Starbucks blackberry sage refresher was a winter 2025 hit. Cozy, woodsy, jammy, and herbal flavors all in one deliciously smooth juice-like drink. It’s the perfect refreshing winter beverage, which has sadly been discontinued (until next winter). But you can enjoy it all year round with this Starbucks copycat recipe!

So, here’s how to make the blackberry sage refresher at home!

Blackberry Sage Refresher Takeaways:

• Make a fresh blackberry sage syrup for the best flavor.
• Use a shaker cup to shake the refresher until frothy.
• Swap the water with lemonade for the refresher lemonade version, or add coconut milk for the creamy Midnight Drink version.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe:

• Save your money from buying it at Starbucks and make it at home for cheap!
• Enjoy this discontinued drink all year long with this Starbucks copycat recipe.
• It’s easy, simple, and refreshing!
• Learn how to make your favorites at home and become a home barista.

What is the Blackberry Sage Refresher?

The Starbucks blackberry sage refresher was their limited-time seasonal winter 2025 offering. What’s in it? It’s made with their blackberry sage refresher base, water, green coffee extract, ice, and freeze-dried blackberries. It was a popular item and had 2 variations you could order: with lemonade or coconut milk for a creamy Midnight Drink.

What Does the Blackberry Sage Refresher Taste Like?

The blackberry refresher has a woodsy, herbal, and sweet flavor. In comparison to other popular Starbucks refreshers, it’s definitely more cough-syrup-like but in a good way. The blackberries are sweet and medicinal, which pairs perfectly with sage and its earthy, piney, and unique aroma.

This is definitely for people who like more syrupy, darker flavors. And who doesn’t like the brighter refresher flavors like the strawberry acai, hibiscus, etc.

Starbucks Blackberry Sage Refresher Recipe: Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need to make the classic blackberry sage refresher and its variations:

• Blackberry Sage Syrup — This is the base for a homemade refresher: just ripe blackberries, sage, sugar, and water, heated on the stove until slightly thick. You can follow my recipe here and come back to this when it’s ready.
• Blackberries — For inclusions in the drink. You can also use freeze-dried blackberries.
• Water
• Green Tea — Loose-leaf tea is always better than tea bags! But use what you have available to you. The actual caffeine source in refreshers is green coffee extract, but it’s hard to buy that at retail stores. So, instead, we are making do with green tea, which has a similar flavor. You can omit this if you want a caffeine-free refresher.
• Ice — Larger pieces of ice work best with refreshers, as they help cool the drink and mix it better.
• Lemonade — Make or buy lemonade if you want to make the blackberry safe lemonade version!
• Coconut Milk — Lite coconut milk in a can is perfect for the creamy Midnight Drink version. You can also use the regular carton one, but it will be less creamy.

How to Make a Blackberry Sage Refresher

The base recipe is just the classic blackberry sage refresher; however, you can also order and make it two more ways: lemonade and a creamy version.

Classic Blackberry Sage Refresher

1. Make Blackberry Sage Syrup. Add blackberries, water, sugar, and sage to a small pot and heat it on the stove until you get your desired consistency. Follow my recipe here for the perfect syrup, then come back here!
2. For an easy version, mash up blackberries into white grape juice, then heat it and infuse it with sage until aromatic.
3. Brew Tea. While the syrup is cooking, steep your green tea for 3 – 5 minutes until it brews completely. Follow the directions on your tea packaging for best results. Avoid oversteeping, otherwise the tea will become bitter and astringent.
4. Shake Refresher. Add ice, blackberry sage syrup, blackberries, water, and tea to a shaker cup or jar. Put the lid on and shake hard like a bartender until everything mixes well and a froth forms on top.
5. Assemble Drink. Pour the shaken drink into a separate glass and add new ice if desired. Garnish with a stem of sage and blackberries.

Blackberry Sage Refresher Lemonade

1. Repeat steps 1-4.
2. Make or Buy Lemonade. For the lemonade version, make or buy your favorite lemonade. You can also make a lemon syrup and combine it with water instead.
3. Shake Refresher. Add ice, blackberry sage syrup, blackberries, lemonade, and half the amount of tea to a shaker cup or jar. Put the lid on and shake until frothy.
4. Assemble Drink. Pour the shaken drink into a separate glass and add new ice if desired. Garnish with a stem of sage and a thin slice of lemon.

Note: Since lemonade is usually sweetened, you might consider making the syrup less sweet or the lemonade less sweet to balance the sweetness. Or, if you like it sweet, keep it the same.

Creamy Midnight Drink

1. Repeat steps 1-5.
2. Assemble and Add Coconut Milk. Pour the shaken drink into a separate glass and add new ice if desired, but leave a one-inch gap at the top. Top off your drink with coconut milk and garnish with a stem of sage and blackberries.

Tips for the Best Refresher

• Shake Well: Most, if not all, refreshers are shaken with ice and occlusions to get that classic slightly frothy look. It’s also an easy way to mix in the refresher base with water to get an evenly flavored drink. Make sure to shake it well until slightly frothy for the most accurate recreation.
• Use White Grape Juice: For an easy refresher base, you can add blackberries and sage leaves to white grape juice. Most refresher bases (in the past) had white grape juice as one of the main ingredients since it’s neutral and sweet. Heat the juice on the stove, mash fruit into it, and infuse the sage until aromatic.

FAQ’s

Does the blackberry sage refresher have caffeine?

While the refreshers might seem just like juice, most of them actually have caffeine in them. The blackberry sage refresher has green coffee extract, the byproduct of making decaf coffee, which gives a boost of caffeine. It’s got about 50 mg of caffeine, which is the same as one shot of espresso.

Is the blackberry sage refresher discontinued?

Unfortunately, all the blackberry sage drinks are discontinued, as it was only a limited-time offering during winter 2025. Do you think it should come back?

Other Starbucks Copycat Recipes to Try

You can still enjoy discontinued Starbucks items by making them at home! After you test out the blackberry sage refresher, here are some other recipes to try next:

• Peach Green Tea Lemonade
• Strawberry Acai Lemonade
• Pink Drink with Matcha Cold Foam
• Brown Sugar Shaken Espresso
• Pumpkin Cream Chai