Starbucks Frappula Frappuccino [Review]

MikeOctober 27, 2015

Beverage ReviewsReviewsStarbucks2 Comments

Starbucks is again featuring a very limited (four days) frappucino to celebrate the halloween season. This year we get the Frappula Frappucino, and we’ve gotten our hands on one a few hours early to test it out.

The life of a fast food blogger can be quite strange. The PC term these days is quick service restaurant (QSR) to fancy up the experience a bit. They don’t link the perception of cheap fast food because quality has been improving over the years–everyone thinks they’re Panera. What hasn’t changed is the speed of promo items and some are available for an extremely short time to capitalize on trends. We saw this with the Burger King A.1. Halloween Whopper with the black bun. That came and went in a matter of weeks, and well before halloween. The suddenness of its disappearance may be due to other issues (gave you green poop).

Starbucks has made it kind of a tradition now to release super limited halloween flavored frappuccinos (Last year we had the Green Tea Franken Frap). These festive drinks are only around for about four days.

Back to why life as a food blogger can be strange. I found myself on a chilly Tuesday night Starbucks Hopping looking to see if I could get my hands on one of these a day early. I can honestly say I never imagine my life this way.

Here’s the sequence:

Starbucks 1

“Can you make the Frappula Frappuccino yet?”

-Uh wha…what frappa what?

“Hm… I guess not, its the new halloween frappuccino”

-Oh, we don’t get those until two days before halloween, they haven’t even announced what it is yet

Cleary this gentleman is not a reader of this blog or he would have known that it was announced already and that it would be available tomorrow.

I left.

Starbucks 2

I approached the counter a little more timid this time…

“Do you have that halloween frap?” (As if I didn’t know every single detail of the drink)

-We don’t know what it is yet, do you know what it is? If you tell me what’s in it, I can probably make it for you

“Hm, let me see” (pulled up our article on my phone and hands it to the barista)

-yea… I can make this….

Starbucks Frappula Frappuccino

The resulting improvised Frappula Frappuccino looked very similar to the promo pictures. The bloody appearance fades pretty quickly to an overall pinkish as you drink it, but initially its a pretty cool look. I was surprised that, while definitely a sweet drink, it was not sickeningly sweet. I also really liked the blend of the chocolate and the raspberry and although I’m certain that its highly artificial, the raspberry flavoring didn’t taste artificial. Overall, I actually really enjoyed the drink and would recommend giving it a shot during the very limited run.

I fully subscribed to the notion that “ignorance is bliss.” I had the pleasure of not knowing the nutritional info so I was able to happily suck away on my frap. I’m sure the sugar content and calories are off the charts, and I probably would not have been able to blissfully enjoy it if I knew the deets. I didn’t know the deets, and I enjoyed this drink.

Shout out to the Barista at the Upper East Side Starbucks on First Ave for being helpful and offering to improvise for me.