Starbucks Green Drink

The Starbucks Green Drink is a secret menu drink that consists of black tea, matcha powder, coconut milk, and simple syrup. This iced Starbucks copycat drink recipe features a bold green color and is perfect for matcha lovers!

Jump to:

• 💚 What is the Starbucks Green Drink?
• ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
• 🗒 Ingredients
• 🧋 How to make the Starbucks Green Drink
• 🎉 Variations on recipe
• ☕️ How to make without black tea
• 🥛 Can I use another kind of dairy/non-dairy milk?
• ⚡️ Is there caffeine in this drink?
• 💓 Is this a healthy drink?
• 🥤 More Starbucks iced drinks
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Did you know you can taste the rainbow with the Starbucks Secret Menu? Yes, they have drinks in all colors!

I've already made the Pink Drink and the Purple Drink. And now I'm sharing the Green Drink with you.

We're close to having a whole rainbow of Starbucks drinks! And honestly, I can't decide which one I love best... But this green one has been getting a lot of love from me this summer.

💚 What is the Starbucks Green Drink?

There's a little bit of debate about what exactly the Green Drink is. And because it's not on Starbucks' official menu and is instead on their secret menu, there's no one correct answer.

I tend to trust the Starbucks Secret Menu website on how to order secret menu drinks, so I took their Green Drink order instructions and used them to create my own at-home version of the Green Drink.

They claim the Green drink is iced black tea with matcha powder and coconut milk.

However, I've seen other sites and sources say it's actually an Iced Green Tea Latte (or Iced Matcha Tea Latte) with coconut milk and vanilla bean powder.

I'm sharing the black tea-based recipe here, but will also have some advice on how to make it without the black tea.

Note that this drink shouldn't be confused with Starbucks' Green Smoothie (which is also delicious!). They also have a Green Tea Frappuccino (known as the Matcha Crème Frappuccino).

❤️ Why you'll love this recipe

You'll love this drink if you're a fan of matcha. If you don't like matcha or green tea, I definitely wouldn't recommend it to you!

It's very easy to control the sweetness in this drink. And you can also easily add more ingredients to change up the flavor profile of the drink.

Once you have your iced tea brewed, the Green Drink is very easy to whip up! You can keep the tea in your fridge and make the matcha drink whenever you want.

🗒 Ingredients

You only need a few simple ingredients to make the Green Drink. Here is everything required (be sure to view the recipe card at the bottom of this post for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions):

• Brewed and chilled English Breakfast tea: If you can't find English Breakfast, use a similar black tea. Starbucks has made it tough to buy the exact tea they use, but I recommend Teavana English Breakfast.

• Sweetened coconut milk: the refrigerated kind in the carton. If you can't find sweetened, you can add a bit more simple syrup to the drink.

• Matcha powder: Starbucks uses a sweetened matcha powder, but you can use whichever you choose (sometimes the sweetened ones aren't as good of quality as unsweetened). If you use unsweetened, you can use simple syrup to add sweetness to the drink. I recommend this sweetened matcha powder and this unsweetened ceremonial grade matcha powder.

• Simple syrup: if you're using unsweetened matcha powder or unsweetened coconut milk or if you just like a sweeter drink, you'll want to add simple syrup to the drink. You can use plain, but I also love using vanilla simple syrup and think it complements the drink well. You can make your own homemade vanilla syrup or buy a bottle of the vanilla syrup that Starbucks uses.

I typically use unsweetened green matcha powder and sweetened coconut milk for my drink and I like to add 1 Tbsp simple syrup for sweetness. If you want less sugar in your drink, definitely leave it out.

🧋 How to make the Starbucks Green Drink

Making the iced drink is incredibly easy and starts with brewing the black tea.

You'll need ¾ cup of black tea for each Green Drink, so you can either brew just that or you can brew a large amount for multiple drinks.

I often brew 3 cups at a time. Then I have enough for 4 drinks. I keep the tea in a mason jar in my fridge and can whip up a Green Drink whenever I want!

Now, in an ice-filled shaker, add ¾ cup black tea, ½ cup sweetened coconut milk, and 1 ½ tsp matcha powder.

If your matcha powder or coconut milk are unsweetened, I recommend adding a tablespoon of simple syrup, too.

Even if they are both sweetened, you might want to add some!

Shake well and pour the entire contents of the shaker (ice included) into a glass. Fine powder matcha should dissolve right into the cold water.

Yup, this drink is very green. It would make a super fun St. Patrick's Day drink, but is also just a tea lovers dream come true no matter the time of year.

The combination of the black tea and matcha powder is quite powerful and there is definitely an earthy flavor to it, but the sweet coconut milk adds a lovely balance to the drink.

Give it a taste and if you like your drinks sweeter, add more vanilla syrup!

I could honestly sip on this all day. And since high-quality matcha powder has great health benefits, I'd even feel pretty good about it!

🎉 Variations on recipe

Like most of the drinks you can order from Starbucks, there are so many ingredients you can add to change the flavors up a bit and suit it to your personal preferences. You can do that with your make-at-home drinks, too! Here are some ideas:

• Vanilla bean powder: Some people say the Starbucks Green Drink has vanilla bean powder in it and while my recipe doesn't use it, I still think it would be delicious. Lots of people say this is the vanilla bean powder that Starbucks uses.

• More coconut milk: If this drink is too strong for you (the black tea and matcha combination is quite strong!) consider using a little less black tea and a little more coconut milk. You can also use less matcha powder if you prefer.

• Alternative sweeteners: If you don't have simple syrup and don't want to make it, you can use honey, agave, or maple syrup to sweeten the drink.

• Other flavors of syrup: I love using vanilla syrup in the Green Drink, but raspberry, strawberry, or even caramel would also be delicious.

• Cold foam: Add your choice of cold foam to the drink. I think vanilla sweet cream cold foam is best! Or you can just top it with whipped cream.

• Fruit: Mix in fresh fruit or freeze-dried fruit. I think strawberries are the tastiest and prettiest, but blueberries and raspberries work, too.

• Healthy add-ins: Feel free to add your favorite collagen powder to the drink. Chia seeds, MCT oil, or turmeric, too.

If you're looking for a fun pairing, try these green monster muffins alongside the drink!

☕️ How to make without black tea

If you love the idea of a Starbucks Green Drink, but just want to stick to the green tea instead of involving black tea, too, you certainly can.

In fact, some people claim the Green Drink is an iced matcha latte with vanilla powder and coconut milk.

Starbucks' Iced Matcha Lattes don't have any water in them, so if you want to skip the black tea, simply add ice, coconut milk, matcha, and simple syrup (if using) to your shaker.

🥛 Can I use another kind of dairy/non-dairy milk?

I haven't experimented with other kinds of dairy and non-dairy alternatives, but there's no reason you can't try using oat milk, almond milk, soy milk, or even regular 2% milk.

However, if your milk isn't sweetened, you may want to add a little more syrup into the drink.

Also note that different kinds of milks can change the color of your drink slightly. It will still be green, but the shade may vary (when I made the Purple Drink with coconut milk instead of soy milk, it was pink instead of purple!).

⚡️ Is there caffeine in this drink?

Yes, as the Green Drink has both matcha and black tea in it, there is caffeine in it. How much depends on the matcha and black tea you use, but a teaspoon of matcha typically has about 70 milligrams of caffeine, so you'd have about 105 milligrams of caffeine from matcha here.

A cup of English breakfast tea typically has between 30-60 mg of caffeine.

So, this entire drink could have between 135-160g mg caffeine. Is this a lot? Well, for comparison a grande iced coffee from Starbucks has 165 mg and a grande cold brew has 205 mg, so not quite as much caffeine as those.

💓 Is this a healthy drink?

The Green Drink does have sugar in it due to the matcha powder (if you're using sweetened), the sweetened coconut milk, and the simple syrup if you're using it.

However, it does likely have more health benefits than many other Starbucks drinks as Japanese green tea powder is known to have many beneficial properties, including lots of antioxidants (source).

In fact, you can make this drink healthier at home than you can when you order Starbucks matcha drinks at the coffee shop. They don't use a very high-quality matcha and their's is packed with sugar. You can easily control how much sugar goes into your drink.

🥤 More Starbucks iced drinks

If you want to learn how to make more Starbucks copycat recipes at home, you've come to the right place! I have plenty of Starbucks recipes here, but below are some of my favorite cold drinks:

Which color of the Starbucks rainbow should I try next? The Blue Drink is going to require some serious experimenting as some are claiming it's an imaginary drink! The Yellow Drink and the Orange Drink don't seem to be getting a lot of love, but I know they're delicious, too.

Have you ever ordered a rainbow drink at Starbucks?

📖 Recipe