Summer-Berry Refresher {Starbucks Copycat}

Summer is here at Starbucks and the new Summer-Berry Refresher is a blue-hued drink packed with the sweet taste of berries and featuring raspberry pearls that burst with even more flavor. This easy copycat recipe will let you enjoy the drink at home all summer long (and beyond)!

Jump to:

• 🥤 What is the Summer-Berry Refresher?
• ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
• 🗒 Ingredients
• 🍓 How to make berry syrup
• 💙 How to make refresher base
• 🫐 How to make Summer-Berry Refresher
• 💡 Modifications
• ⏲️ How to store
• 👩‍🍳 More ways to use base
• ⚡️ Do Refreshers contain caffeine?
• 🥭 More Starbucks Refresher recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

No matter what the weather is where you are, it's summer at Starbucks! Which is lucky for us because that means their new drinks are out.

This summer, we've been gifted with a new lineup of Refreshers. And pretty ones at that.

People have long wished for a blue Starbucks drink and now it's here: the Summer-Berry Refresher. It's joined by the Summer-Berry Lemonade (the refresher based mixed with lemonade) and the Summer Skies Drink (the refresher base mixed with coconut milk).

Customers have also been longing for Starbucks boba... And now it's here, too! These new drinks are served with "raspberry pearls," which is very similar to boba. They "pop" in your mouth and bring an extra sweet burst of berry flavor.

Of course, I've been researching these drinks since they were first rumored to be coming and now that they're finally here, I've perfected my copycat Summer-Berry Refresher copycat recipe to taste just like the Starbucks version!

🥤 What is the Summer-Berry Refresher?

The newest Refresher at Starbucks is packed with berry flavor and is so perfect for summer.

The coffee shop describes it as "a sweet summer blend of raspberry, blueberry and blackberry flavors, shaken with ice and poured over raspberry flavored pearls that deliver a delicate and deliciously sweet burst of summer fun."

The Summer-Berry Refresher is a gorgeous blue color with pink raspberry pearls on the bottom, creating a pretty layered look.

Some say it tastes like a melted berry popsicle, while others are claiming it tastes like a blue Jolly Rancher.

❤️ Why you'll love this recipe

If you're excited about the new Starbucks summer Refresher, you're going to love this copycat recipe!

It's easy to make with a few simple steps and tastes just like the one you get at Starbucks. If you like bubble tea, you'll really like the boba-like pearls in this juice-based drink.

You can make the components in advance so that you can whip up a Refresher in just minuted whenever a craving hits.

🗒 Ingredients

I did a lot of experimenting with my recipe and though Starbucks makes all of their Refresher bases with white grape juice, it just didn't work for this drink.

Not only did the white grape juice add too much grape flavor, but since it's a pale yellow color (despite being called "white"), it turned more green-ish when I added the blue coloring.

So instead, I decided to make a berry syrup to use in the base. To me, this tastes much more like the real thing!

You will need a few special ingredients to make the drink exactly as described, but I also have some recommendations later in this post for how to modify it if you don't want to buy anything special.

Here's everything you need for the drink as I make it (be sure to view the recipe card at the bottom of this post for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions):

• Water
• Granulated sugar
• Blueberry extract
• Raspberry extract
• Blackberry extract
• Citric acid: you can substitute with lemon juice if needed
• Green coffee bean extract powder: you can omit this if you don't want your Refresher to have caffeine in it
• Blue spirulina powder: this is a natural blue food dye that works really well, but you can substitute with blue food coloring if you prefer
• Raspberry pearls: you can substitute with the flavor of your choice

And here are easy links to everything:

🍓 How to make berry syrup

This berry syrup is very easy to make. If you prefer, you can purchase a berry syrup, but most of them are red, so they'll make your Refresher look different.

To make the syrup, 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 ½ teaspoon blueberry, ½ teaspoon raspberry, and ½ teaspoon blackberry extracts.

I like to use extracts for this recipe because they're easier to control the flavor of than fresh fruit.

Pour the syrup into a mason jar or bowl and place it in fridge to cool completely before using.

Syrup will continue to thicken as it cools.

Normally I'd want my berry syrup to be a bright summer color, but for this recipe, it's best to keep it clear!

💙 How to make refresher base

Now that you have the syrup, you'll want to mix up the Summer-Berry Refresher base. This base can be used for all three of the berry refresher drinks.

Put about ½ cup + 2 tablespoon of the berry syrup into a large jar or bowl. Add 1 ⅓ cups of water.

Add citric acid, green coffee extract powder (if using), and blue spirulina powder.

Shake well or mix to combine.

Look at that beautiful blue base!

Keep the base in the fridge until you're ready to use it.

🫐 How to make Summer-Berry Refresher

All of Starbucks' basic Refreshers take the base and mix it with water, so that's what we're going to do here.

But first we're going to add ¼ cup of raspberry pearls (along with their liquid) to the bottom of a cup.

Then in an ice-filled shaker, add ½ cup of the Summer-Berry Refresher base and ½ cup of water.

Shake well to combine.

Pour the entire contents of the cup, ice included, over the raspberry pearls.

And take a great big sip of summer! The berry flavor in this drink is absolutely incredible and I also happen to think it's the perfect amount of sweetness.

And those popping pearls are so fun and tasty when they burst. I recommend getting some wide bubble tea straws so you can sip up the pearls better.

It really does taste like a melted bomb popsicle and is likely to become the drink of summer for so many people!

I'm so, so excited that Starbucks finally introduced blue drinks and boba to their menu.

💡 Modifications

I do a lot of research and testing to make sure my Starbucks copycat drinks are as close to the real thing as possible.

But I know sometimes you might prefer the easiest solution instead of the best. So, I also try to offer modifications for anyone who doesn't want to go through all the steps or purchase special ingredients.

Here are some ideas:

• Instead of using berry syrup and water in the base, you can make the drink with white grape juice instead. Starbucks does use white grape juice concentrate in their mixture and you can simply mix it with the berry extracts, citric acid, green coffee extract powder, and blue spirulina if you prefer. Your drink may be a little more blue-green than pure blue, but it will still be tasty!

• If you don't want to make your own berry syrup, you can purchase a bottle of it. However, it's hard to find a berry syrup that is clear or blue (most are red). If you aren't concerned about the color of your drink, I recommend this berry syrup. You could also use a blueberry syrup instead.

• Leave out the green coffee extract powder if you don't care about having caffeine in your Refresher.

• If you want more caffeine in your drink, you can add more of the extract powder. But keep in mind, it is a bit yellow in color and may change the blue hue of your finished drink a bit.

• If you don't have citric acid, you can add about a tablespoon of lemon juice instead. I do love the extra little zing citric acid gives the drink, but lemon juice will have a similar effect.

• I love blue spirulina powder because it's a natural blue coloring, but if you don't want to buy it and still want a blue drink, you can add a couple drops of blue food coloring into your base instead.

• If you can't find raspberry boba or pearls, use any flavor you like. Or leave them out if you prefer.

⏲️ How to store

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

Which means you can make the base on the weekend and mix up a Summer-Berry Refresher whenever you want throughout the week!

You can also feel free to double the base if you want. One batch of syrup will give you enough to make two batches of the base.

👩‍🍳 More ways to use base

Once you have the Summer-Berry Refresher base made, there's a lot you can do with it.

You can make a Summer Skies Drink simply by mixing the base with sweetened coconut milk instead of water. This is a deliciously sweet and creamy drink idea, similar to the Pink Drink and Dragon Drink but with a pale blue color.

You can also make a Summer-Berry Lemonade, which is 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.

I'm excited to see if Starbucks introduces more fun drinks with this base or with the raspberry pearls.

In the meantime, you can do whatever you want with it at home! Adding vanilla cold foam would be delicious, as would mixing it with passionfruit tea.

⚡️ Do Refreshers contain caffeine?

Yes! Because the drinks are juice-based, lots of people just they're caffeine free, but Refreshers actually contain a little bit of caffeine because of the green coffee extract powder.

The ones at the shop have about 50 mg of caffeine in them.

Also be sure to check out my new copycat recipe for the Summer Skies Drink. It looks very similar to the Summer-Berry Refresher, but the blue has more of a creamy look to it thanks to the coconut milk.

I love that Starbucks' Refreshers are all such fun colors and are all packed with delicious fruity flavors.

These ones are supposed to be limited- edition, but something tells me they'll be sticking around!

This Summer-Berry Refresher is going to make my summer so much better!

But now that I have the perfect copycat recipe, I have a feeling I'll be making it straight through winter, too.

Are you excited to have a blue boba drink at Starbucks?

📖 Recipe