25 Best Starbucks Drink Ideas (Easy Copycat Recipes)
on Jul 08, 2022
Save money and skip the line with these Starbucks copycat drinks you can make at home. From blended frappuccinos to the full rainbow drink collection, every recipe uses simple ingredients and takes minutes.
I hit a point where my monthly Starbucks spending was genuinely embarrassing. Like, more than my phone bill embarrassing. So I started making the drinks at home.
Most of them are absurdly easy. Some taste better than the original. A few are a pain to get right (I’m looking at you, mango dragonfruit). But all 25 have been tested enough times in my kitchen that I can make them without thinking.
Coffee & Espresso Drinks
This is the one that started it. Coffee, milk, caramel syrup, ice, blender. Done in about two minutes. I genuinely cannot tell the difference between this and the Starbucks version, and I’ve tested them side by side. (Yes, I bought one just to compare. For science.)
Blending actual chocolate chips into the frappe gives it a texture that syrup can’t replicate. You get these little pockets of chocolate throughout the whole drink. Messier to clean up than the caramel version, but worth the extra rinse.
Dessert in a cup. Graham cracker, chocolate, marshmallow, all blended with coffee. I won’t pretend this is anything other than a treat, but the marshmallow whipped cream on top pushes the homemade version past the Starbucks one. Not close.
Five minutes and you have a drink Starbucks charges almost six dollars for. Don’t skip the salt on top. Seriously. It’s what pulls the whole thing together, and the drink tastes flat without it.
The cloud foam is easier to make than it looks, but I’ll be honest — mine doesn’t hold its shape quite as long as the Starbucks version. Still tastes the same. Espresso through vanilla foam, drizzle of caramel, serve in a clear glass so you can see the layers.
My cold morning default when coffee feels too aggressive. Once you make your own chai concentrate you’ll realize how much money you’ve been handing Starbucks for what is basically spiced tea and milk. Works iced in the summer too.
Refreshers & Fruity Drinks
I think this is where the homemade versions actually pull ahead. Starbucks uses freeze-dried fruit; you can use the real thing.
The most popular refresher on the menu and one of the easiest copycats to nail. Fresh strawberries give it more flavor than the freeze-dried ones Starbucks uses. Add coconut milk and you’ve got a Pink Drink. Swap in lemonade for a tangier take.
This one took me three tries. The magenta color comes from dragon fruit powder, which is easy to find online but I couldn’t get the ratio right at first — too much powder and it tastes chalky, too little and the color is sad. The version I landed on uses four ingredients and takes about five minutes.
Same base, but with lemonade instead of water. I actually prefer this one in the summer. The lemonade cuts the sweetness and makes it more thirst-quenching than the regular version.
The creamy version. Coconut milk replaces the water and the whole thing becomes sweeter, richer, more Insta-worthy. The pink against the white coconut milk creates this swirl effect that genuinely looks professional. Use the same coconut milk trick I talk about in the pink drink recipe — carton, not canned.
Less sweet than the strawberry acai, more floral. The hibiscus tea base gives it a deeper berry flavor and a red-purple color that’s almost wine-like. I toss real blackberries in for garnish. This is the refresher I hand people when they say “I don’t really like sweet drinks.”
I didn’t even know Starbucks had moved into tropical territory until I tried this one. Guava and passionfruit with coconut milk, and it tastes like vacation. The coconut milk smooths everything out without making it heavy.
Lighter than the passionfruit version. The white tea adds a subtle backbone that the other guava drinks don’t have. If the passionfruit one is the party drink, this is the Tuesday afternoon drink.
The Rainbow Collection
OK, this is my favorite part. Starbucks’ rainbow drinks started as secret menu hacks and blew up on Instagram. I’ve made copycat versions of all seven colors, and I’m not going to lie — lining them all up on the counter is extremely satisfying.
The OG. Strawberry acai and coconut milk. It’s still one of the most requested drinks at my house, and the recipe hasn’t changed since I first posted it. If you’ve never made a Starbucks copycat before, this is the one to start with.
Same drink, different presentation. You pour the coconut milk slowly over the back of a spoon to create a pink-to-white gradient. Takes an extra thirty seconds and looks like a sunset in a glass. (Fair warning: if you stir it, the effect disappears. So photograph first, drink second.)
Passion iced tea, soy milk, blackberries. Tea-based, so it’s lighter than the pink drink. The blackberries floating on top make it look more put-together than it has any right to for a three-ingredient drink.
People always ask me how this is different from the purple drink. The color is softer, the berry flavor is more delicate, and the coconut milk makes it creamier. Think of it as the purple drink’s quieter sibling.
This one gets the biggest reactions at parties. Something about a blue drink just catches people off guard. The color does fade as the ice melts, which is annoying, so drink it fast or serve it right away.
Black tea, matcha powder, coconut milk. More depth than the other rainbow drinks because the matcha adds that earthy note underneath. Also the only one in the set that gives you an actual energy boost.
The one that tastes like peach gummy rings. Once someone told me that, I couldn’t un-taste it. Black tea lemonade with peach juice and soy milk. This was the last rainbow drink I made, and finishing the full set felt like completing a collection.
Matcha & Tea Drinks
Two flavors that have no business working this well together. I keep a pitcher of this in the fridge all summer. It’s basically the Arnold Palmer of Starbucks drinks.
Matcha and pineapple sounds weird. I get it. But the tropical sweetness balances the earthy matcha perfectly, and the ginger adds just enough bite. This is the drink that converted my friend who swore she hated matcha. She now makes it weekly. (She still won’t admit I was right.)
The only caffeine-free drink on this list. Turmeric, ginger, pineapple, coconut milk. It’s my 3pm pick when I want something that feels like a real drink but won’t keep me up at night. The turmeric turns it this gorgeous golden yellow that photographs really well.
Not technically a Starbucks drink — this one’s inspired by Boba Guys. But it belongs here. Pink strawberry layer on the bottom, green matcha on top, and they meet in the middle. Almost too pretty to stir, which is a problem because you have to stir it eventually and then it turns brown. So enjoy the visual while it lasts.
Whipped matcha over iced milk. This is a weekend project — not because it’s hard, but because the whole point is the slow ritual of whisking the matcha into that creamy foam and spooning it over the glass. It dissolves as you stir it in. Rush it and you miss the point.
A Few Things I’ve Learned
I ruined a lot of drinks before I figured out the basics. The biggest one: start with cold liquids. Warm milk poured over ice just turns into watery nothing.
For the rainbow drinks specifically, use coconut milk from a carton (the beverage kind), not canned. I learned this the hard way — canned coconut milk is too thick and doesn’t layer cleanly. The pink drink looked more like a pink blob. The carton version layers beautifully every time.
And use more ice than you think. For frappes especially, more ice = thicker texture. Starbucks uses a LOT of ice. If your homemade frappe feels thin, that’s probably why.
If you want more copycat recipes beyond Starbucks, I’ve been slowly building a collection.
Made something from this list? Tag me @izzycookingofficial — I want to see your setup. — Izzy x
