Sabrina Strawberry Refresher Recipe
Beverage · 2025-05-19 · 8 min read · by Emily
If you've been anywhere near a Dunkin' drive-through this summer, you've probably seen the pink drink that launched a thousand TikToks. Sabrina Carpenter's Strawberry Daydream Refresher blew up almost overnight — sweet strawberry, creamy oat milk, and a cloud of cold foam on top. The problem? Limited-time menu items disappear, and the line is always fifteen cars deep.
So I started making it at home. Took a few rounds to get the balance right, but the version below tastes closer to the real thing than any copycat I tried from the internet. It's also dead simple once you have the strawberry base prepped.
What You Need
The drink has three layers: a strawberry-dragonfruit base, oat milk, and sweet cold foam. The base gives you that signature pink color and berry flavor. Oat milk adds body without making it heavy. And the cold foam on top is what makes it feel like a proper café drink instead of juice from a carton.
For the strawberry base, you can use store-bought strawberry dragonfruit juice (Tazo makes a good one), or blend fresh strawberries with a splash of dragonfruit powder and simple syrup. Both work. The homemade version tastes brighter, but the bottled route saves ten minutes on a weekday morning.
Ingredients
Strawberry dragonfruit base — 4 oz (store-bought juice or homemade: 5 strawberries + 1 tsp dragonfruit powder + 1 tbsp simple syrup, blended and strained). Oat milk — 2 oz (Oatly Barista or similar). Brewed green tea — 2 oz, cooled (this adds the light caffeine kick). Ice — enough to fill a 16 oz glass. Sweet cold foam — 3 tbsp oat milk + 1 tsp vanilla syrup + 1 tsp sugar, frothed until thick.
How to Make It
Start by brewing a small cup of green tea and letting it cool completely — you can do this the night before and keep it in the fridge. Fill a tall 16 oz glass with ice all the way to the top.
Pour the strawberry dragonfruit base over the ice first. Then add the cooled green tea. Follow with the oat milk — it'll swirl through the pink base and create that layered look you see in the shop photos.
For the cold foam, combine oat milk, vanilla syrup, and sugar in a small jar or milk frother. Froth it for about 30 seconds until it doubles in volume and holds soft peaks. Spoon it gently over the top of the drink. Don't stir it in — let it sit as a layer.
Give the whole thing a quick stir from the bottom when you're ready to drink, or sip through the foam first. Both ways work.
Tips That Actually Matter
The dragonfruit powder is mostly for color. If you skip it, the drink still tastes great — it just looks more like a regular strawberry milk tea instead of that electric pink. You can find dragonfruit powder at most health food stores or online for a few dollars.
Use cold oat milk straight from the fridge. Warm oat milk won't layer properly and the foam won't hold. If you don't have a frother, shake the foam mixture hard in a sealed mason jar for 45 seconds. It works almost as well.
The green tea should be subtle — you're not making a matcha latte here. One regular green tea bag steeped for 2 minutes in 3 oz of water, then cooled, gives you just enough caffeine without any bitter tea flavor taking over.
Make It a Cocktail
Want the grown-up version? Add 1.5 oz of vanilla vodka or white rum after the green tea step. The strawberry and cream flavors hide the alcohol surprisingly well. Skip the green tea if you're adding spirits — you don't need both caffeine and alcohol working against each other.
For a brunch version, swap the green tea for 2 oz of prosecco added right before the foam. The bubbles push through the layers and it looks incredible in a wine glass.
Why This Drink Keeps Trending
Sabrina Carpenter's collab with Dunkin' hit at exactly the right moment — summer, pink drinks, and a fanbase that photographs everything. But the drink itself is genuinely good. It's not overly sweet like some refreshers, and the oat milk gives it a smoothness that plain water-based refreshers don't have.
Making it at home means you control the sugar, you can use better ingredients, and you're not paying six dollars for what amounts to juice, milk, and ice. Once you have the strawberry base prepped (it keeps in the fridge for 4-5 days), the whole thing takes under two minutes to assemble.