put 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar in medium-size saucepan and bring mixture to a boil.
Once boiling, lower the heat and let the mixture simmer for about 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and stir in peppermint extract.
Pour the syrup into a mason jar or bowl and place it in fridge to cool completely before using.
The syrup will continue to thicken as it cools.
Peppermint syrup has all kinds of uses, but for the purposes of this recipe, we're going to be using it in cold brew coffee.
It may sound odd, but it really does work!
🍵 How to make nondairy matcha cold foam
I don't know why
Cold foams have only been around at
I have a whole post on how to make Starbucks cold foam, but the coffee shop uses a nondairy version of the foam for this drink.
I personally prefer dairy versions of cold foam because they foam up a whole lot better! But I'm providing the dairy-free recipe for you here and will also include a dairy recommendation if you prefer.
I always look at Starbucks' ingredient lists when developing my copycat recipes and for their dairy-free cold foam, they use more soy milk than oat milk. So, I do that here, as well, but if you only want to use one or the other, I think that would be fine. Try to find barista-style or extra creamy versions of the milk if you can.
They also add soy lecithin and soy isolate protein to their mixture as these ingredients enhance the frothing and stability of nondairy milks. In my testing, I found that they do indeed help, but that you can still get a decent froth without them.
To make the matcha foam, I recommend dissolving the matcha powder in a little bit of hot water before adding it to the cold foam.
I use 4 teaspoon of matcha powder and 1 tablespoon warm water for my batch of cold foam that makes two drinks.
Add soy milk, oat milk, matcha mixture, and soy lecithin and soy isolate protein (if using) to a mason jar and shake to combine.
If you want, you can add a little vanilla syrup for extra sweetness and flavor.
If you don't have a jar, you can simply stir all the ingredients together in a bowl.
If you're not using this right away, you can keep it in an airtight container in your fridge. This is your nondairy matcha sweet cream and you can simply add it to your drinks just like this if you want.
When you're ready to enjoy your cold brew, turn the sweet cream into cold foam!
To turn it into a cold foam, you can either use an electric frother, hand mixer, or blender. I love my electric frother.
Just add the sweet cream and froth, mix, or blend until the mixture turns into a foam. Alternatively, you can shake the mixture in a mason jar until it's frothy.
Even if you think you don't like matcha, I urge you to try this cold foam. It's nice and sweet and just a little bit earthy.
💚 How to make drink
Now that all the components are made, you're ready to make Elphaba's Cold Brew. The assembly is easy!
Just pour the cold brew into an ice-filled glass. Stir in peppermint syrup.
Top drink with matcha cold foam and sprinkle on green sanding sugar sprinkles.
It's wickedly awesome and wickedly delicious!
I always feel like really good cold brew has an almost chocolate flavor to it, so this drink tasted a bit like a peppermint patty to me. Coffee, mint, and matcha make a surprisingly delicious combination.
🎉 Modifications
In my eyes, this drink is pretty perfect and should be made as is! But you can still enjoy Elphaba's Cold Brew even if you're not a fan of all the ingredients. Here are som ideas:
- If you really don't like matcha, you can make a different flavor cold foam, like vanilla cold foam, chocolate cold foam, or pistachio cold foam. Add green food coloring if you want to keep with the green theme!
- Feel free to make the cold foam with dairy milks. I recommend replacing the soy milk with 2% milk and replacing the oat milk with heavy cream. You can omit the two thickening powders because these milks will have no problem frothing!
- I love the way cold brew tastes with this drink, but if you don't have any, you can use strongly brewed ice coffee instead.
- If you're not a fan of peppermint, you can make a drink that looks just like this with a different flavor syrup. Try cinnamon dolce syrup, hazelnut syrup, or brown sugar syrup.
⚡️ How much caffeine is in this drink?
Since Elphaba's drink is made with cold brew, it has more caffeine in it than the average iced coffee.
A grande Elphaba cold brew from
To enjoy the
🧊 More Starbucks cold brew copycat recipes
If given the choice to order anything I want at
Here are some of the best
If you want to make it from scratch, I highly recommend this homemade cold brew recipe.
With all the different syrup flavors and all the different cold foam flavors, the options for variations on coffee drinks is practically endless!
I'm not much of a movie theater goer, so I'll probably wait to see Wicked until I can rent it at home.
And when I do watch it, I'll be making an Elphaba's Cold Brew for myself and a Glinda's Pink Potion for a friend!
Do you prefer coffee drinks or fruity drinks?
📖 Recipe

Elphaba's Cold Brew {Starbucks Copycat}
Ingredients
- 10 oz cold brew
- Ice
- 1 oz peppermint syrup (store-bought or recipe below)
- ⅓ cup nondairy matcha cream cold foam (recipe below)
- Sprinkles, for topping
Peppermint Syrup
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon peppermint extract
Nondairy Matcha Cream Cold Foam
- 4 teaspoon matcha (I use sweetened like Starbucks does)
- 1 tablespoon warm water
- ¾ cup soy milk (I recommend barista style or extra creamy)
- ¼ cup oat milk (I recommend barista style or extra creamy)
- ¼ teaspoon soy lecithin powder (optional)
- ¼ teaspoon soy protein isolate (optional)
Instructions
- Pour cold brew into an ice-filled glass. Stir in peppermint syrup.
- Top drink with nondairy matcha cold foam and green sanding sugar sprinkles.
Peppermint Syrup
- Put water and sugar in medium-size saucepan and bring mixture to a boil.
- Once boiling, lower heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in peppermint extract.
- Pour syrup into a mason jar or bowl and place in fridge to cool completely before using. Syrup will continue to thicken as it cools.
Nondairy Matcha Cold Foam
- In a small bowl, stir together matcha powder and about 1 tablespoon of warm water until dissolved.
- Add soy milk, oat milk, dissolved matcha powder, soy lecithin and soy protein isolate (if using) to a mason jar and shake to combine. Alternatively, you can stir all ingredients together in a bowl. If you're not using right away, keep in an airtight container in the fridge (you can use this nondairy matcha sweet cream in drinks as is if you want).
- Turn mixture into cold foam right before using. You can either use an electric frother, hand mixer, or blender. Just add about ⅓ of the sweet cream and froth, mix, or blend until the mixture turns into a foam (I usually froth half of the batch at a time in my electric frother). Alternatively, you can shake the mixture in a mason jar until it's frothy.
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