Our Frappuccino expert brushes aside fears of bad fortune to taste test two new drinks.
Friday the 13th is supposed to be a day of ill portent, so we don’t think anyone could have blamed us if we’d simply called our boss and told him that we were staying home for personal safety reasons (plus who doesn’t like a three-day weekend?). But we had March 13 circled on our calendar not as a reminder to shelter in place, but because that was the day Starbucks Japan was releasing its newest Frappuccino flavor.
So our Japanese-language reporter and resident Frappuccino expert K. Masami bravely ventured into the outside world, knowingly accepting the risks inherent with all the bad luck swirling about, but also feeling very lucky since she was going to be taste testing the Cream Puff Frappuccino.
Starbucks Japan has never offered a cream puff-flavor Frappuccino before this, but the new dessert beverage is actually based on an annual springtime favorite served at Starbucks branches in Korea. With cream puffs themselves being one of Japan’s favorite sweet treats too, Masami had high expectations for the new Frappuccino, and soon after ordering she had the 700-yen (US$4.50) drink in front of her.
This is a cream-based Frappuccino, with a blended vanilla, milk, and caramel base that evokes all of the happy memories of reaching the filling of a cream puff. It’s topped with a swirl of custard-flavored whipped cream made with vanilla and egg yolk, the latter of which helps give it an especially eye-catching canary color. Of course, there’s more to cream puffs than just the cream part, and so Starbucks also sprinkles on bits of crunchy cream puff pastry, and there’s a layer of them at the bottom of the cup too, waiting for you to either sip your way down to them or stir them up into the rest of the drink.
Masami took a sip, and it was, in a word, luxurious, and in two words, very luxurious. Further expanding the linguistic limit, the caramel and cream are fragrant and rich, but the milk in the drink base gives it a smooth flavor profile. The custard whipped cream is especially decadent, and the crunch coming at both the top and the bottom of the cup add a textured substantialness, enough so that it doesn’t feel out of place to take a few bites of this drink using a spoon.
Starbucks has done a great job walking the tightrope to keep the flavor consistently and thoroughly rich without feeling cloying or oily. The Cream Puff Frappuccino is, by no means, the sort of thing that anyone would call “refreshing,” but it’s incredibly comforting, immensely satisfying, and entirely in keeping with the theme of a drinkable cream puff.
The Cream Puff Frappuccino isn’t the only new limited-time arrival to the Starbucks Japan menu, as also making its debut is the Citrus and Honey Sorbet Tea.
This 640-yen beverage also takes inspiration from a Starbucks Korea fan favorite, their Grapefruit and Honey Black Tea. Starbucks Japan, though, swaps out the grapefruit and instead uses three kinds of Japanese citrus fruits, with a blend of iyokan, unshu mikan, and amanatsu juice. All three of those could be considered “oranges” in layman’s terms, but unshu mikan is sweeter than a regular orange and iyokan and amanatsu both have a characteristic tart sharpness. The three kinds of juice are mixed with black tea and joined in the cup by bits of fruit, and serving as the finishing touch is a measure of honey citrus sauce with zest.
Each sip starts off sweet before shifting to a sharp finish, and between the flavor, aroma, and cute color, this is a drink that left Masami refreshed not only physically, but mentally too.
So that’s two thumbs up from Masami, as soon as she puts down her drinks and has her hands free to give the gesture of approval. Starbucks hasn’t given any word as to whether the Cream Puff Frappuccino is going to become an annual event in Japan too, but she thinks it’d be deserving of the honor.
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