Starbucks Japan Just Debuted A Bright Purple Halloween Frappuccino
Forget pumpkin spice — Starbucks Japan has moved on with a new seasonally appropriate beverage. This particular Asian arm of the coffee giant is known for pushing the envelope on creative drinks. In the past, Starbucks Japan has cultivated some pretty unique beverage options, according to The Travel, including the Sakura blossom latte, which is flavored with cherry blossom and even has pink strawberry chocolate as a topping! Then there's the chocolate pretzel mocha frappuccino, which is generally reserved for the Valentine's Day menu.
Now, Starbucks Japan is getting into the Halloween spirit with its latest drink option, the purple Halloween frappuccino. This comes hot on the heels of other successful food-related Halloween ventures, like McDonald's revitalized Halloween bucket Happy Meals. But like many Starbucks beverages, this drink is meant to be more of a treat than anything else. In fact, Starbucks Japan notes its "dessert-like taste" on its official product description. The way the baristas manage to generate that purple coloring, however, is far less conventional than some boring old flavorless food-safe dye.
Here's how Starbucks Japan managed to turn the Halloween frappuccino purple
Although orange and black are generally considered to be the main colors associated with Halloween, purple has made a huge impact in recent years as an accent coloring in decor and such for the holiday. Starbucks Japan went all in on purple as the chosen hue for the Halloween frappuccino, and they used a cultural favorite to get the job done.
The purple coloring in the drink is achieved using purple sweet potato powder. According to Starbucks Japan, it's blended with milk and then "poured into a cup decorated with purple sweet potato vanilla sauce." According to SORANews-24, Japanese culture is known to embrace all types of sweet potatoes, and this drink is colored using a version of purple sweet potato. Purple sweet potatoes are considered to be a superfood, per University of California, but it's unclear how much of that benefit (if any) Starbucks Japan patrons will reap. Currently, a tall order of the beverage retails for 690 yen (including tax), which is equivalent to $4.57 at today's exchange rate. It's obviously only available for a limited time, something tells us there may be a winter holiday-themed equivalent coming down the road pretty soon.