How To Upgrade Your Starbucks Pink Drink To Taste Like A Creme Saver

More than five years after it officially launched on Starbucks menus in 2017, the infamous Starbucks Pink Drink is still quite the fixture on social media, not least of all due to its photogenic pink hue and smattering of picturesque strawberries. But beyond its Instagrammable appearance, the beverage has also become a cult favorite thanks to its deliciously decadent fruity flavor. 

When you order a basic version of the Pink Drink at Starbucks, it's made with a Strawberry Açaí Refresher base, a creamy dash of coconut milk, and a scoop of freeze-dried strawberries, resulting in a refreshing sip that can be compared to a lighter version of a strawberry milkshake. The Pink Drink's unique combination of sweet strawberry and creamy coconut milk also makes it reminiscent of those classic Creme Savers candies of the late 1990s and early aughts. 

And while it's certainly tasty enough as it usually comes, just a few extra tweaks are all you need to make your strawberry Pink Drink taste as close to a Creme Saver as it gets. One simple way to do this is to order your beverage with the addition of white mocha sauce to give it an even sweeter candy twist. Then, to take it one creamy step further, ask for a topping of Starbucks' signature Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Foam.

Unlike most other custom beverages hailing from the unofficial Starbucks Secret Menu, the so-called Creme Saver Drink doesn't technically have an official recipe. In fact, Starbucks fans across the internet each seem to have their own go-to version of the candy-flavored sip. If there's one thing everyone can agree on, though, it's that you'll need to start with a base of the beloved Pink Drink Refresher.

In addition to trying the aforementioned white mocha sauce and Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Foam customizations, you can also take a page from TikTok user @safespacewithsariah, whose iteration of the Creme Saver beverage has racked up over 57,000 views on the platform. Her version includes vanilla syrup, strawberry purée, and some heavy cream. "It's definitely the drink for the spring and for the summer," she says in the video, before comparing it to the strawberry hard candies.

The bottom line? So long as you amp up the strawberry and/or cream aspect of the Pink Drink's flavoring, you're practically guaranteed a sip reminiscent of the old-school hard candies. Better yet, you can now even pair your beverage version of a Creme Saver with the real deal. After being discontinued in 2011, the swirled sweets were actually brought back to shelves in 2021, so you can taste the strawberry-flavored nostalgia in more ways than one.