Pineapple Passionfruit Refresher {Starbucks Copycat}

When it's hot outside, a Starbucks Refresher always hits the spot! And with this easy copycat recipe, you can now recreate the Pineapple Passionfruit Refresher at home. Made with fresh pineapple, passionfruit powder, and water, it tastes just like the coffeeshop version!

Jump to:

• ❓ What are Starbucks Refreshers?
• ☕️ Do Refreshers contain caffeine?
• ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
• 🍍 What's in a Pineapple Passionfruit Refresher?
• 🗒 Ingredients
• 👩‍🍳 How to make Pineapple Passionfruit base
• 🥤 How to make Pineapple Passionfruit Refresher
• 🧃 Can I use store-bought pineapple juice instead?
• 💡 Modifications
• 🥣 More ways to use base
• ⏲ How to store
• 🧋 More Starbucks copycat recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Happy summer! And happy new Starbucks menu item season! It's been a while since Starbucks added a new Refresher to their menu and since they recently discontinued the Kiwi Starfruit Refresher, there was definitely a need for a new one.

And I was very excited to hear that the new one is pineapple based! Specifically, it's a Pineapple Passionfruit Refresher, but I find that the pineapple flavors are much more prominent than the passionfruit flavors.

So far, the drink seems to have some mixed reviews; it appears that people either love it or hate it. In my opinion, it is very sweet and I can see why it might not be up everyone's alley.

The good thing about making your own Refreshers at home is that you can really control the level of sweetness and can easily turn it into a drink the perfectly suits you!

❓ What are Starbucks Refreshers?

Refreshers are a line of iced drinks at Starbucks that contain juice bases, green coffee extract, water, and scoops of freeze-dried fruit.

The current most popular one is the Strawberry Acai Refresher (I have a copycat version here!), but they also make a Mango Dragonfruit Refresher. The Kiwi Starfruit and the Berry Hibiscus Refreshers have been discontinued and the Pineapple Passionfruit is the newest Refresher on the block!

Each of the Refresher bases is combined with water to make the official Refresher, but Starbucks also makes versions of each made with lemonade and with coconut milk. The Pineapple Refresher with coconut milk is called the Paradise Drink (I have a recipe for that, too!).

Refreshers are a great option at Starbucks for anyone who doesn't like coffee and wants a relatively low-calorie fruity drink that's, well, refreshing!

☕️ Do Refreshers contain caffeine?

Some people are surprised to know that Refreshers actually do contain caffeine! Though it's not as much as most of the typical coffee drinks. According to the Starbucks website, the Pineapple Passionfruit Refresher has about 45 mg caffeine and it comes in the form of green coffee extract.

However, when you make this drink at home, you can easily leave the green coffee extract out and the drink will taste virtually the same.

❤️ Why you'll love this recipe

You'll love this recipe because it tastes just like the Pineapple Passionfruit Refresher you get at Starbucks, but is easy to make at home!

Even better, this recipe is completely customizable, so you can make it exactly how you like it best.

And once you make the base, you can keep it in the fridge and enjoy a Refresher whenever you please.

🍍 What's in a Pineapple Passionfruit Refresher?

When developing this recipe, I first looked at exactly what is in the official Pineapple Passionfruit Refresher. Starbucks describes the drink as, "Tropical flavors of pineapple and passionfruit mix with diced pineapple to create an island escape--oh so refreshing."

The ingredients include a pineapple passionfruit base, ice, and freeze-dried pineapple.

And the ingredients for the base are listed as water, sugar (including white grape concentrate), natural flavors, citric acid, green coffee extract, beta carotene, and rebaudioside A (which is basically a form of Stevia).

I used white grape juice in the base of my Strawberry Acai Refresher, but after experimenting a bit with this drink, I found that the white grape juice isn't necessary and doesn't add to the flavor.

Instead, I created a pineapple passionfruit syrup that I used as part of my base. (I also have a great recipe for a regular pineapple syrup that works in so many different tropical drinks and treats!).

🗒 Ingredients

To make this drink as close to the original as possible, you will need a few special ingredients that can easily be purchased online. If you don't want to purchase them, I do share some modifications later in this post that will allow you to still make a delicious drink without them!

Here's everything you need:

• Water
• Granulated sugar
• Chopped fresh pineapple
• Passionfruit powder
• Green coffee extract
• Citric acid
• Freeze-dried pineapple

👩‍🍳 How to make Pineapple Passionfruit base

The base is the most important part of the Refresher. Once you have it, you'll mix it with more water (for the standard Refresher), lemonade (for the Lemonade Refresher), or coconut milk (for the Paradise Drink).

This version uses an easy pineapple passionfruit syrup to start.

To make, simply put 1 ¼ cup water, sugar, and pineapple in a medium-size saucepan and bring mixture to a boil.

Once boiling, lower heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes, until mixture has thickened a bit and pineapple is breaking down.

Strain into a bowl, being sure to press down on the pineapple to extract as much juice as possible. Return syrup to saucepan over low heat.

Stir in passionfruit powder...

... Green coffee extract, and citric acid, until mostly combined.

Note that the passionfruit powder won't likely fully blend in). This is normal!

Pour mixture back into bowl or into a large mason jar and let cool completely. Syrup will continue to thicken as it cools.

Now, add remaining 1 cup water and mix or shake well to combine.

Your Refresher base is ready to be turned into a delicious drink! You should have about 2 cups of the base and note that it's VERY sweet (basically a concentrate).

The base recipe gives you enough to make about four Refreshers since you'll use about ½ cup for each.

Keep the base in your fridge until ready to use.

🥤 How to make Pineapple Passionfruit Refresher

Now that your base is ready, you can turn it into a Pineapple Passionfruit Refresher! You just need to add water, ice, and freeze-dried pineapple pieces to do so.

I recommend adding ½ cup base, ½ cup water, ice, and freeze-dried pineapple to a shaker.

Shake well to combine and pour the entire shaker into a cup. And your Pineapple Passionfruit Refresher is ready to be sipped!

Give it a taste and see if it needs any adjusting. The 1:1 base:water ration is pretty sweet, but similar to what you get at Starbucks. You can certainly add more water to make it less sweet or more base if you have a big sweet-tooth!

🧃 Can I use store-bought pineapple juice instead?

Obviously making a syrup is a lot more complicated than just using simple store-bought pineapple juice. However, store-bought pineapple juice just won't totally mimic the taste of the Refresher.

Of course, if you just want a fun similar drink, you can mix pineapple juice, passionfruit juice, and freeze-dried pineapple pieces together with ice... It just doesn't taste as close to the Starbucks version as this recipe does.

I haven't tried it, but you could try mixing pineapple juice concentrate with water, as well.

💡 Modifications

There are, however, lots of modifications you can make to this drink if you don't have all the ingredients or if you want to tweak it a bit. Here are some ideas:

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

• If you don't have passionfruit powder, this drink will still be delicious. In my opinion, the passionfruit does add some depth of flavor and makes it closer to the original, but you can still make a pretty tasty drink without it.

• If you don't have citric acid, you can add a tablespoon of lemon juice instead. I just love the little zing citric acid gives the drink.

• The freeze-dried pineapple does add a bit of an extra flavor to the drink, but just add some fresh diced pineapple if you don't have any and don't want to buy them.

🥣 More ways to use base

I've seen lots of people who don't love the Pineapple Passionfruit Refresher, but who love some of the other drinks Starbucks makes with the base. The good news is, once you have the base made, there's so much you can do!

You can make a Pineapple Passionfruit Lemonade, which is basically just this base combined with lemonade instead of water. If you don't think the Refresher is sweet enough, definitely try mixing the base with lemonade instead. It also adds a bit more tartness.

The Paradise Drink is also a form of this Refresher. All you have to do is replace the water with sweetened coconut milk. I'll be sharing a post for you about that soon!

Those are the drinks that Starbucks officially makes with the Pineapple Passionfruit Refresher base, but you can really do anything you want with it! I've seen people online recommending adding vanilla syrup, strawberry syrup, raspberry syrup, or vanilla cold foam.

And I haven't tried it yet, but I just know adding a little bit of rum would be delicious!

⏲ How to store

I recommend storing the Refresher base in a large mason jar in your fridge. When stored properly, it should last about 2 weeks.

Which means you can mix up a summer Refresher any time!

🧋 More Starbucks copycat recipes

I love recreating my favorite Starbucks recipes at home and sharing the recipes with you! Here are some of the copycat recipes I have so far on my blog:

• Strawberry Acai Refresher
• Pink Drink
• Chocolate Cream Cold Brew
• Iced White Chocolate Mocha
• Twix Frappuccino
• Iced Toasted Vanilla Oatmilk Shaken Espresso
• Pistachio Latte
• Chocolate Covered Strawberry Frappuccino
• Apple Crisp Macchiato
• Iced Sugar Cookie Almond Milk Latte
• Shaken Watermelon and Passion Tea
• Strawberry Puppuccino (for dogs!)

What's your favorite Starbucks Refresher?

📖 Recipe

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