Iced Mango Dragonfruit Refresher (Starbucks Copycat Recipe)

Have you seen Starbucks Iced Mango Dragonfruit Refresher? How’s that for a color? The violet-hued refreshing drink is super Instagrammable, which I guess is the reason for its existence, but it’s also tasty and reminiscent of the most exciting tropical flavors.

The deal with Starbucks refreshers is that they’re apparently simple and straightforward, but they’re actually almost impossible to make without a whole bunch of specialty ingredients.

This might be a challenging project, but that shouldn’t stop us from making our own Iced Mango Dragonfruit Refresher. You gotta fight for your right to party! And to enjoy your favorite refreshers whenever we like. So, here’s how you make a mango dragonfruit refresher Starbucks copycat. 

For starters, we’ll need to get ourselves some freeze-dried dragon fruit powder. It’s available online. This critical ingredient will give our drink that fantastic color.

We’ll then need white grape juice. Why? I don’t know, but it’s the base of all Starbucks refreshers. I guess they know best. So, buy some sweet and tangy white grape juice, it’s actually pretty tasty.

As for the lovely mango flavor, which is basically the drink’s soul, we want to use either mango juice or mango purée. If you don’t find any of these, you can get a mango syrup, but it’s not the most natural alternative. If you have the chance, blending a few fresh mangoes is a great alternative, but expect a murkier (but tastier) drink.

Finally, we have the biggest mystery around this thirst-quenching drink: using powdered green bean. What’s up with that? Green coffee beans have five times less caffeine than roasted beans, but Starbucks uses green bean extract to add a kick to its fruit drinks without ruining their bright colors with black coffee. 

You can do the same by buying green coffee bean powder, but here’s a pro tip: If you substitute water for green tea, you get some caffeine without compromising the flavor much, and it’s way cheaper and more practical. 

For the recipe below, we’re using the green bean powder, the freeze-dried dragonfruit powder, and the mango puree (Monin is a nice brand.) Yet, feel free to make your own interpretation of this tropical drink, unleash your creativity!