We try Starbucks Japan’s new jiggly Frappuccino, hope it brings us luck!【Photos】

We try the new Starbucks drink designed to bring in good fortune for the New Year and find out what a “lucky” drink tastes like.

It hasn’t been long since Christmas, but things are still staying festive as Japan prepares itself for the big New Year’s Day celebrations. Not to be left out, Starbucks Japan is now offering a new drink with a lucky theme that’s perfect for welcoming in the New Year.

The new drink, as we’ve previously reported, is called the Azuki Kinako Warabimochi Fuku Frappuccino (which roughly translates to “Lucky Frappuccino with sweet red beans, toasted soybean flour and bracken starch jelly”), and as the name suggests, it includes some well-loved traditional Japanese ingredients: azuki (sweet red beans), which is widely used in traditional Japanese confections often as a filling in paste form, while kinako soybean powder is frequently used to add a pleasant, toasty flavor to various kinds of treats.

But what captures the attention the most in this latest Starbucks creation has to be the warabimochi, a jiggly jelly-like Japanese confection made from bracken starch that is popular for its unique and fun texture. In fact, this is the first time Starbucks have used warabimochi in one of their drinks.

Combine those tasty ingredients with the word “fuku” (luck) in the name of the Frappuccino, and you have the makings of one fortuitous drink.

▼ You can see the colorful poster outside the store advertising the new seasonal drinks:

And here’s the actual drink — we couldn’t wait to try it to see how lucky it tastes. 

The drink itself is made with a milk-and-coffee base, which should be good news for coffee lovers, as many of the recent Frappuccinos from Starbucks Japan haven’t been coffee based.

The base drink also contains azuki sauce and kinako soybean powder, with freeze-dried azuki beans sprinkled on top of the whipped cream adding the finishing touch.

▼ You can see the warabimochi jelly at the bottom, with a thick layer of kinako powder on top of it. Yup, there are plenty of Japanese flavors mixed in there.

And how did it taste? We took a sip, and the Japanese ingredients tasted both new for a Starbucks drink and yet familiar at the same time, with a flavor somewhat like the popular frozen azuki bar.

The sweet red bean and toasty kinako powder combined delightfully, and while the red bean flavor seemed quite strong at first, the overall taste seemed to change as you mixed the ingredients together.

The warabimochi jelly, as expected, was delectably soft and jiggly, contrasting pleasantly with the coarse texture of the kinako powder, making it all a delight to drink.

The freeze-dried azuki bean toppings also provided not just a strong taste of azuki but also a firm crunchiness, adding a lovely accent both in flavor and texture.

Overall, the combined effect of the various ingredients made it feel like we were having a Japanese-style sundae.

Starbucks Japan certainly have come up with some original Frappuccinos in the past, but we still couldn’t help but be impressed with how they created another completely unique dessert drink using familiar Japanese ingredients.

If you’re going to try the Frappuccino, we do have one piece of advice. The pieces of warabimochi are somewhat big, and aren’t always easy to suck through the straw. We found that the pieces of jelly can fall out of your mouth if you’re not careful, so you may want to make sure you suck the warabimochi pieces completely into your mouth before swallowing.

Starbucks is also offering a hot seasonal drink, the Azuki Kinako Fuku Latte, a latte mixed with sweet red bean sauce and kinako powder.

▼ The Azuki Kinako Fuku Latte should keep you warm this winter.

▼ You’ll want to mix the latte well, as the sweet red bean sauce tends to sink to the bottom.

The lucky Frappuccino is available in a tall size only, for 590 yen (US$5.40), while the Latte is available in the usual sizes priced between 450 yen and 570 yen. Both drinks are seasonal and will be served until January 16, 2020.

While the Japanese flavors are a definite change from the previous Christmas-themed Frappuccinos, the new lucky drinks should be a nice, comforting treat when you’re tired from shopping for all those New Year Lucky Bags!

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