Sayonara, paper straws? Starbucks Japan rolls out new biomass plastic straws, we test them out

Nobody really liked Starbucks’ paper straws, but can we fall in love with this new eco-friendly model?

As part of its efforts to be more eco-friendly, roughly five years ago Starbucks Japan switched from plastic straws to paper ones. However, consumers haven’t been happy with paper straws in general, and you could argue that they’re an especially unpleasant way to drink beverages from Starbucks, which many people want to leisurely savor, meaning that the paper straw’s material has plenty of time to break down from being submerged in liquid.

After seeing the negative reaction about the texture and taste imparted by soggy straws made of paper, Starbucks Japan announced in December that is was once again going to change its straw material, this time switching to Green Planet, a plant-based biomass plastic material made by Osaka’s Kaneka Corporation. Rather than a simultaneous nationwide changeover, Starbucks is introducing the new biomass plastic straws in a gradual rollout that started on March 24, and that gave us the opportunity to test its new straw against the old one.

Or actually we should say it gave us an opportunity to test the new straw against the old ones. See, while Starbucks has been serving its drinks with paper straws for the last few years, people have been grumbling about how they don’t like them for pretty much just as long. So though they won’t give them to you unless you specifically ask for them, Starbucks Japan branches have also kept a stock of the old-version plastic straws on hand too. By heading to multiple Starbucks locations in Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture, we were able to get our hands on not only the new biomass plastic straw, but also the old plastic straw, and a paper one too, for a three-way comparison.

By the way, looking at their wrappers, we were surprised to see that even the old plastic straw is listed as being made with “biodegradable environmentally conscious” material. However, with the new straws being both biodegradable and made from biomass plastic, as opposed to petroleum-derived plastic, they’re still a step up in environmental friendliness.

▼ Top to bottom: paper straw, new biomass plastic straw, old plastic straw

The new straw is just a little shorter than the old plastic one, but potentially will reach closer to your mouth from the bottom of the cup since it doesn’t have a bendy portion.

Color-wise, the new biomass plastic straw is a slightly brighter shade of green, and if you hold it up to a light, you’ll see it’s much less opaque as well.

But while Starbucks makes some very pretty drinks, we’re more concerned with the functionality of the new biomass plastic straws than we are with their appearance. The paper straw had already eliminated from the top spot by nature of it feeling/tasting worse than the old plastic straw, so really this was a contest between the old plastic straw and the new biomass plastic one, and after trying them both, there’s a clear winner: the new straw.

Why? Texture. Since they’re both made of plastic, neither the old plastic straw or the new one have that unpleasant, cardboardy taste that makes the paper straw so unpopular. But whereas the old plastic straw has a subtle roughness to it, the new biomass plastic straw is slick and smooth all over. We were never going to miss the paper straw, but after trying the biomass plastic straw, we no longer miss the old plastic one either.

We should point out, though, that the new plastic straw is less rigid than the old one. That’s not really a problem for liquidy drinks like standard coffees or teas, but if you’re ordering something thicker or more viscous, like a Frappuccino, Starbucks will still give it to you the paper straw, since the new biomass plastic one isn’t stiff enough or large enough in diameter to accommodate those weightier beverages. Hopefully Starbucks is working on a Frappuccino biomass plastic straw as we speak, though, because otherwise they’re fantastic.

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