Does Starbucks Japan’s new rice cake Frappuccino live up to the hype?

The green mermaid wants us to relax with a cup of tea and a traditional sweet in every mouthful. 

Starbucks’ final limited-edition Frappuccino for 2023 is also its first for 2024, due to the fact that it’s on sale from 26 December to 16 January, and designed with New Year’s in mind.

Called the Hojicha Mochitto Milk Frappuccino, the new beverage contains gyuhi, a soft type of mochi rice cake, to give it a texture and flavour similar to daifuku, a lucky sweet commonly eaten during New Year.

▼ The Frappuccino is sold in a Tall size, priced at 678 yen (US$4.73) for takeout or 690 yen for drink-in.

Daifuku are commonly enjoyed with a cup of green tea, so this new beverage combines gyuhi with a cream daifuku sauce and adds a good serving of hojicha (roasted green tea), to give you that same pairing in every sip.

Our resident Starbucks expert K. Masami was on hand to taste the new drink when it was released, and she says it definitely lives up to the hype, with the cream daifuku flavoured sauce sweetening the taste buds before being refreshed by the roasted green tea.

“Mochitto” refers to the “mochi mochi” or “springy” texture of the drink, and that mouthfeel was much more intense than Masami had expected, due to the finely chopped gyuhi pieces. There were so many bits throughout the drink that it really did feel like she was eating, or drinking, a daifuku with every sip.

▼ It was relaxing, refreshing and so easy to drink that she finished it in no time.

Once her glass was empty, Masami had just enough room to try one of the other new drinks on the menu — the Strawberry Lavender Tea Latte.

▼ The new latte is on the menu until 12 March, in Short through to Venti sizes, priced from 520-660 yen.

Staff recommended she try it with a Breve Milk customisation for an additional 55 yen. Breve milk is a steamed half-and-half — one half being milk and the other half being cream — and it added a wonderful richness to the latte, which contained a combination of black tea and milk scented with strawberry, lavender and bergamot.

The whipped cream, honey, and strawberry flavoured powder added beauty and fragrance to the latte, and its perfect balance between sweet and tart flavours made Masami fall deeper in love with it after every sip.

And because she’d been a very good girl this year, she rewarded herself with a tub of Earl Grey & Honey Milk Mocchiri Balls (370 yen for eat-in) to finish.

Masami was happy with everything she ordered, and highly recommends treating yourself to the new limited-time offerings while you can. And if you’re a fan of powdered green tea, you’ll definitely want to try the chain’s stunning matcha desserts for New Year!

Photos © SoraNews24
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