My kids love Starbucks’ refresher drinks. But they do add up price wise! So I decided to see if I can make a similar refreshing drink at home. I made a big jug of Pineapple Passion Fruit Lemonade this weekend and my family gave their approval seal:).
Passion Fruit Or Maracuya / Maracujá
Passion Fruit (some people use passionfruit) is a fruit native to Brazil and found in other South American countries as well. The fruit is delicious with many seeds inside and can have different colors on the exterior depending on variety .
Often times passion fruit is added to desserts, smoothies or its juice is added to other drinks because it brings up a floral, sweet aroma that elevates the quality of the drink.
Many countries make passion fruits syrups (can be called different names) and add the syrup to shaved ice for refreshing summer treats. Obviously the syrups are also used for cocktails and various tropical drinks.
Here in South Florida, we can find passion fruits in grocery stores (they’re typically expensive). However, the most common form of passion fruit here is a frozen pulp found in the International Frozen Foods section or Latin American grocery stores.
Some Other Passion Fruit Recipes From My Blog
I love making Passion Fruit Mousse with the pulp of this fruit or a Mango Passion Fruit Rum Cocktail.
Tips & Additional Notes
Here are some additional notes to help make the best Pineapple Passion Fruit Refresher:).
- Use a good blender and then strain the mix in a mesh colander. The finer the better. Usually the pulp might have strings so you don’t want that in the lemonade.
- You can add the pulp frozen or let it thaw in puree, it’s up to you.
- There’s no need to add additional sweeteners because the pineapple juice, the fruits and the pulp have some degree of sweetness.
- The actual Starbucks refresher does have green tea, I didn’t add any to my lemonade but you feel free to add some green tea. Boil it then let it cool down before adding to your lemonade.
- If you like the lemonade to feel a bit more citrus-y, you can add some of the lemon skin in the blender when blending if you’ll strain at the end anyway.
Pineapple Passion Fruit Lemonade
Equipment
- 1 Blender
- 1 pitcher
Ingredients
- 1 cup diced fresh pineapple
- 2 cups pineapple juice
- 5 ozs passion fruit pulp
- 1 lemon
- water
- ice
Instructions
- Add passion fruit pulp and pineapple juice in the blender. Add 2 cups of water as well. Blend until everything is homogenous.
- Add 1-2 cups of ice to a pitcher. Use a mesh strainer to strain the lemonade mix over ice. Add lemon juice and mix well.
- Add the diced pineapple to pitcher. You can also add the diced pineapple to each individual glass then pour lemonade over.
- Finally add more water to fill the pitcher up. Serve cold and enjoy:). Cheers!
Notes
- You can add some sparkling water in the pitcher too when filling it up. It will make this refresher bubbly:).
Nutrition Label
Nutrition
The Starbucks version of this refresher does have some caffeine, it can’t be done caffeine free because the green tea is included in the base of the drink. My recipe doesn’t have caffeine, I made it kid friendly so it can taste similar to the Starbucks version but not identical.
Sugar free yes, but it will still not be carbohydrates free. Passion fruit pulp has no added sugar but it does have natural carbohydrates from the passion fruit. You can buy a no sugar added pineapple juice and don’t add additional sugar to the lemonade. This will make it sugar free but again, if you are trying to limit carbohydrates for health issues, the drink will still have carbs from the fruits.
Yes you can. It will make the drink creamy. Do a little trial and error to find out how much coconut milk you like in the lemonade. Coconut milk will still keep the drink dairy free.
If you would like to save this recipe for later, please save it to your boards in Pinterest. Let me know if you have any questions on substitutions or variations of the recipe. Love seeing your comments:). Feel free to tag me in social media with your version of this recipe. Thank you for reading!
Instagram: mediterranean_latin_love or Twitter: MediterrLatin or Facebook: Mediterranean Latin Love Affair.
Leave a Reply