Homemade Starbucks Pink Drink

The Starbucks Pink Drink has been one of my most-requested Starbucks copycat recipes, and I now have two ways to make it at home: a quick 3-ingredient shortcut version and a full authentic recipe that tastes as close to the real thing as possible.

Jump to:

• 🥤 What is the Pink Drink?
• 🩷 Why you'll love this recipe
• 💕 Easy Pink Drink recipe
• 🗒 Ingredients for authentic version
• 🍓How to Make Strawberry Acai Base
• 🥤How to make authentic Pink Drink
• 💡 Modifications
• 🙋‍♀️ Frequently asked questions
• ☕️ More Starbucks Refresher copycat recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

I'm the kind of person who gets totally flustered when ordering a drink in Starbucks. The menu completely confuses me, I never know what alterations I'm allowed to make to a drink, and I always feel like I'm going to somehow order a drink that contains 8044 calories and not realize it until I've happily slurped the whole thing down.

I just want all my options laid out on the wall over the counter so I can point to one and have it made for me. But I guess there is just so much going on at Starbucks these days, it's not possible.

Especially when you add in all the "secret menu" drinks. The Starbucks secret menu baffles me to no end! The Pink Drink used to be on the secret menu... But then it got so popular that Starbucks decided to add it to the regular menu!

The Pink Drink has been one of my most-requested Starbucks copycat recipes since I first published this post back in 2016. I've tested and retested it over the years, and I'm sharing my full authentic recipe that tastes as close to the real Starbucks drink as possible. AND I also have a quick 3-ingredient recipe if you want the easiest Pink Drink ever (that actually tastes good!).

🥤 What is the Pink Drink?

The Starbucks Pink Drink is a Strawberry Acaí Refresher made with coconut milk instead of water, served over ice with freeze-dried strawberries. It has a sweet, fruity, slightly creamy flavor with subtle notes of passion fruit and acaí.

Contrary to what many copycat recipes suggest, the Pink Drink isn't made with tea or hibiscus. Looking at Starbucks' own ingredient list, the base is white grape juice concentrate, natural flavors (including strawberry and passion fruit), green coffee extract (which provides caffeine), and rebaudioside A.

I already have a recipe on my website for a Strawberry Acai Refresher, which includes the base. So, we simply need to mix the base with coconut milk (instead of water) to get the pink drink! Or you can try the 3-ingredient version.

The Pink Drink started on the Starbucks "secret menu," an unofficial list of drinks customers invented using existing ingredients. It became so popular that Starbucks added it to the permanent menu in 2017, so you can now order it by name at any location.

Now that the Pink Drink is so popular, Starbucks has introduced even more varieties, like the Pink Drink with Cold Foam and the Cannon Ball Drink.

🩷 Why you'll love this recipe

Both of these Pink Drink recipes have gone through a lot of testing on my part. When I first provided a recipe in 2016, it was my best guess and the closest I could get to an authentic drink.

Now that close to 10 years have passed, there's a lot more official information available about the ingredients involved in Starbucks' drink. And more products on the market that help replicate it. This has made it much easier for me to make an authentic drink that tastes as close as possible to an actual Pink Drink you'd order in a coffee shop!

If you love ordering the Pink Drink at Starbucks, but want to get an as-close-as-possible version you can make at home, you'll love these recipes!

💕 Easy Pink Drink recipe

Now that the Pink Drink has been available at Starbucks for more than 10 years, there are new products on the market that make it SO easy to make a basic copycat of the drink.

My original recipe shows you how to make the drink very similarly to how Starbucks makes it, but if you want an incredibly easy way to make it that actually tastes really good, here's what you need:

• White Cranberry Strawberry juice: I recommend the Ocean Spray White Cran-Strawberry juice pictured above.
• Sweetened coconut milk
• Freeze-dried strawberries

All you need to do is mix ½ cup the juice, ½ cup sweetened coconut milk, and ¼ cup freeze-dried strawberries in an ice-filled shaker.

Pour everything into a cup and you're done!

How easy was that??

Honestly, I'm really impressed by how tasty this easy Pink Drink is. I secretly think Ocean Spray came out with this cran strawberry juice because they knew we'd all be buying it for homemade Pink Drinks!

If you just want a quick and easy Pink Drink and don't care about it being "authentic," this is the way to go with the copycat recipe!

🗒 Ingredients for authentic version

But, of course, I still want to show you how to make the Pink Drink completely from scratch as I like to follow Starbucks' recipes as closely as possible when I can.

To make your own authentic Starbucks Pink Drink at home, you just need to make the strawberry acai base and mix it with coconut. Here's everything you need (to view authentic recipe card, jump to recipe and then scroll to second recipe card):

• White grape juice (I use Welch's)
• Strawberries
• Acai berry powder
• Passion fruit extract powder
• Green coffee extract powder
• Lemon juice
• Freeze-dried strawberries
• Sweetened coconut milk (the kind in a carton)

🍓How to Make Strawberry Acai Base

I have a full detailed post on how to make the Strawberry Acai Refresher base on my site already, but I'll also detail how to make it here.

To start, combine white grape juice and sliced strawberries in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.

Lower to a simmer and let mixture simmer for 10 minutes, until strawberries are broken down.

Remove saucepan from heat and strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a heatproof bowl. And pour syrup back into saucepan and return to low heat.

Stir in acai powder, green coffee extract powder, and passion fruit powder until powders have dissolved as much as possible (note that most acai powders won't fully dissolve, so you will likely have some granules in your mixture).

Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.

And pour mixture back into heat-proof bowl or into a large mason jar. Place in the fridge until it's cooled.

Now your strawberry acai base is ready to be turned into a deliciously creamy Pink Drink!

Be sure to store this strawberry acai base in your fridge in an airtight container (I recommend a large mason jar). When stored properly, it should last about 2 weeks.

🥤How to make authentic Pink Drink

With your base chilled and ready, it's so quick and easy to make the Pink Drink at home.

Add some freeze-dried strawberries to the bottom of a cup and fill cup with ice.

Add about ½ cup strawberry acai base and ½ cup sweetened coconut milk to an ice-filled shaker and shake well to combine.

Pour mixture into prepared glass and you're ready to sip away!

Once you taste it, feel free to make alterations based on your sweetness/flavor preferences. Add more of the base for a sweeter drink and less for a less sweet drink.

Hooray! I'm so excited to have an authentic Pink Drink copycat recipe that's much closer to any I've tasted over the years. It's a little bit sweet, a little bit fruity, and a little bit creamy. Basically, the perfect afternoon pick-me-up drink!

💡 Modifications

I think this Pink Drink recipe is pretty close to the original, but there's lots you can do to make it suit your tastes more. In fact, lots of people who order Pink Drinks at Starbucks order them with modifications! Here are a few ideas:

• If you don't care about adding caffeine into the Refresher, you can skip the green coffee extract. It doesn't add any flavor, so it's really just a way to add caffeine.

• If you don't have acai powder or passion fruit powder, this drink will still be delicious. In my opinion, both powders add some depth of flavor and make it closer to the original, but you can still make a pretty tasty drink without them.

• The freeze-dried strawberries do add a bit of an extra tart and fruity flavor to the drink, but just add some sliced fresh strawberries if you don't have any.

• If you want a less sweet drink, use unsweetened coconut milk instead.

• Try using sweetened vanilla coconut milk for an even yummier drink. I actually always think Pink Drinks have a bit of a vanilla flavor to them even though I know Starbucks doesn't actually add anything vanilla.

• If you want a sweeter drink, include ½ cup sugar in your white grape juice and strawberry mixture. This will turn the base into a thicker syrup and it will be sweet and delicious!

• If you want a sweeter drink AND added flavor, consider adding a couple pumps of vanilla, strawberry, or raspberry syrup. Lots of people like the Pink Drink with a splash of peach juice, too.

Basically, once you have the basic Pink Drink recipe down, you can totally make it your own.

🙋‍♀️ Frequently asked questions

I'm pretty sure "Pink Drink" previously meant Pepto Bismol, so I hope this drink goes down in history and changes everything. And also fixes whatever ails you. At the very least, it will brighten up your day.

☕️ More Starbucks Refresher copycat recipes

I would probably drink a Pink Drink every day if I could, but I love trying all of the Refresher drinks and twists at Starbucks! I also love going home and recreating them as closely as I possibly can.

Here are some of my favorite Starbucks Refresher copycat recipes:

In 2026, Starbucks launched the Tropical Butterfly Refresher and the Butterfly Drink, too.

I'll continue adding to this list as I experiment in the kitchen and make more copycat drinks!

For now, I'm going to be sipping on these new and improved homemade Pink Drinks every day for my afternoon treat!

What's your favorite iced Starbucks drink?

Below is the recipe card for the easy 3-ingredient Pink Drink, followed by the recipe card for the authentic version.

📖 Recipe

📖 Recipe