Copycat Starbucks Pink Drink Recipe
Five ingredients, ten minutes of actual work, and the secret is a splash of passionfruit. This copycat Starbucks Pink Drink costs about $1.30 a glass and tastes like the drive-through version - right down to the coconut milk streaks and freeze-dried strawberries floating at three different depths.
Equipment
- Large Jar or Pitcher
- Lidded Jar or Mason Jar
- 16-Ounce Glass
Ingredients
Batch Base (Makes 6-8)
- 2 cups white cranberry-strawberry juice (or white grape juice)
- 1 1/4 cups passionfruit juice
- 3/4 cup cold water
- 1/3 cup strawberry purée (mashed fresh or thawed frozen berries, drained)
- 2-3 tablespoons sugar or simple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon açaí powder (optional)
For Each 16-Ounce Glass
- 2/3 cup of the prepared base
- 1/3 cup cold water
- 1/2 cup sweetened coconut milk from a carton
- 1 1/2 tablespoons freeze-dried strawberries
- Ice (enough for the shaker and the glass)
Instructions
- Make the base: In a large jar or pitcher, combine the cranberry-strawberry juice, passionfruit juice, water, strawberry purée, and sugar (dissolved in hot water or stirred in as simple syrup). Add the açaí powder if using. Stir well and taste - the base should taste like a fruit punch you'd serve adults, not a kids' juice. If it tastes flat, a squeeze of lime fixes it.
- Chill the base: Give it at least an hour in the fridge. You can use it immediately if you are impatient - the drink survives - but it is better when the base starts cold.
- Prep the coconut milk if needed: If you bought the canned kind, thin it with water and add a pinch of sugar. If you got the carton kind, you are done.
- Fill a lidded jar halfway with ice. Add 2/3 cup of the chilled base, 1/3 cup cold water, and 1/2 cup coconut milk. Screw the lid on and shake for about 15 to 20 seconds. You want it cold, slightly frothy, and aerated - not just mixed. Shake until the outside of the jar is frosty.
- Drop the freeze-dried strawberries into the empty glass. Break any large pieces with your fingers and put them in before the ice, at the bottom. Putting them in first lets them drift up and through the drink as you pour, which is how the real thing looks - berries at every depth.
- Fill the glass with fresh ice, not the ice from the shaker. Fresh ice keeps the drink cold without diluting it further.
- Pour the shaken mixture over the ice, leaving about an inch at the top. Let the glass settle for a second. The coconut milk will streak through the pink.
- Add a fat pinch of flaky salt to the rim, if you are feeling like a cocktail bar. It sounds wrong. It is not wrong. Salt on the rim makes the strawberry taste brighter and the coconut taste sweeter. One tiny pinch, or skip it entirely. But try it once first.
Notes
Shake, don't stir. Shaking aerates the coconut milk and thins the sweetness just enough. The base keeps 5-7 days in the fridge in a sealed jar; stir before using because the purée settles. Do not freeze the finished drink - the coconut milk splits. Instead, freeze the base in an ice cube tray: two cubes, a splash of coconut milk, a little water, shake. It is the 30-second emergency version. If the base tastes flat by day four, a squeeze of lime brings it back. Use carton coconut milk, not canned. If canned is all you have, thin it 2:1 with water and add a pinch of sugar. For the oat milk version, swap the coconut milk 1:1; it is creamier and more latte-like.