We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
The Starbucks Pink drink is a true icon. Its bright, bubble gum pastel pink color is charming and has the blissful taste of strawberry and coconut. The good news — you can create this fruity drink in the comfort of your own with just three ingredients: coconut milk (sweetened or not — that’s up to you), passion fruit tea concentrate, and white cran-strawberry juice.
While optional, we highly recommend freeze-dried strawberries for the authentic Starbs experience because, just as freeze-dried strawberries are the secret to vibrant coloring for cakes and frostings, they also add color to this drink. To make your own pink drink, simply take your favorite glass full of ice and combine a cup of passion fruit tea and equal parts white-cran strawberry juice and creamy coconut milk. If you have the freeze-dried berries, place them in the cup at the beginning for extra flavor.
While ingredient costs vary across stores and locations, the cost of sweetened coconut milk starts at around $2.89 for 32 ounces. For the passion fruit tea, buy the pre-made concentrate, which costs $6.79 for 32 ounces — or buy a two-pack on Amazon for a little more. As for the juice, it runs $3.49 for 64 ounces. Finally, the optional freeze-dried varieties cost $3.99 for 10 ounces on Amazon. At first glance, all items add up to $13.17 without the berries or $17.16 with them.
However, the larger quantity of ingredients allows the opportunity to make multiple drinks rather than buying one venti size (only 24 ounces) from Starbucks, which may cost $5.75 before tax, depending on your location. After doing the math, you can make four pink drinks that are 24 ounces each with all the ingredients purchased, which would cost $23 at Starbucks, pre-tax, saving you a pretty penny in the long run.
Other things to consider when making an at-home pink drink
While the tea concentrate, coconut milk, and white-cran strawberry juice create the magic formula, there are no steadfast rules to making your at-home version of a pink drink. For example, use what you have on hand. Instead of purchasing freeze-dried strawberries, you can use any other ones you may have on hand, like blueberries or raspberries (just keep in mind it may alter the color a bit). Or, if you have fresh strawberries, slice them up to use as inclusions instead. Maybe you like the flavor of the drink, but you wish it were a little bit sweeter for a true copycat.
If that’s the case, incorporate a sweetener you already have at home. Think simple syrup, agave, or stevia to boost that flavor into high gear. Take inspiration from Starbucks and top your pink drink with matcha cold foam – or try making a cherry-flavored version to let your personalized pink drink be one of the Starbucks drinks that pair well with the new cherry cold foam. To make either version, blend or froth a 3:1 ratio of heavy cream and milk with a simple syrup. For flavor, incorporate the matcha powder for an herbaceous finish to the berry-forward pink drink. As for the cherry flavoring, swap the regular simple syrup for a cherry-flavored syrup for that bright, tart flavor that blends perfectly with the other fruity notes.
