How to Make a Starbucks Strawberry Acai Refresher

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See how to make a Starbucks strawberry acai refresher recipe. With Starbucks copycat recipes all the rage let’s dive into the popular refresher flavor of a homemade strawberry acai drink. This homemade version contains less sugar and fewer unnecessary ingredients.

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Starbucks Strawberry Acai Refresher Drink

To make this Starbucks copycat recipe let’s first start by checking out the ingredients on the Starbucks website for what they use to make this popular drink. The original Starbucks version is made with:

• Ice
• Strawberry Acai Base
  • Water
  • Sugar
  • White Grape Juice Concentrate
  • Citric Acid
  • Natural Flavors
  • Natural Green Coffee Flavor
  • Fruit And Vegetable Juice
  • Rebaudioside-a
• Freeze-dried Strawberries

This seems a bit vague but we can work with this. 

Homemade Strawberry Acai Drink

The simple ingredients in this delicious drink have no preservatives and no added sugar and can be found at the local grocery store and online. 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups filtered water
• 1 1/4 cups white grape juice
• 1 1/4 tsp freeze-dried strawberry powder (here)
• ​1/2 tsp freeze-dried acai powder (here)
• 1/2 tsp green coffee extract powder (here)
• 1 tsp freeze-dried passion fruit powder (here)
• fresh strawberries to garnish and frozen strawberries for in the drink

You will also need a cocktail shaker. Get one here: cocktail shaker.

Strawberry Acai Freeze Dried Powder Overview

A quick bit of information about the simple powdered ingredients in this easy recipe:

• strawberry powder and acai powder provide sweet strawberry acai flavors as well as the bright color
• passionfruit powder provides a natural sweetness
• green coffee powder provides the caffeine

How to Make the Refresher Base

The key ingredient in this refreshing drink is the strawberry acai refresher base. This is where the natural sweetness and the sweet strawberry flavors come from. To make our own strawberry acai refresher we need to start by combining the freeze-dried fruit powders and the green coffee bean powder together in a small dish. 

Next, add a little warm or room-temperature water to the dish. You only need to add enough to cover the powders and help them dissolve. 

Stir the water and powders until the powders dissolve. Do not skip this step. The powders will not dissolve in cold water and your drink will be clumpy if you skip this part of this copycat refresher recipe.  

Fill a drinking glass with a combination of ice cubes and frozen real strawberries. 

Pour the strawberry acai base into a cocktail shaker and add the filtered water.

Next, add the white grape juice concentrate to the shaker.

Secure the lid to the shaker and shake the ingredients together to combine. 

This copycat strawberry acai drink is a much better version than the real thing and is perfect for a hot summer day. 

Pour the homemade Starbucks strawberry refresher into the ice and fruit-filled tall glass. 

Garnish with fresh fruit and enjoy. This recipe yields 2 servings. Double the recipe and serve in a large pitcher to friends and family with fresh strawberry slices! 

FAQs and Variations of the Copycat Strawberry Acai Refresher 

Keep in mind that any changes to this delicious recipe may alter the taste, but you can absolutely make changes to it. 

• ​How is this different from a pink drink? The Starbucks pink drink has the same foundation as this recipe but the main difference is the addition of coconut milk in the pink drink. 
• Can I make this a caffeine-free drink? To make this drink without caffeine simply eliminate the green coffee extract. 
• Can I use this recipe to make a strawberry acai lemonade refresher? Sure, add some lemon juice or homemade lemonade to the recipe and enjoy. 
• Do I have to use passion fruit powder? No, you can also use passionfruit juice or passion fruit puree. Just play around with how much you add and adjust to taste. Adding too much could lead to a sweeter drink than you plan for. 
• Can I add simple syrup or strawberry syrup? Yes, but keep in mind that most syrups are loaded with sugar unless you are making your own homemade simple syrup. We show you how to make honey simple syrup.
• What if I don’t have a cocktail shaker? You can use a large mason jar or any airtight container to shake your refresher drink. 

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