This Frappuccino’s special ingredient is seasonal in more ways than one.
Halloween decorations are going up in Japan, which means that things are looking a little spookier…and also a little more purple. Sure, you’ll see the traditional black-and-orange color scheme too, but in Japan you’ll also spot a whole lot of Halloween design accents, like witch’s hats and capes, in purple, since it produces just the sort of fashionably cute vibe that Japan loves.
And another place you’ll be seeing purple this Halloween season: Starbucks Japan, which has unveiled its newest limited-time dessert drink, the Purple Halloween Frappuccino.
While grape would have been an option, the special flavor here is in fact murasaki imo, a type of purple sweet potato, which not only fits color-wise with the season but also appeals to Japanese foodies’ love of autumn sweet potatoes.
The blended cream-base Purple Halloween Frappuccino boasts both purple sweet potato powder and purple sweet potato vanilla sauce.
Does Starbucks Japan’s new Halloween Frappuccino taste as good as it looks?
With less than two weeks until Halloween, Starbucks gave us a fright by leaving details of its annual Halloween Frappuccino until the eleventh hour, announcing the limited-time drink just a day before its release.
That was all the time we needed to set our alarm clocks for the next morning, though, and, as always, our resident Starbucks aficionado K. Masami was one of the first in line to get her hands on the new beverage.
This year’s spooky seasonal offering is the Purple Halloween Frappuccino, which is an absolute masterpiece to look at. The deep purple hues are synonymous with Halloween in Japan at this time of year, and they complement the green-and-white mermaid logo perfectly while the white-and-purple topping invites us in to explore the mysterious depths of the beverage.
If Masami didn’t know any better, she’d have guessed that blueberry would’ve been responsible for the vibrant purple hues here. However, because it’s now autumn, and not summer when blueberries are in season, there’s a different player doling out the colour for this beverage, and it’s a taste that’s synonymous with the season — sweet potato.
It’s not just any sweet potato that’s been enlisted for the task, as this drink is filled with the flavours of murasaki imo, a type of purple sweet potato. The adventure begins with purple sweet potato sauce and powder on top, and continues into the blended cream base below.
Although Masami was bracing herself for a strong, over-the-top taste to match the visual impact of the drink, she was pleasantly surprised to find that the drink was much mellower than it looked.
The purple sweet potato sauce contains vanilla, which helps to round out the earthy sweetness of the potato, while the cream helps to create a light and airy texture. It’s a deliciously simple yet moreish combination of flavours that you won’t get tired of drinking, and Masami liked it so much she ranks it up there in her top two favourite Frappucinos of the year.
