Summer Skies Drink (Starbucks Recipe)

AStarbucks has launched the Summer Skies Drink and if you like your drinks bright and zesty, you’ll love this one. Incorporating shades of the summer sky that includes pale pink, light blue, and off-white this drink is tasteless and pretty. Although Starbucks guard their recipe a closely guarded secret, here is how you can replicate this at home using the following ingredients.

DIY Summer Skies Drink

Want to make Starbucks Summer Skies Drink at home? This drink is all about stunning and perfectly combined layers to please not just the eyes but also taste buds. That’s why it’s possible to make this Instagram summer shame dish with coconut milk, fruit juices and a few touches of spirulina.

Ingredients

Coconut Milk

• They help to give a creamy base to the drink.
• Using the full-fat coconut milk will make your dish thick, you may use the low-fat coconut milk if you are watching your calories intake.

Blue Spirulina Powder

• This superfood powder is what gives this colour its unmistakably vivid blue appearance. It has a very subtle taste which in a way does not overpower the other ingredients, plus it is extremely rich in antioxidants.
• Spirulina is stocked in supermarkets and most health food stores or can also be ordered online.

Berry juice (black berry, blue berry, or acai) 

• The thick and dark purple layer in the center lends the drink a sweet fruity taste perfect for the light fluffy coconut flavor.
• The color purple can be obtained from blackberry or blue berry juice syrup. You can also mix acai to give more variety of taste in juices.

Hibiscus Tea

• An invigorating floral and slightly sour hibiscus tea is used to achieve the beautiful pink color of the drink’s top layer.
• It can be made from directly steeping dried hibiscus flowers in water, or from using actual hibiscus tea.

Vanilla Syrup

• Used to sweetening the drink as well as enhance the flavors of the drink. For a vanilla syrup you can buy it from stores or prepare it by dissolving sugar in water and mixing it with vanilla essence.

Ice

• Necessary to keep the drink cool and refresh for drinking, at the same time to preserve the layers separating.

Optional: Vanilla Cold Foam or Whipped Cream 

• To that taste the Starbucks Howard Schultz touch add cold foam made from vanilla syrup and heavy cream. This need to touch bottom like a “cloud” and gradually dissolve into the different layers as you consume the cider.

Instructions

Prepare the Blue Base Layer

• Pour about one third of it with ice.
• Take a different cup and add 1/2 cup of coconut milk together with 1/2 teaspoon of blue spirulina powder. Mix it until the coconut milk turns into a bright blue color of the batter.
• Gently pour this mixture over ice. The clear, deep blue liquid that is a coconut base resembles the firmament and is used to make the juice appealing to consumers.

Create the Purple Middle Layer

• For a clean separation of colours, take a small graduated container, from which slowly pour 1/4 cup of berry juice onto the back of a spoon, and allow the juice to fall on the blue coconut layer. It assists to allow the juice layer form to stay on top and not intermingle with the other part.
• There’s a deep purple hue to it as it looks somewhat like a sunset in mid summer, the juice on the other hand gives the base its fruity taste.

Top with the Pink Hibiscus Tea Layer

• Hibiscus tea boil the hibiscus tea and strain it, let it cool. For darker pink color mix the tea and add more time for steeping.
• Similarly, slowly drizzle a quarter cup of chilled hibiscus tea on top of the back of a spoon, to form the last layer, which is also of this pink color. This floral note puts the last accent with its sourish accent that brings the color gradient on this cocktail.

Add the Finishing Touch

This is an additional feature of our beverage: Vanilla Cold Foam (Optional):

•  For anyone who wishes to recreate Starbucks’ signature velvety texture added to many of their beverages, make cold foam by combining 1/4 cup of heavy cream and 1 tablespoon vanilla syrup, then stirring until it is foamy.
• Top it with the foam gently giving it a form of the fluffy of clouds in a Summer sky. Over time the foam which has a slight sweetness to it will dissolve in the drink with every sip.

Pro Tips for Perfecting Your Summer Skies Drink:

• Achieving Perfect Layers: To get clear layers in your drink, it is more effective to pour one liquid slowly over another standing on the back of the spoon so that the layer will be not mixed with the other layer. Ensure that each layer is cold because this way the densities shall be kept apart.

• Adjust Sweetness: If you want something more sweet you can increase the amount of the vanilla syrup in the coconut milk or in the cold foam. If you prefer a less sweet taste, you can easily leave out the syrup for this recipe altogether.

• Add Texture: This could be done for extra fun by putting the chia seeds in the second layer, the berry juice layer that should be a little chewy. Chia seeds gel and expand through soaking in the liquid, which makes it as delightful in a novelty kind of way as boba or tapioca.

• Make It Vegan: This drink is inherently vegan if you use coconut milk and avoid the cold foam or use a vegan-friendly whipped cream.

 

The Perfect Summer Vibe

This Summer Skies Drink however is more than just taste, it is all about the feel. The layers of mellifluous colours appeal the aesthetically similar to the painting of a summer sunset, is each sip as pleasurable as watching the sky-transition from day to night? If you are relaxing at a pool side, by a shaded tree during a picnic or even at any time that you feel you need that burst of summer energy then this drink is for you.

Moreover, Telep is a star in front of social networks glasses. The layers give the drink a vibrant appearance, meaning that it is a good selfie/post picture kind of drink to take and share perhaps with colleagues or friends. 

Still wait for Starbucks stores to introduce this season beverage to their cafes or baristas start serving it? Why don’t you do it yourself? The addition of fruity flavors together with flowers and cream makes sure that the homemade version will help you to refresh on the hottest summer days only.

You don’t have to go to Starbucks to enjoy your Summer Skies Drink here is your chance to bring some Starbucks magic at home!

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