Starbucks Mango Dragonfruit refresher is now at your fingertips with this delicious copycat drink recipe. A homemade DIY vegan drink recipe made with ingredients you can trust, will be a go-to in no time.
This blended pitaya drink (another name for dragonfruit), is a simple recipe. The trickiest part is finding the dragon fruit! It's actually at most grocery stores and can be found fresh or frozen.
If you love this tasty drink then you have to try our other copycat Starbucks drink Pink drink. But also try our Pink Beetroot Latte or Strawberry Brazilian Limeade for a refreshing summer drink. For a night time beverage try Angel Milk.
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Ingredients
Below is a list of ingredients needed for this recipe. Follow our tips on each ingredient for best results.
- White Grape Juice- This is the base of the drink and adds a sweet subtle, not overpowering, flavor. We tested a variety of juices for this recipe, and found white grape juice to add the perfect flavor to get the best copycat recipe.
- Mango Nectar- Mango nectar can be found in many Hispanic and juice sections of a grocery star. It is so tasty and is a strong base to this refresher.
- Dragonfruit-Use fresh or frozen dragon fruit for this recipe. Starbucks uses freeze dried dragon fruit, but fresh works great and much easier to find. When testing this recipe, we didn't think freeze dried worked any better than fresh or frozen.
- Water- This goes in the blender with the dragonfruit in order to mix it properly.
- Sugar- While blending the dragonfruit and water, sugar will help lightly sweeten the fruit and then the drink.
- Lemon Juice- A splash of lemon juice adds another level of flavor and that tropical taste you love.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to Make Mango Dragonfruit Starbucks Refresher
Use these process shots to help get the results you are wanting. The pictures can help with texture and be a visual guide for best results.
- Add sliced and peeled dragonfruit to a blender with water and sugar.
2. Blend until completely smooth. A bright dark pink liquid will form.
3. Pour in the grape juice and the lemon juice and mix it with the dragonfruit.
4. Add in the mango nectar and stir. Enjoy cold!
Hint: Make sure to use a high speed blender when blending the dragon fruit. You want to make sure it gets nice and smooth.
Substitutions
This Starbucks drink is naturally gluten free and vegan. Try out these suggestions to try different flavors.
- Frozen Strawberries- blend in frozen strawberries with the dragon fruit to add another flavor complex.
- Lemonade- Add lemonade instead of lemon juice and make it a lemonade drink. Add 1 cup of your favorite lemonade. This will make a lot so you'll want to share this single serve drink with a friend.
- Coconut milk- If you are looking for a more Starbucks dragon drink inspired drink try our tasty Dragon Drink copycat recipe. This uses coconut milk!
Helpful Hints
A lot of other recipes use freeze dried dragonfruit. This recipe here is a great example. We don't use freeze dried fruit because it's a little trickier to find and we feel like fresh or frozen fruit does the trick. Starbucks themselves use freeze dried dragonfruit.
This recipe is also caffeine free while the original recipe does have green coffee in it.
If you don't have a high power blender, run the dragonfruit, sugar, and water mixture through a fine mesh sieve to get any chunks out. A high power blender makes it fine enough that this isn't necessary.
If you are trying to incorporate less sugar, we found while testing this recipe that it was still delicious without the sugar. Add as much or as little as you'd like.
How to Serve Mango Dragonfruit Refresher
- Try sipping this while snacking on some tasty Mango Habanero Salsa and chips.
- Or make this for a fun girls night drink and then you can serve it with our tasty deviled strawberries, and chocolate covered blueberries.
Storage
Store in the refrigerator if not drinking right away. This drink is best consumed right away but can be store for more than 2-3 days. Mix before drinking again.
This recipe can be frozen but the consistency may be altered.
Top tip
Keep it simple! You don't need fancy ice or freeze dried dragon fruit to make this recipe work. Everyone can enjoy this awesome recipe!
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Recipe
Mango Dragonfruit Refresher (Starbucks)
Equipment
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup dragon fruit fresh or frozen, I used frozen
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- ¾ cup water
- ¼ cup mango nectar
- ¼ cup white grape juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- freeze dried dragonfruit optional, for garnish
Instructions
- Place the dragonfruit, sugar and water in a high speed blender. I like to use the smoothie cup that came with my NINJA blender. Blend on high for 1-2 minutes. This will ensure that the mixture is nice and smooth. If you don't have a high speed blender, run the mixture through a fine mesh sieve to remove any chunks.
- Pour dragonfruit into a cup and add the mango nectar, white grape juice and lemon juice. Stir and top with ice and freeze dried dragonfruit or extra cubes of frozen dragonfruit. Enjoy!
Notes
- Feel free to make a double, triple or even large batch!
- I found my frozen dragonfruit at Sam's Club in the frozen fruit section. Fresh dragonfruit can be found sporadically at grocery stores. Our Food Lion usually has some in stock.
- This makes a large serving (16 oz) feel free to share with a friend!
- To make it more true to the Starbucks drink, add ½ teaspoon green coffee powder. Add it at the same time as the dragonfruit, sugar and water and blend it up!
- We found that this drink was still enjoyable with less sugar (though not a true copycat). Add as much or as little sugar as you'd like.
Nutrition
FAQ
Blend fresh or frozen dragonfruit in a high speed blender with water and sugar. Add white grape juice, lemon juice and mango nectar and mix together.
Yes the original recipe has a small amount of green coffee in it. This copycat recipe does not have any caffeine in it!
Yes! It has a great tropical flavor that's both refreshing and tasty. It's a tasty sweet drink that is perfect for a hot summer day.
While it uses fresh fruits to make this drink it also uses some juices and white sugar making the drink high in sugar.
The original Starbucks recipe has 90 calories. Our recipe has more at 244 calories for a 16 oz drink but it's not watered down like the Starbucks Recipe.
Dragonfruit can be purchased at most grocery stores. It is also often at Asian grocery stores. I have found it frozen at Sam's Club. You can also find it online on websites such as Etsy. When buying dragonfruit, look for fruit that is firm but not hard. The skin should be vibrant and not very wrinkled, if at all.
Andrea says
Mango Dragonfruit Refresher diy recipe, I finally found one I love! This is so good and I love that I can make it homemade!