A new year means new lucky bags! So, how’s the haul from Starbucks? We find out after waiting in line all night!

Happy new year everyone! As is the custom in Japan at the beginning of each year, various businesses are offering mystery bags called “fukubukuro” or “lucky bags” which may contain expensive or limited edition items. Among these businesses, Starbucks has been a perennial crowd-pleaser, so we’re excited to see what they do in 2016!

Our Japanese writer Debuneko was the lucky cat who got the Starbucks assignment this year, but it came at the price of waiting in line outside a Starbucks from midnight on New Year’s Eve. She persevered though and managed to grab both a 3,500 yen (US$29) and 6,000 yen ($50) lucky bag.

Right, enough chit-chat, let’s see what’s doing inside these puppies shall we?

2016 Starbucks Coffee 3,500 Yen Fukubukuro

▼ One Medium Size Tote Bag

▼ One 250 gram (8.8 oz) Bag of Pike Place Roast (1,140 yen/$9.50)

▼ One Starbucks “To Go” Tumbler

▼ One Notebook with Imprinted Starbucks Logo

▼ Four Free Beverage Cards valid for any drink up to 610 yen ($5.07)

Debuneko couldn’t tell if the notebook, bag, and tumbler were unique to the 2016 bags, but regardless of their value, the ground coffee beans and drink cards alone came to 3,580 yen ($30) before taxes. This means that even if the other stuff were made of shed cat whiskers and dandelion seeds causing them to instantly disintegrate, she still would have come out ahead!

Moving along…

2016 Starbucks Coffee 6,000 Yen Fukubukuro

▼ One Large Size Tote Bag

▼ One 250 gram (8.8 oz) Bag of Pike Place Roast (1,140 yen/$9.50), one 250 gram (8.8oz) Bag of House Blend (1,140 yen/$9.50); One 12-Pack of Starbucks Via Coffee Essence Italian Roast (950 yen/$7.90)

▼ One 480 milliliter Steel Tumbler (3,900 yen/$32)

▼ Two Glass Mugs

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▼ Four Free Beverage Cards valid for any drink up to 610 yen ($5.07)

Again, calculating the total of only the items with known value, the total comes close to 10,000 yen ($83) before taxes, which means we can safely say this is a nice deal.

And, of course, Debuneko was quite happy with her purchases. The notebook and glasses were all tastefully designed and she got a decent haul of coffee; both the premade and prepaid kind. In conclusion she said she’d like to thank Starbucks for another great New Year’s deal and remind anyone else who got the beverage cards that they expire in six months. Make a note of it in your snazzy new book!

Want to see how these bag’s matched up against 2015?

Original article by Debuneko
Photos: RocketNews24
[ Read in Japanese ]