This Frappuccino, including kelp, never smells like a good taste, traditional Japan says theyll be giving you the promise for the year to come.
Japan releases big Christmas shows and parties on Dec 24 and returns to New Years mode pretty quickly after that. Starbucks Japan rolls out new Japanese New Years-themed Frappuccino on December 26.
We’ve just tried this on launch day with never any willpower over sweets.
Starbucks Japan Frappuccino: Oh, a green? It must be matcha-flavored, yes, and youre rightor half rightor maybe three quarters right? The math goes down and results won’t matter. Matcha Genmai Mochi Frappuccinos base offers 3D genmaicha, brown rice tea, making it a luxurious 4-tea blend. 3.
LIVE Matcha mousse, jiggly dollop of matcha mousse to create kagami mochi, towering stack of rice cakes set in japan on New Years scene. Speaking of mochi, theres also small bits of yakimochi, toasted rice cake mixed into the Matcha Genmai Mochi Frappuccinos base – a unique gift from Japans tradition of eating mochi at New Years as a fortuitous symbol of longevity (mochis stretchy properties being seen as a metaphor for long life).
Theres even two kakushiaji (hidden flavoring) contributors: kuromame powder and kombu (kelp). Both of these are common in osechi ryori, Japans classical New Years cuisine where every dish has some fortuitous meaning to it (Mame also for health, and kombu sounds similar to yorokobu or to be happy).
kuromame powder, kombu no visible in their kakushiaji status.
The drink looks like a cuddly character, and it looks sleek and stylish. The real joy, however, is in drinking. Matcha’s mellower bitter aspects work fairly well with sharper, almost nutty astringency of brown rice tea with milky cream helping smooth out any contrasting edges and also helping blend in noticeable mochi/rice notes. Although there were no kuromame, kombu (although still hidden flavourings), the overall impact of everything combined was good.
Starbucks staff asked if they had tweaking recommendations, they actually told us their best way to drink the 678-yen (US$4.90) Matcha Genmai Mochi Frappuccino as is, as they suggest, and that only suggestion is, possibly, ask for yours to be made with non-fat milk if you want the tea flavor to be more strong as it meets your taste buds. That seems like a good Frappuccino to end, start and, ither way, to start the year, and ll be available until January 17.
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