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How merry is Starbucks Japan’s new Merry Cream holiday Frappuccino?

Oona McGee Nov 22, 2024
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We find out if the festive cream is worth all the calories.

Earlier this month, Starbucks kicked off the festive season with its first holiday Frappuccino of the year, an all-white affair designed to look like freshly fallen snow.

Now, the chain is following up with its second holiday Frappuccino, and this time it’s a beverage filled with red-and-white hues, reflecting the traditional colours of the festive season, which also work as an auspicious pairing commonly seen at the turn of the year in Japan.

▼ The Frappuccino is called the Merry Berry Strawberry.

Joining the Frappuccino for this special release is the Merry Berry Strawberry Milk, and a Merry Cream Latte, the latter of which tempted our reporter K. Masami, prompting her to purchase it with the Frappuccino when they were released on 22 November.

The first thing she noticed about the Merry Berry Strawberry Frappuccino, which retails for 700 yen (US$4.53), is the huge mound of tasty looking strawberry pulp at the base of the drink.

While the main body of the drink is a blend of milk and strawberry sauce, the most exciting part is the topping, a mascarpone and white chocolate mix called “Merry Cream“. With silver sugar making the cream glisten, it really is a merry mound of deliciousness, especially when you stir it into the drink to bring out an extra moreish creaminess.

▼ Definitely worth the calories.

The pulp was another highlight, with its juicy, sweet-and-sour notes adding an exciting contrast to the creaminess of the drink. As you sip your way through it, it takes on the flavour of an elegant strawberry milk, bringing a sense of comfort to your taste buds.

The Merry Cream Latte (priced from 510 yen), blends coffee with milk, strawberry sauce and white mocha-flavoured syrup, and finishes with a neat pump of Merry Cream on top, along with a dusting of silver sugar.

It looks like a warm hug in a cup, and it tastes like it too. Thankfully, the strawberry doesn’t overwhelm the other components in the drink, instead creating a blissful harmony between fruit, chocolate and milky coffee that makes for a delicious beverage.

▼ As she sipped on her latte, Masami couldn’t resist treating herself to a Blueberry & Cream Cheese Danish (380 yen), a new limited-time dessert released on the same day.

▼ The crispy dough and cheese filling were delightfully moreish.

Everything Masami tried ticked all her boxes in terms of price, quality and flavour, and with the chain adding a Merry Cream customisation to any drink on the menu for an additional 55 yen, there’s no end to the fun you can have at Starbucks during the holiday season. The only downfall is the merriment won’t last long, as all the limited-edition drinks and treats will only be on the menu until 25 December.

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