Starbucks Green Tea Frappuccino Recipe
Today we are making a Starbucks Green Tea Frappuccino Recipe! As a food blogger, when it comes to remaking Starbucks recipes, copycat frappuccino recipes are some of my favorites. If you aren’t familiar, matcha powder (aka, green tea powder) is an amazing Japanese powder is made of ground green tea leaves. While the Japanese drink a lot of regular green tea by mixing ceremonial grade matcha into hot water, we went another route … let’s add milk and sugar and make it a Starbucks Matcha Frappuccino!
A few years ago, this wasn’t widely available, but now I see matcha lattes at many coffee shops too, which is pretty cool. I had an unhealthy obsession with Starbucks that began with me getting my first job in college, and ended when it got to the point of having up to three frappes a day, and ordering them using an app so I could get in all these wacky orders from the secret menu without having to bother the baristas and those in line behind me. TLDR – me + frappes = it got out of hand, but matcha rocks.
Coconut Milk Frappuccino Base
I had been experimenting with different vegan bases for a frappuccino, and ice cream is usually the go-to base in a regular frappe. I didn’t want to use sugar-laden ice cream (vegan or not) and also didn’t want to add pumps of artificial sweeteners. After trying cashew milk ice cubes, vegan ice cream (which I did try although I wasn’t a fan of since it is artificial), coconut milk + regular ice cubes, I got to COCONUT MILK ICE CUBES – you freeze coconut milk in ice trays, and blend it as a frappe base!
It does take a high speed blender to get the job done, and a couple minutes. These don’t blend as fast as you would think. I had to continuously scrape down the sides of the blender to make sure all the chunks were incorporated and blended accordingly. Maple syrup also gives this a nice touch as the sweetener, without being overpowering. I drizzled more of it on top of the whipped cream!
Why You’ll Love This Starbucks Matcha Green Tea Frappuccino Recipe
Matcha vs Coffee: Matcha doesn’t have as much caffeine as coffee and doesn’t give a crash later like coffee does. You can drink this green drink on a regular basis by making matcha drinks such as matcha lattes, adding it to water to make green tea (skip the tea bag and make your own) – even baking it into desserts! There’s so many matcha recipes out there, but I prefer making an iced matcha or a hot latte.
Starbucks’ website states that their grande Green Tea Creme Frappuccino contains ice, milk, whipped cream, classic syrup and a matcha tea blend of sugar and matcha. It contains 70 milligrams of caffeine, 420 calories and 61 grams of sugar. This is waaaay more than the amount of sugar we need to be getting on a daily basis! Once in a while though, buying these drinks is a sugary treat.
Starbucks Remake without Cream: This green tea frappe is like drinking a matcha latte in smoothie form, which I love! Usually, making luscious frappes means using ice cream, whole milk or heavy cream mixed with a vanilla syrup (or whichever flavour) base. Not to mention, it costs a small fortune to buy a grande size frappuccino everyday, so I’m perfectly content with my homemade version of this delicious matcha frappe at a fraction of the cost.
Substitutions
Coconut Milk: Use full-fat, canned coconut milk (like this brand) for the creamiest frappuccino. You can substitute this with a reduced-fat coconut milk, or another creamy vegan milk. However, they will not yield the best results.
Oat Milk: I used oat milk because of the sweet, slight nutty but over neutral flavor as compared to other milks. Feel free to try it out with other plant based milks!
Maple Syrup: I used 100% pure maple syrup, but you can use agave or another liquid sweetener as well.
Vanilla Extract: Sub in pure scraped vanilla bean for a more intense flavour. Start with much less than the required vanilla called for if using bean, since it has a stronger taste.
Whipped Cream: I used Gay Lea’s brand of vegan coconut whipped cream. It’s the only option where I live and it works great!
Starbucks Green Tea Frappuccino Recipe Notes
- Add a drop or two of peppermint extra (or even blend fresh mint leaves) for Starbucks Mint Matcha Frappuccinos!
- I usually can’t find the best quality matcha at my grocery store, since there are many different types. I order one from Amazon, which you can find at this link. The real thing will be a bright green color, versus a pale green – check out the differences in matcha here!
More Starbucks Copycat Recipes You’ll Love
If you make this Starbucks Green Tea Frappuccino Recipe, leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!
Starbucks Green Tea Frappuccino Recipe
Equipment
- High Speed Blender
Ingredients
- 10 tbsp full-fat canned coconut milk not carton!
- 1 cup oat milk
- ⅓ cup 100% pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1½ tbsp matcha powder
- Pinch salt
- vegan whipped cream optional
Instructions
- To make the coconut milk ice cubes, take a standard 16-cube rectangular ice cube tray and pour the canned coconut milk to make 10 cubes (about 1 tablespoon per tray). Make sure to thoroughly shake the can before using. Place this in the freezer.
- Wait 8 hours or until the cubes are frozen solid.
- Once the cubes are ready, add these to a high speed blender along with the rest of the ingredients (except the whipped cream).
- Blend until smooth. Add additional sweetener, if desired.
- Pour into a glass and top with vegan whipped cream (optional, but totally needed for a frappuccino)!
