This Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade Refresher is light, fruity, and refreshing, but without the excessive sugar. It’s a copycat recipe that is closest to the original but cleaner and lower in carbs.
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My first taste of the Starbucks Mango Dragon Fruit Lemonade was on one of my trips to Chicago. It was peak summer, and it was such a reprieve in the sweltering heat. We had just finished a tour of the "Bean" and gravitated to the Starbucks right across from it. It was sweet, tart, and so refreshing, I was in love! What I didn't love, however, was the amount of sugar in it. A whopping 6 teaspoons in a 12 oz. serving! I knew I had to recreate a healthier version once I was back in Houston.
Other online replications use mango nectar or juice, which is inaccurate. After researching the ingredient list on Starbucks’ website, I found that it contains white grape juice concentrate, natural flavors, green coffee extract, lemon oil, and lemon juice, plus tons of sugar. There is no actual mango in Starbucks’ recipe. In fact, they’re facing a class-action lawsuit over this claim.
And so, I set about replicating it as accurately as I could, while keeping it low-carb and keto-friendly, similar to this keto mint lemonade.
Please note that I did not use either mango or white grape juice because of their high carb content.
A Quick Look at the Recipe
⏲️Ready In: 10 minutes.
👪Serves: 1.
🍽 Calories and Protein: 102 kcal.
📋 Main Ingredients: Lemon juice, mango-flavored green tea, monk-fruit sweetener.
📖 Dietary Notes: Sugar-free, Keto, low-carb.
⭐ Why You’ll Love It:
- No refined sugar and no controversial ingredients.
- It has minimal, easy-to-find ingredients. Just four real food ingredients that are easy to find in your grocery store. Mango-flavored green tea is also available online. As is frozen dragonfruit.
- It's low-carb/keto-friendly, thanks to the monk fruit.
- It's cheaper. While I didn't crunch the exact numbers, I do know that a tall dragonfruit refresher costs close to $5 at Starbucks. We need the tea bags, which cost $4- $5 per 20-pack. The only other cost is the frozen dragonfruit, which is an additional $5. However, the bag can yield many dragon fruit drinks.
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Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade Ingredient Notes
Mango-flavored tea bag: To replicate the original drink, I found mango-flavored tea bags to be the most accurate replacement.
After testing this recipe with mango-flavored black and green tea multiple times, I found green tea to be the best in this drink. It is lighter in color and strength, letting the tart, fruity flavors of lemon and mango shine.
Sweetener: To keep it low-carb, I used monk fruit sweetener, which is closest to the stevia blend that Starbucks uses. You can also use liquid stevia drops.
Dragonfruit: Available frozen in chunks. This will give the beautiful magenta hue that’s the signature of Starbucks’ dragonfruit drinks. Thaw them slightly if you want to strain them to get a brighter pink look.
Variations
Use other frozen berries: If dragonfruit is hard to find where you live, you can use any other frozen berry, e.g., blueberries, raspberries, or blackberries. Since they can impart a similar color to the drink. The taste will change slightly, but not by much, as dragonfruit is pretty neutral-tasting.
How to Make Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade
Step 1: Brew the tea. Start by brewing the tea, then add the sweetener and stir until fully dissolved. Set it aside to cool.
Step 2: Juice the lemon and add it to the jug with the cooled tea. Stir to combine.
Step 3: Assemble the drink. Take a tall glass, add ice and dragonfruit chunks, then pour the tea-and-lemon juice mixture into it. Stir and enjoy immediately.
Step 4: As an added optional step, you can strain the dragonfruit. To do this, simply add the dragonfruit pieces to the tea-and-lemon juice mixture, then strain it into the glass. The taste remains the same, but you get the signature look 😋
Pro Tips
- Don't steep the tea bag for too long, as it makes the drink bitter and strong. A quick 30-second steep is the sweet spot.
- This is an additional step, but if you want a brighter magenta color signature to the Starbucks drink, add the dragonfruit chunks to the tea-lemonade mixture, then strain it into your glass, removing the pulp. This is more visually appealing and closer to the look. The chunks tend to sink to the bottom of the glass anyway, making the drink look unsightly and taking away from its beauty. The pictures of the finished drink are with strained dragonfruit.
Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade FAQs
A tall(12 oz.) Starbucks mango dragonfruit refresher contains approximately 25 mg of caffeine. The caffeine is from green coffee extract.
The amount of caffeine in this recipe is much less. According to the tea manufacturer, a 1-3-minute steep will yield 16-30 mg. We steep the teabag for only 30 seconds; thus, the caffeine content is assumed to be lower than 16 mg.
This drink is best enjoyed immediately, but you can make the lemonade tea mixture ahead of time and then garnish with the dragon fruit just before serving.
The only carbs in this recipe come from the lemon juice and dragonfruit chunks. The sugar (from fruit) amounts to just 5 grams, i.e., a little over 1 teaspoon. It is significantly less than the Starbucks version, which has around 24 grams of added sugar (about 6 teaspoons) per 12-oz serving.
It is keto as written, but not Whole30 approved. Since sweeteners aren’t allowed on Whole30, this recipe can’t be adapted without significantly changing the flavor.
More Refreshing Drinks to Try
If you tried this mango dragonfruit lemonade refresher recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments. I love hearing from you! You can also follow me on Pinterest or subscribe to our newsletter to get more deliciousness straight to your inbox!
Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade Refresher
Ingredients
- 1 mango-flavored green tea bag
- 1 cup water
- 1 large lemon, juiced or 2 tablespoons juice
- 2 tablespoons monk fruit sweetener or to taste. *See note
- 1/2 cup frozen dragonfruit pieces *See note
- ice
Instructions
- First, brew the tea, add the sweetener, stir to dissolve, and set it aside to cool.
- Juice the lemon and add it to the tea mixture. To a tall glass, add ice about 1/2 way up, and add the tea-lemonade mixture. Stir to combine, then top with the frozen dragon fruit. Stir, taste, and adjust as needed. Enjoy immediately.
For a brighter magenta color and clearer drink:
- Add the dragonfruit chunks to the tea mixture, then pour it into the glass through a fine mesh strainer. Using the back of a spoon, press the dragonfruit pulp and discard it. Stir and enjoy!
Video
Notes
- If dragonfruit is hard to find where you live, you can use any other frozen berry, e.g., blueberries, raspberries, or blackberries. Since they can impart a similar color to the drink. The taste will change slightly, but not by much, as dragonfruit is pretty neutral-tasting.
- You can use liquid stevia drops as a substitute for monk fruit sweetener. If you do, 8-10 drops should suffice.
- Don’t steep the tea bag for too long, as it makes the drink bitter and strong. A quick 30-second steep is the sweet spot.
- This is an additional step, but if you want a brighter magenta color signature to the Starbucks drink, add the dragonfruit chunks to the tea-lemonade mixture, then strain it into your glass, removing the pulp. This is more visually appealing and closer to the look. The chunks tend to sink to the bottom of the glass anyway, making the drink look unsightly and taking away from its beauty. The pictures of the finished drink are with strained dragonfruit.
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